Anthropology 110Introduction to Anthropology

Spring 1995
11:00 MWF in Kauke 102
Instructor: Eric T. Meyer Office Hours: Mon 121
Office: Kauke 107 Wed 1011
Phone: Ext. 2450 Fri 1011
and by appointment
Overview
Anthropology is the study of human origins, prehistory and contemporary peoples and cultures from around the world.
If you want to know about the skeletal Lucy, Koko the gorilla, the temples at Tikal, the Inuit, Yoruba, Ainu or the
Trobriand Islanders, an anthropologist would be the one to ask. In order to understand the anthropological perspective,
we will use descriptive and comparative data to look at topics such as:
The basic forces of evolution and the development of primate species.
Patterns of prehistorical human society.
The development of complex societies.
The role of culture in human thought and behavior. The notion of culture is central to the anthropological
perspective, and one reason it is important is that it provides the individual with a conceptual scheme by
which to perceive and think about the world.
How humans adapt to their environment. Human beings have created various economic systems and subsistence
patterns to survive within their environment. You will be able to recognize these different adaptations
and explain their importance.
Kinship. Most nonWestern societies are organized on the basis of kinship, and the kinds of kinship systems that
occur are frequently quite different from what is considered normal in the U.S.
Type of political arrangement of human societies. A wide variety of societies have existed throughout the world, yet
this array can be reduced by analyzing the systems into a number of types.
Belief systems. Religion, magic and sorcery are found throughout the world, and this section will deal with the
meanings of various types.
Cultural change and development. Over the last century, people around the world have come into increasingly close
and continued contact. This section will examine the processes and consequences of change.

PLEASE READ THIS SYLLABUS CAREFULLY. You are responsible for all information on it.

Required Readings
Anthropology (Seventh Edition) by William A. Haviland
Applying Anthropology: An Introductory Reader (Third Edition) by Aaron Podolfsky & Peter J. Brown

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Ground Rules
1. This is a college course at a good college. As such, it is assumed that you will do the required reading without
prompting, and that you will understand the readings. Lectures will hardly ever reexplain topics covered in
depth in the text. Instead, we will discuss and expand upon those ideas with new information.
2. As a result of rule 1, if you do NOT understand something in the reading (or in the lecture, for that matter) it is your
responsibility to draw this to my attention. I will do my best to explain it for the entire class in more easily
understood terms.
3. If you have something to add to class, please do so. For those of you who are reluctant to speak up without
specifically having been asked to do so, consider this an engraved, open invitation to share your thoughts in this
course at any time during the semester. I am not a mindreader, and thus do not know when you have
something on your mind unless you tell me. Past experience has demonstrated that this course is more
interesting and enjoyable for everyone if there is an open exchange of ideas.
4. In the spirit of open inquiry, I do my level best to respect the opinions of everyone in the class, as should you. This
does not mean that you have to agree with everything said, or that you should let things you disagree with go
unchallenged. We should all strive to disagree with each other's ideas without attacking each other's
personalities.

Course Requirements
Exams: There will be two inclass midterm exams, worth 20% of your final grade each, and a semicomprehensive
final exam worth 20% of your final grade.
Papers: There will be a term paper worth 20% of your grade, and seven 2 page response papers worth 20% of your
grade.
Assignment Instructions: General instructions for all assignments are that they should be typed and doublespaced with
standard 1" margins and a normal sized type. Content is the most heavily weighted factor in determining paper
grades, but spelling, grammar and writing style are all considered in awarding of grades as well. I do not accept
late papers, and all assignments are due at the BEGINNING of class on the assigned day. Note: If you do not
currently know how to use your word processor to SPELLCHECK documents and add PAGE NUMBERS to
your printout, please see a consultant in the computer lab to learn!
Attendance and Participation: You are expected to attend class regularly and be an active participant in class
discussions. I also encourage students to take advantage of my office hours to ask questions and receive
guidance on assignments. I am almost always in my office, but if you need to come to a time other than my
office hours, please make an appointment ahead of time so that I can clear some time on my schedule to give
you my undivided attention.

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 COURSE OUTLINE & DUE DATES
In order to fully benefit from class discussions and lectures, you must have the assigned readings completed by the date
that they are listed below. Please note that the readings are not necessarily in order, some chapters only need to be
skimmed for main content points, and some chapters are not assigned at all.
Week 1
Jan 11Introductions, syllabus, assignments
13What is Anthropology?
Read: Haviland, Introduction
Haviland, Chapter 1: The Nature of Anthropology
Reader, Introduction
Week 2
16NO CLASS: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
18Genetics & Evolution
Read: Haviland, Chapter 3: Biology and Evolution
Reader, #1: Teaching Theories: The EvolutionCreation Controversy
Reader, #7: The Curse and Blessing of the Ghetto
20 Modern Primates
Read: Haviland, Chapter 4: Monkeys, Apes and Humans: The Modern Primates
Reader, #2: What Are Friends For?
Reader, #3: What's Love Got to Do With It?
Film: Signs of the Apes, Songs of the Whales
Due: Response paper #1
Week 3
23 Primate Evolution
Read: Haviland, Chapter 5: Fossil Primates
25 Human Evolution
Read: Haviland, Chapter 6: The Earliest Hominines and Cultural Origins
Haviland, Chapter 11 (skim only): Human Diversity
Reader, #8: Racial Odyssey
27 Early Gatherer/Hunters
Read: Haviland, Chapter 7: Homo erectus and the Emergence of Hunting and Gathering
Haviland, Chapter 8 (skim only): Homo sapiens and the Later Paleolithic
Reader, #5: Women in Evolution: Innovation and Selection in Human Origins
Reader, #6: Ancient Genes and Modern Health
Due: Response paper #2
Week 4
30 Modern Gatherer/Hunters
Film: Ishi, The Last Yahi
Feb 1 Archaeological Anthropology
Read: Haviland, Chapter 2 (skim only): Methods of Studying the Human Past
Reader, #12: What's New in Archaeology?
Reader, #14: Fingerprints in the Sand
Reader, #17: From Tikal to Tucson: Today's Garbage is Tomorrow's Artifact
Reader, #18: Food Waste Behavior in an Urban Population
Film: Archaeology: Questioning the Past
3 Origins of Agriculture
Read: Haviland, Chapter 9: Cultivation and Domestication
Reader, #15: Disease and Death at Dr. Dickson's Mounds
Reader, #16: The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race

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Week 5
6 Origins of the State
Read: Haviland, Chapter 10: The Rise of Cities and Civilization
8 CatchUp and Review of Physical and Archaeological Anthropology
10 MIDTERM EXAM #1: Physical and Archaeological Anthropology
Week 6
13 Development of the Culture Concept
15 The History of Anthropological Thought
17 The Nature of Culture
Read: Haviland, Chapter 12: The Nature of Culture
Reader, #21: Loading the Bases: How Our Tribe Projects Its Own Image into the National
Pastime
Reader, #22: Body Ritual Among the Nacirema
Film: A Man Called Bee: Studying the Yanomamo
Week 7
20 Linguistics
Read: Haviland, Chapter 13: Language and Communication
Reader, #24: Shakespeare in the Bush
22 Linguistics
Read: Reader, #25: Preserving Language Diversity
Reader, #26: Problems in Pocatello: A Study of Linguistics Misunderstanding
Reader, #27: A Cultural Approach to MaleFemale Misunderstanding
Film: American Tongues
24 Culture and Personality: Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict
Read: Haviland, Chapter 14: Growing Up Human
Reader, #36: Child Care in China
Reader, #37: American Schoolrooms: Learning the Nightmare
Due: Response paper #3

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Week 8
27 Subsistence
Read: Haviland, Chapter 15: Patterns of Subsistence
Mar 1 Subsistence
Film: The Hunters
3 Economic Anthropology
Read: Haviland, Chapter 16: Economic Systems
Reader, #31: In Search of Affluent Society
Reader, #32: Eating Christmas in the Kalahari
Reader, #33: If Only They Would Listen: The Anthropology of Business and the Business of
Anthropology
Due: Response paper #4
Week 9
6 Case Study in Economic Anthropology: The Kula Ring
8 Kinship
Read: Haviland, Chapter 19: Kinship and Descent
10 Case Study in Marriage Systems: The Nayar and the Nuer
Read: Haviland, Chapter 17: Sex and Marriage
Reader, #39: When Brothers Share a Wife
Due: Response paper #5

SPRING BREAKMarch 1325

Week 10
27 Case Study in Family Types: The Trobriand Islanders
Read: Haviland, Chapter 18: Family and Household
29 CatchUp and Review of Cultural Anthropology (1st half)
31 MIDTERM EXAM #2: Cultural Anthropology (1st half)
Week 11
Apr 3 Social Control
Film: The Cows of Dolo Ken Peye
Read: Haviland, Chapter 21: Political Organization and Social Control
5 Social Control
Read: Reader, #41: The Kpelle Moot
7 Political Anthropology
Due: Response paper #6
Week 12
10 Warfare
Read: Reader, #42: Contemporary Warfare in the New Guinea Highlands
Film: Dead Birds
12 Case Study in Warfare: The Yanomamo
14 Political Power in Less Complex Societies: Discussion

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Week 13
17 Religion
Read: Haviland, Chapter 22: Religion and the Supernatural
Film: Witchcraft Among the Azande
Due: Term paper
19 Case Study in Belief Systems: Tetum Ghosts
21 Case Study in Belief Systems: Dobuan Witches
Week 14
24 Ritual and Curing
Read: Reader, #44: Hallucinogenic Plants and Their Use in Traditional Societies
Reader, #46: Anthropology and the World of Physicians
Reader, #47: Ritual in the Operating Room
26 Culture Change
Read: Haviland, Chapter 24: Cultural Change
Reader, #45: The Integration of Modern and Traditional Health Sectors in Swaziland
Reader, #48: AIDS as Human Suffering
Film: Trobriand Cricket
28 Culture Change
Read: Reader, #49: Advertising and Global Culture
Reader, #50: The Price of Progress
Due: Response paper #7
Week 15
May 1 The Anthropology of the Future
Read: Haviland, Chapter 25: The Future of Humanity
3 WrapUp, Review for Final Exam

FINAL EXAM
May 8 8:30 AM (Monday)

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 RESPONSE PAPERS
Length: 2 pages
Due: Throughout term

Writing response papers serves several purposes in this course. First, it allows you to share your thoughts on topics
from class and your readings in a large class where discussion can sometimes be difficult. Second, they serve as another
type of essay in establishing your grade, so I can determine your thinking on a broader variety of topics than a 1hour
exam period allows.

Guidelines
1. The response papers do not require additional research, however, if you have personal knowledge of the topic, please
feel free to include that as a part of your essay. For instance, you may have read something in the New York
Times that week, or heard a news piece on the radio, or have a relative whose experiences could illuminate your
essay.
2. The papers should not be long. Generally two pages is sufficient to answer the types of questions you will be asked.
Learning to edit your thoughts to a reasonable length is just as important as writing in depth.
3. The topics for response papers will be given in class either the Friday or Monday before they are due. If you miss
class, be sure to get the assignment from a friend.

Grades
The papers are graded on a 10 point scale, as follows:
Points Grade Content
10 A+Excellent essay, with additional material adding to your argument. For instance, tying the topic of
the essay with other parts of the course, with material from other courses you are
taking, or with broader societal trends.
9 A Excellent all around essay with no substantive problems.
8 B Good essay, showing above average insight into the topic, with no major problems.
7 C Average essay, showing understanding of the topic that is expected of a college student.
6 DEither missing major elements of the assignment, writing the paper with major construction errors
throughout, or showing a general lack of understanding of the topic assigned.
5 F Far below the quality expected of a college student.
0 n/c Completely unacceptable paper OR paper not turned in.

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 EXAMINATIONS
Midterm #1: Wednesday, February 8
Midterm #2: Monday, April 3
Final: Tuesday, May 9

Format of Midterm Exams

Question Type # of Questions Points per Total Points
Multiple Choice 30 1 30
Short answer 10 4 40
Essay 2 15 30
100
Format of Final Exam
Question Type # of Questions Points per Total Points
Multiple Choice 30 1 30
Short answer 15 4 60
Essay 4 15 60
150

Question Types
Multiple Choicestandard 5choice questions based on readings and lectures.
Short Answerquestions requiring several sentences to answer. These will often be to name a few elements from a list
in class, to identify portions of charts or tables in class or your book, to give a brief example of a concept, or to
define or identify a term.
EssayA substantive discussion of major issues raised in the course. Expect questions that require seeing connections
between various elements of the course and discussing them clearly. Generally, at least one questions will ask
you to tie information from the readings and text to information from lecture in ways that have not been
discussed previously in class.

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 ANTHROPOLOGICAL CASE STUDY PAPER
Length: 810 pages
Due: Monday, April 17

The purpose of this paper is to produce a medium length (810 page) paper that provides an indepth look using research at some
aspect of a group of human beings. Since this is a research paper, you will obviously need to use the library. For a paper of this
length, no less than 6 academic sources would be adequate.

Topic Selection
When choosing your topic, you want to do two things. First, choose a group of people somewhere in the world that interests you,
and second, discover what aspects of that culture are unusual in their ability to help us understand something about the general
human condition. For instance, in class we will discuss the Yanomamo, a group of people living in Venezuela who have been
called the fierce people due to their reliance on intervillage warfare. If you write a paper on the Yanomamo, then, you would
probably want to write about possible explanations for their warring tendencies rather than about their corngrinding techniques.
Likewise, if you choose to study the Ainu, the fact that they are sedentary gatherer/hunters rather than mobile would indicate that
the reasons for their sedentary lifestyle would be of interest to an anthropologist.

Format
The two major portions of this paper are 1) an ethnographic description of the group you are studying, and 2) an analytical
discussion of some element of their cultural adaptation.

Citation style
We don't use footnotes in anthropology, but use the following citation style. Basically, you need to provide the author and the year
of the publication each time you refer to a source. If you a referring to specific information from the text, rather than just a
summary of the general ideas of the author, or if you are specifically quoting the author, you also need to provide page numbers.
You do not need to cite generally known information (e.g., that the bicentennial was in 1976.) The general format is (Author, year)
or (Author, year: page). If the author's name is used in the body of the paper, the format is Author (year) or Author (year: page).
Examples:
1. In Grobnick's (1978) discussion of . . .
2. Several authors have pointed out the similarities between Nixon and Elvis (Bailey, 1974; Nixon et. al., 1979).
3. Perhaps a rock group said it best, singing there is no new frontier, we have to make it here (Eagles, 1976: 2).
4. Unfortunately, many words ring true many decades later.

Flaming youth has become a flaming question. And youth comes to us wanting to know what we may propose to do about
a society that hurts so many of them (Roosevelt, 1936: 5).

References Cited
The last page of your paper should be a References Cited page. This is not a bibliography. Bibliographies are exhaustive lists of
texts on a subject. You will list only those works you have specifically cited in your paper. The first example is a book, the second
an article in an edited volume, the third a journal article. Entries should be alphabetized.

1.Liebow, Elliot. 1967. Tally's Corner. Boston: Little, Brown.

2.Lyle, J. and H.R. Hoffman. 1972. Children's Use of Television and Other Media in E.A. Rubenstein, G.A. Comstock, and J.P.
Murray, eds., Television and Social Behavior: Volume 4, Television in Everyday Life. Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office.
3.Noel, David L. 1968. A Theory of the Origin of Ethnic Stratification. Social Problems 16:157172.

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