Instructor: Pam Creasy, Ph.D. candidate

You may reach your instructor live by telephone (541-482-2624) by appointment. You may make an appointment for a telephone conference for another day or time, or for online chat. You may leave a message at this number at any time. You may also contact your instructor by e-mail at pcreasy@bcconline.com.

An introduction to the study of human culture and the concepts, theories, and methods used in the comparative study of sociocultural systems. Subjects include subsistence patterns, social and political organization, language and communication, family and kinship, religion, the arts, social inequality, ethnicity, gender, and culture change. The course applies anthropological perspectives to contemporary issues. Degree applicable; transferable to UC/CSU (CAN ANTH 4)

Students majoring in psychology or sociology will benefit from this course, as it will place their knowledge of the sociology and psychology of humans in a broader, global context. If you are majoring in business you will learn fundamentals of culture that are applicable to understanding workplace culture, and you will be introduced to cutting-edge research methods that are driving the development of innovative products and services around the world today. If you are majoring in child development, you will learn to appreciate the role that culture plays in how children are socialized and how cultural resources are key to their formation of identity and self. If you plan to pursue a degree in medicine or healthcare you will learn how culture shapes the way people conceptualize health and illness and how those understandings affect the design of methods of health care delivery and intervention.

Choose virtually any aspect of the human condition, and the discipline of anthropology will offer a unique perspective from which to broaden your understanding. If you are simply interested in deepening your understanding of what makes humans of all kinds tick, then you will benefit from this course. You will sharpen your observational skills and will learn how to become a more active listener and, therefore, a better communicator.

In the box below type one way you can benefit from taking this course.

1. An Internet browser to access web pages. Netscape 3.0, Internet Explorer 3.0 or the equivalent is the minimum.
2. An email address to receive class materials. (A free email account such through Gmail or Yahoo is acceptable.) The legal name under which you are registered at Barstow Community College must remain on the "From" line of your emails throughout the course.
3. Ability to complete assignments and exams within the timeframe of the course and according to the schedule of activities (see XI. Assignment and Exam Schedule of this syllabus)
4. Ability to structure your time to complete readings, assignments, online discussion entries, and examinations as required in the course schedule.
5. The ability to create and submit college-level written materials.
6. There will be one on-campus meeting for the final examination. Personnel at the Barstow Community College Computer Commons (not the library) will be proctoring the exam at the Barstow campus. The exam will also be proctored at the Barstow Community College location at Ft. Irwin (in the computer lab by college staff).
7. If you cannot attend the exam meeting you will have to find a proctor approved by the instructor, for example, a librarian or education officer, and an approved site, such as a library or an education center, to take the exam. The student must send to the instructor the name, location and fax number of the proctor. Proctors for this course must have access to a working fax number, and proctor information must be received by the end of the third week of class.

This is a university-level course that requires the student to possess certain academic skills. Students should be able to read and write at the English 101 level. Although this is not a formal prerequisite for entry into the course, students without this level of skill will find the course overwhelming. Please assess your abilities and base your educational planning accordingly. If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact your instructor at 541-482-2624 or at pcreasy@bcconline.com.

Also, if you feel that you have a disability which may impact your success in this course, please contact the Office of Student Support (OSS)  (760-252-2411 x 7225) to arrange any reasonable accommodations and supports to which you may be entitled.

In the box below type, "I understand this is a university-level course that requires reading and writing skills at the English 101 level. I will contact the instructor if I have any questions or concerns about my entry-level preparedness to succeed in this course. I also understand and meet the requirements listed for this course in the list above."

1. The anthropological perspective with emphasis on concepts of culture, relativism and holism
2. Recognition of ethnocentrism and how to seek understanding of cultural differences
3. Anthropological methods of research
4. Comparative survey of the following domains of culture, with emphases on both human universals and cross-cultural variability:

1. Language and non-verbal communication
2. Human adaptive subsistence and resource allocation strategies
3. Patterns of marriage, family and residence
4. Cultural constructions of gender and sexuality and their relations to biological sex
5. Processes of socialization and enculturation
6. Kinship and descent
7. Political organization and leadership
8. Systems of belief and artistic expressive forms

5. Models of culture change and modern applications of anthropology

1. Understand the basic distinctions among the four fields of anthropology: cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, archaeology and linguistics. Furthermore, students will be aware of some of the most common applications of each of the sub-fields to challenges that face local and global societies.
2. Explain cultural differences as they result from different historical and environmental circumstances.
3. Exemplify through specific ethnographic cases the wide range of cultural variability in the world as well as essential human universals that are shared across all societies.
4. Understand the anthropological concept of culture and be able to relate it to cross-cultural communication and issues of diversity in complex societies.
5. Understand culture as a holistic and integrated system and be able to demonstrate through ethnographic examples how the various cultural subsystems, including the subsistence, economic, social, political and ideological subsystems, are interrelated.
6. Critique modern social scientific models and theories about human behavior in terms of their universal validity or as potentially historically and culturally situated constructions.
7. Conduct an ethnographic interview and do basic participant observation as part of qualitative research exercises.
8. Develop or deepen appreciation for cultural diversity and see cultural difference in terms of evolving adaptations to local environment and social conditions.
9. Recognize his or her own ethnocentric biases, understand how they developed, and learn ways to overcome them.

2. Seven quizzes
3. A midterm and a final examination
4. Four assignments with written components

A variety of assignments have been designed to engage students with different learning styles

5. Participation in online discussion (posting each week of the class plus at least one response to classmates’ posts)

Some postings require viewing of video clips contained on the DVD that comes with the textbook

In the box below type, "I have the textbook for this course or I will have it by the end of the first week of the course."

Email Updates

One of the primary methods of contact in an online course is email. Your college is capable of extracting student names and email addresses from our registration system. The purpose of extracting this information is twofold. The information will be used by the instructor to remain in contact with the class in order to provide information necessary for the students' academic success. The information will also be used to send emails to the students from the college administration. The emails sent by the college administration will consist of links to course surveys which will be used to improve our online courses, important announcements for students, and links to college surveys, which will be used to satisfy requirements placed on the college by the California Community College Chancellor's Office. The college will not use this information to advertise any products and will not share student email addresses with any other organization.

In the box below type the following information:

As a student I understand it is my responsibility to ensure my email address is up to date in the registration system, and that failure to do so can seriously impact my ability to successfully complete my courses. Further, I consent to receive email communication from my instructor and from the college administration. This consent will remain in force until it is revoked in writing or I am no longer taking classes with the college. Upon submitting the syllabus, I agree to enter the registration system, check my email address and change it if necessary. I understand a tutorial is available to assist me with this procedure. I also understand I can contact 760-252-2411 x7236 to receive additional assistance if I encounter any difficulties when attempting to change my email address.

1. Quizzes and examinations (All quizzes and examinations are open book and open notes except the final exam, which allows only a "cheat sheet.")

• Quizzes are intended to help you review material presented in the text and the exams, to reinforce key concepts central to the course, and keep you on track with the progression of the course. Quizzes will be multiple choice and true/false.
• The midterm and final are designed to help you synthesize learning from sections of the course. They may include some short answer and multiple choice type questions, but will mostly be multiple choice type answers.
• Quizzes and the mid-term are open book/open note but for the final exam, you may have only two 8-1/2 x 11 "cheat sheet" pages. Choose carefully what you will include. The mid-term covers the first half of the course while the final exam covers the entire course.
• Only the FINAL examination requires a proctor (see instructions above in section III on Requirements).

2. Assignments

• Mostly, I hope you will enjoy these activities. I have designed them with the intention that they are interesting, fun and that learning will happen automatically for you by doing them. They have been structured so that they give you practice at doing what anthropologists are specialized at doing: observing, listening deeply, seeing patterns in what you see and hear, and communicating what you learn about other cultural groups and about yourself and your own culture.
   
• When grading your assignments, I will look for evidence that you have completed each assignment according to the instructions, have reflected on the assignment to the extent that you have learned something new or reinforced a concept presented in the reading or in lecture, and communicate in an intelligible manner what you have learned in writing. I will not mark down your assignments for errors in grammar or punctuation unless the errors are egregious; this is not a composition course. Careless writing, however, usually reflects careless thinking. Everyone can always improve his or her writing, but this takes practice. These assignments will give you the chance to practice developing your writing along with learning the material. Make sure to review/edit your work before submitting.
   

3. Participation in online discussion

• At the end of each lesson, I will pose you a question or set of questions that you are to answer on the discussion board. Respond to the discussion questions by Friday in order to respond to at least one posting by a fellow student by the end of the week, Monday. These questions will address issues raised by your text, the lecture, or a video clip that you will be instructed to view on the CD provided with your text (also available on reserve at the library).

• Each of you is an important member of the class as a whole. I will pay attention to and care about your participation. As an anthropologist, I see learning as an inherently social activity (even when you are in a room alone reading your text, society and culture are at work influencing your learning). Although we cannot interact live in a classroom, we can experience each other’s ideas online. This participation provides you another opportunity to reinforce your learning (expressing yourself does this automatically) and to expand your learning through classmates and the instructor. As in a classroom environment, it is my job as instructor to ensure that everyone feels safe to express and explore his or her ideas through discussion. This means that respect for one another must always be maintained.

In the box below type, "I understand and agree to abide the methods of evaluation listed above."

NOTE: All due dates are listed on the home page of the course! LATE POLICY: Late work will not be accepted except in a documented emergency and as described in Faculty Expectations.

Please carefully note the chapter reading assignments for each week.  They have been assigned to support the flow of your class lessons and do not always proceed sequentially as they appear in the text.  So, for example, for the first week you will be reading Chapter 14 and Chapter 2.

In the box below please type, "I understand and agree to abide by the class policies listed above. Further, I understand what plagiarism is and know that committing plagiarism will result in failure of the course."