BC3 Academic Catalog: 2023-2024 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
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ANTH 100 - Introduction to Anthropology 3 Credits: (3 lecture)
Course Description
The course deals with the origin, diversification, and evolution of humans and their cultures from extinct primitive systems to modern industrial civilizations. Students will be exposed to the major sub-fields of anthropology: physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics and cultural anthropology. A primary focus will be the biological and cultural processes that made human beings unique among living organisms. This course meets the General Education competency of Values, Ethics, and Diverse Perspectives (VE).
Text
Kottak, Conrad Phillip. Anthropology: Appreciating Human Diversity. 19th ed. McGrawHill, 2022.
Objectives
The student will be able to:
A. Classify the four sub-fields of anthropology.
B. Outline the mechanisms of evolution and adaptation.
C. Explain the history of primates, early hominids and modern humans.
D. Interpret data objectively using the scientific method.
E. Explain the complexity of global human diversity and the following various forces that shape it: gender, religion, the arts, family, work, and politics. (VE)
F. Examine ethical problems from a variety of social and anthropological perspectives. (VE)
Content
A. The definition, the scope and the fields of anthropology
B. Evolution, natural selection, adaptation, heredity and variability
C. The defining features of culture, cultural relativism, assumptions, and problems when studying culture
D. Extinct and modern culture, how and why it changes, cultural adaptation and types of change
Student Evaluation
A-F. Class discussion, oral presentations, written assignments, and examinations.
Bibliography
Attenborough, David. The First Eden: The Mediterranean World and Man. Little Brown, 1987.
Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture. Houghton, 1961.
Bray, Warwick and David Trump. The Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology. Penguin, 1982.
Darwin, Charles R. On the Origin of Species, by Natural Selection or Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Heritage, 1963.
———The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. Modern Library, 1936.
Dawkins, Richard. The Blind Watchmaker. New York: Norton, 1986.
Greene, Kevin. Archaeology, an Introduction: The History, Principles and Methods of Modern Archaeology. Barnes and Noble, 1983.
Johanson, Donald C. and James Shrieve. Lucy’s Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor. Avon, 1990.
Leakey, Richard E. and Robert Lewin. Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human. Doubleday, 1992.
———Origins: What New Discoveries Reveal about the Emergence of our Species and Its Possible Future. Dutton, 1977.
———People of the Lake: Mankind and its Beginnings. Anchor, 1978.
Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. Knopf, 1993.
Sowell, Thomas. Race and Culture: A World View. Basic, 1994.
Tattersall, Ian. The Fossil Trail: How we Know What we Think we Know about Human Evolution. Oxford UP, 1995.
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