Cultural Anthropology/CAOutcomes
Outcomes
College-level Outcomes (These are from the Cascadia website)
1. Think critically, creatively, and reflectively: Reason and imagination are fundamental to problem solving and critical examination of self and others.
a. Create, integrate, and evaluate ideas across a range of contexts, cultures, and areas of knowledge
b. Recognize and solve problems using creativity, analysis, and intuition
c. Examine your own attitudes, values, and assumptions, and reflect on their implications and consequences
2. Learn actively: Learning is a personal, interactive achievement that results in greater expertise and a more comprehensive understanding of the world.
a. Develop expertise, broaden perspectives, and deepen understanding of the world by seeking information and engaging in meaningful practice
b. Construct meaning from expanding and conflicting information
c. Engage in learning, both individually and with others, through reading, listening, observing, and doing
d. Take responsibility for learning
3. Interact in diverse and complex environments: Successful negotiation through our increasingly complex, interdependent, and global society requires both knowledge and awareness of others and enhanced interaction skills.
a. Build interpersonal skills through knowledge of diverse ideas, values, and perspectives
b. Collaborate with others in complicated, dynamic, and ambiguous situations
c. Practice civility, empathy, honesty, and personal responsibility
4. Communicate with clarity and originality: The ability to exchange ideas and information is essential to personal growth, productive work, and societal vitality.
a. Organize and articulate ideas for a range of audiences and purposes
b. Use written, spoken, and symbolic forms to convey concepts creatively
c. Use technology to gather, process, and communicate information
Course Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will:
A. Illustrate their communication skills by:
i. Using fundamental cultural anthropology terms and concepts in proper context (2.c, 2.d, 4.b)
ii. Developing or improving both verbal and written communication skills (2.c, 2.d, 4)
iii. Clearly expressing thoughts about human culture and adaptive processes (2.c, 2.d, 4.b)
iv. Successfully completing team work both in- and out-of-class (2.c, 2.d, 3)
B. Demonstrate their critical thinking and problem solving skills by:
i. Recognizing key elements of human culture (2.a, 2.c)
ii. Analyzing culture at various levels (individual, community, national) and from an anthropological perspective (1.a, 1.b)
iii. Explaining anthropological theory and its application to human culture (1.a, 1.b)
iv. Assessing the interaction between culture, biology and the environment (1.a, 1.b)
v. Identifying cultural traits and determining their function within their cultural context (1.a, 1.b)
C. Illustrate their level of cultural literacy by:
i. Demonstrating the ability to be culturally relative (1.a, 1.c, 2.a, 2.b)
ii. Interrelating personal experience and societal forces within the context of cultural anthropology (1.a, 1.b)
iii. Demonstrating an understanding of why human cultures vary (1.a, 1.b)
iv. Demonstrating respect for the diversity of human culture (1)
D. Show their level of information literacy by:
i. Using discipline-specific databases and utilizing a variety of library resources (2, 4.c)
ii. Assessing anthropological information in general and scholarly resources (1.a, 2.a, 4.b, 4.c)
iii. Using appropriate citation standards for anthropology (4.b, 4.c)
iv. Exploring how anthropological knowledge is gained by practicing a few of cultural anthropology’s methodologies, e.g., real-world observation (2.a, 2.c, 2.d)
Unit Outcomes f2f/hybrid
Unit 1: In the first unit, students explore the question, “What is culture and cultural anthropology?”
Week 1: Students will:
• Read the syllabus
• Read the materials on The Culture Concept
o Describe the anthropological view of culture (A.i, A.iii)
o Define key terms and concepts related to the culture concept (A.i, A.ii, A.iii)
o Identify the various levels of culture (A.iii, B.i, B.ii)
o Explain how cultures change (A.iii, B.iv, C.iii, C.iv)
• Read “Ethnography and Culture”
o Define ethnography, naïve realism, explicit culture, tacit culture (A.i)
o Describe the relationship between cultural behavior, cultural artifacts, and cultural knowledge (A.iii, B.i, B.iv)
Week 2:
• Read the materials on Language
o Differentiate between signal communication and semantic universality (A.i)
o Explain the differences in verbal and non-verbal communication (A.i)
o Compare and contrast linguistic determinism and sociolinguistics (A.iii)
o Explore social issues embedded in language, e.g., gender and status (A.v, C.i)
o Evaluate the connection between cultural cohesion and language (B.iii)
• Read “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari” and “Shakespeare in the Bush”
o Examine the concepts of cultural relativism and ethnocentrism (A.i, B.v, C.i)
o Identify the function of cultural behaviors within their cultural context (A.iii, B.ii, B.iv, B.v, C.i, C.iv)
o Identify examples of naïve realism (C)
• Read “Manipulating Meaning: The Military Name Game” and “Conversation Style: Talking on the Job”
o Explore the connection between language and perception (B.iii)
o Describe the link between language and gender (B.iii)
Week 3:
• Read the materials on Culture and Identity
o Explore the interrelatedness of culture and identity (B.iii)
o Identify elements of culture that impact identity development (B.i, B.iv, B.v)
• Read “Poverty at Work: Office Employment and the Crack Alternative”
o Recognize the connection between social roles and identity construction (B.iv, B.v)
• Read “Symbolizing Roles: Behind the Veil”
o Examine symbolic expression of identity (A.iii, B.iii, B.v, C.i)
o Distinguish between cultural perceptions of behavior (C.ii)
• Read “Mixed Blood”
o Examine the impact of culture on the race concept (B.i, B.iv, B.v, C.i)
• Construct a Team Contract with fellow Team Members
o Demonstrate ability to successfully work in a team setting (A.iv)
Week 4:
• Read the materials on Method and Ethics
o Describe and discuss cultural anthropology methodology (A.i)
o Compare and contrast theories in cultural anthropology (B.iii)
o Identify and question ethical issues in cultural anthropology fieldwork (A.i)
• Read “Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of AIDS” and “Nice Girls Don’t Talk to Rastas”
o Recognize the value of ethnographic research (A.i, B.iii, C.i)
o Identify cultural anthropology field methods (A.i, B.iii)
o Identify ethical issues that arise during field work (A.i, B.iii, C.i)
• Write a critical review of an ethnography
o Recognize how and why ethnographic field work is undertaken (A.i, B.iii, D.iv)
o Recognize key concepts in cultural anthropology within real-world field work (A.i, A.iv, B.iii, D.iv)
o Evaluate public Internet sources for suitability for college-level work (D.ii, D.iii)
• Participate in a Project Work Day
o Create a proposal for the Sustaining Indigenous Cultures project with fellow team members (A.iv)
o Demonstrate ability to successfully work in a team setting (A.iv)
Unit 2: In the second unit, students explore the variety, function, and interrelatedness of social institutions.
Week 5:
• Read the materials on Subsistence & Economy
o Describe the four types of subsistence strategies (A.i, A.iii)
o Identify systems of distribution and exchange (A.i)
o Explain how subsistence affects the form of other social institutions (A.iii, B.iv)
• Read “Adaptive Failure: Easter’s End” and “ Forest Development the Indian Way”
o Identify and explain maladaptive behaviors (B.iv, C.i)
o Discuss the connection between environment and culture (B.iv, C.i)
o Identify the relationship between subsistence and social structure (B.iv, C.i, C.iv)
o Examine the relationship between non-market and market economies and culture survival (A.i, C.iv)
• Read “Reciprocity and the Power of Giving”
o Explain the link between social behaviors and the economic system (A.i, C.iv)
o Describe how economic systems can be used to get and maintain power (A.i, C.iv)
• Complete the midterm exam with team members
o Demonstrate understanding of Unit 1 concepts (A, B, C.i, C.iii)
o Demonstrate ability to successfully work in a team setting (A.iv)
Week 6:
• Read the materials on Marriage, Family & Kinship
o Explain the various types of marriage and families (A.i, B.i)
o Identify the function of marriage, family and kinship systems (B.v)
o Explain the connection between these systems and subsistence and economic structures (B.iv)
• Read “Mother’s Love: Death without Weeping”
o Explain the connection between social structures and mothering (B.iv)
o Describe the connection between health and culture (B.iv)
• Read “Polyandry: When Brothers Take a Wife”
o Describe fraternal polyandry (A.i)
o Explain the connection between the form of marriage and environmental and other social factors (B.iv)
• Read “Uterine Families and the Women’s Community”
o Explain the connection between the form of family and other social factors (B.iv)
Week 7:
• Read the materials on Political Organization
o Describe the types of political organizations (A.i)
o Explain how political organization is related to other social institutions (B.iv, C.i)
• Read “The Founding Indian Fathers”
o Identify examples of diffusion (A.i)
o Explain how personal experience influences culture at a broader level (C.i, C.ii)
• Read “The Kindness of Strangers” The U.S. and Iraq”
o Explain how political organization is related to identity (B.iv, C.i)
o Explain how perception creates cultural misunderstandings (C.i, C.ii)
• Read the materials on Expressive Culture
o Outcomes to be determined—have to do some research on this first
Week 8:
• Read the materials on Belief Systems
o Describe the basic characteristics of belief systems (religions) (A.i)
o Discuss the anthropological approach to belief systems (A.ii, B.ii)
• Read “Run for the Wall: An American Pilgrimage” and “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”
o Define ritual and pilgrimage (A.i)
o Explain how ritual is related to identity and perception (B.iv, C.ii)
o Explain the social and psychological function of ritual (B.v)
• Participate in a group-based discussion on belief systems
o Conduct library- and internet-based research on a specific belief system practiced today (D.i, D.ii)
o Demonstrate understanding of underlying similarities and primary differences of a few belief systems (B.i)
o Evaluate your participation in the discussion (A.iv)
Week 9:
• Read the materials on Health Care
o Define ethnomedicine (A.i)
o Compare and contrast the theoretical approaches in ethnomedicine (B.iii)
o Identify how globalization impacts health (A.iv)
o Discuss the different cultural approaches to death and dying (A.ii, B.v, C.i)
• Read “Taraka’s Ghost”
o Describe the relationship between illness and culture (B.v)
• Read “ Medical Anthropology: Improving Nutrition in Malawi”
o Describe the relationship between environment, social structure and illness (A.i)
o Explain the role of applied anthropology in addressing issues of health (B.iii)
• Submit Ethnography & Ethnology essay
o Conduct real-world observations (D.iv)
o Write an ethnography and cross-cultural comparison (A.iii)
• Submit outline of Sustaining Indigenous Cultures project with fellow team members
o Demonstrate ability to successfully work in a team setting (A.iv)
• Participate in a Project Work Day
o Demonstrate ability to successfully work in a team setting (A.iv)
Unit 3: In the third unit, students investigate the effects of globalization on indigenous (non-industrialized) cultures.
Week 10:
• Read the materials on Modernization, Development & Globalization
o Define modernization, development and globalization (A.i)
o Identify the historical antecedents of modern development and globalization (B.v)
o Recognize the effects of development and globalization on indigenous (non-industrialized) peoples (B.v)
o Identify human rights issues associated with development and globalization (B.ii, B.iv)
o Explain the emergence of the anti-globalization movement (A.iii)
• Read “Global Women in the New Economy”
o Identify the issues related to gender, poverty and migration (B.iii)
o Explain how globalization creates connections between nations (A.iii, B.iv)
• Read “The Road to Refugee Resettlement”
o Describe the difference between a refugee and an immigrant (A.i)
o Identify methods of cultural change associated with refugee resettlement (B.iii)
Week 11:
• Present Sustaining Indigenous Cultures project
• Submit Final Essay
