ANTH 103 Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology is the study of living cultures. It provides a comparative cross-cultural explanation of how culture and language shape human behavior. Aspects of culture to be examined include patterns of subsistence, how cultures organize themselves socially, marriage and family practices, political and economic systems, religious beliefs and practices, gender and sexuality, health and healing, and the multitude of worldviews, values, and ways of seeing across cultures.

Credits

4

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of cultural anthropology as a sub-field within the broader discipline of anthropology
2. Explain past and contemporary theoretical approaches employed in cultural anthropology and ethnographic research
3. Identify and analyze ways in which culture shapes human behavior in order to develop a deeper understanding of the vast similarities and differences that exist among human cultures
4. Discuss the concepts of cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, and participant observation
5. Describe anthropology’s position on race
6. Illustrate the relationship of language and culture
7. Demonstrate knowledge and appreciation of cross-cultural adaptive patterns through the exploration of subsistence strategies, marriage, family and kinship, gender and sexuality, political order and social stratification, belief systems, and artistic expression
8. Understand the effects of globalization on indigenous peoples around the world
9. Analyze and discuss why indigenous knowledge matters in the contemporary world