Intro to Anthropology 2020

This was the homepage for Introduction to Anthropology 2020 with two books:

Here is the YouTube Lecture Playlist:

Introduction to Anthropology 2020

Part 1: Evolving

Perspective

  • Chapter 1 (part 1 of 2), “Introduction: Viewing the World” (1-14)

History

  • Chapter 1 (part 2 of 2), “Introduction: Viewing the World” (14-27)
  • Horace Miner, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,” American Anthropologist (1956)

Primates

  • Chapter 2, “We Are Primates” (29-53)
  • Barbara Smuts, “What are Friends For?” Natural History (1987)

Evolutionary

  • Chapter 3, “Evolutionary Thought and Theory” (55-72)
  • Agustin Fuentes, “Human niche, human behaviour, human nature.” Interface Focus (2017)

Hominins

  • M&G chapter 4, “Human Biological Evolution” (73-97)
  • Berger, Lee R., et al. “Homo naledi and Pleistocene hominin evolution in subequatorial Africa.” eLife (2017)

Part 2: Growing

Tools

  • Chapter 5, “Diversity: 2.5 million to 20,000 Years Ago”
  • April Nowell and Melanie Chang, “Science, the Media, and Interpretations of Upper Paleolithic Figurines.” American Anthropologist (2014)
  • Fuentes on the “Human niche” (5-8)

Paleo

  • M&G chapter 6 (part 1 of 2), “Food: 20,000 to 5,000 Years Ago” (121-139)
  • Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race.” Discover (1987).

Settlements

  • M&G ch. 6 (part 2 of 2), “Organization: 20,000 to 5,000 Years Ago” (139-145)
  • Melinda Zeder, “Domestication as a model system for the extended evolutionary synthesis.” Interface Focus (2017)
  • Fuentes on the “Human niche” (8-10)

Collapse?

  • M&G chapter 7, “Archaeology of the Last 5,000 Years” (147-169)
  • Michael Wilcox, “Marketing conquest and the vanishing Indian: An Indigenous response to Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse.” Journal of Social Archaeology (2010)

Part 3: Knowing

11. Race & Culture

  • Muckle and González chapter 8 (part 1 of 2), “Culture” (171-186)

12. Enculturation

  • M&G chapter 8 (part 2 of 2), “Culture 2” (186-198)
  • Meredith Small, “Our Babies, Ourselves.” Natural History (1997).

13. Language

  • M&G chapter 9, “Language and Culture” (199-223)
  • Laura Bohannan, “Shakespeare in the Bush.” Natural History (1966).

14. Food-Getting

  • M&G chapter 10, “Food-Getting and Economics” (225-252)
  • Richard Borshay Lee, “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari.” Natural History (1969).

15. Marriage & Family

  • M&G chapter 11 (part 1 of 2), “Marriage, Family, and Gender” (253-266)
  • Film Ongka’s Big Moka

16. Kinship & Gender

  • M&G chapter 11 (part 2 of 2), “Marriage, Family, and Gender” (266-281)
  • Alexandra Kralick, “What Our Skeletons Say About the Sex Binary.” Sapiens (2018).

17. Organization

  • M&G chapter 12, “Political Organization” (283-304)
  • Film: Masai Women

18. Supernaturalism

  • Muckle and González chapter 13, “Supernaturalism” (305-327).
  • George Gmelch, “Baseball Magic” (2000).

19. Sustainability

  • Muckle and González chapter 14, “Anthropology and Sustainability” (329-354)

Part 4: Doing

Anthropology: Why It Matters

Future

This course is part of a series of Intro-to-Anthropology courses online. My latest attempt from 2022 is one that outlines Human Problems & Human Potential. There were four courses that used the textbook Anthropology: What Does it Mean to Be Human? (2021, 2018, 2017, and 2016).

For a full recorded lecture series from 2021, see the YouTube Playlist:

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