Intro to Anthro 2021
This was the homepage for Introduction to Anthropology 2021, exploring the variability of humankind. In the words of Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot, this course attempted to “show an underlying faith in the richness and variability of humankind” (Global Transformations 2003, 139). For recorded lectures on the variability of humankind, see the YouTube Playlist:
For updated courses see Teaching Anthropology Hub.
Part 1: Evolving
Anthropology explores what it means to be human
- Chapter 1, “What is anthropology?”
Evolution & Myths
- Module 1, “Anthropology, Science, Storytelling”
Evolution is Life in Process
- Chapter 2, “Why is evolution important to anthropologists?”
Primate Flexibility and Human-Primate Connections
- Chapter 3, “What can the study of primates tell us?”
- Barbara Smuts, “What are Friends For?” Natural History (1987)
Learning to Move
- Chapter 4 (part 1), “What can the fossil record tell us about humankind?”
Survival of the Generalist
- Chapter 4 (part 2), “Fossil record”
Part 2: History & Culture
Human Biological Variation and Biocultural Approach to Race
- Chapter 5, “How does the evolutionary study of human variation undermine notions of biological race?”
Archaeology Methods
- Chapter 6 (part 1), “How do we know about the human past?”
- Module 2, “Dating Methods in Paleoanthropology & Archaeology”
Gender Archaeology
- Chapter 6 (part 2), “How do we know about the human past?”
- “Women’s Art in the Upper Paleolithic”
- April Nowell and Melanie Chang, “Science, the Media, and Interpretations of Upper Paleolithic Figurines.” American Anthropologist (2014)
Auditioning Domestication
- Chapter 7 (part 1), “Why did humans settle down?”
- Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race.” Discover (1987).
Stratified Complexity
- Chapter 7 (part 2), “Why did humans build cities and establish states?”
Indigenous Resilience & Environmental Determinism Critique
- 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)
Social Life
- Begin chapter 8, “Why is the concept of culture important?”
Cross-Cultural Parenting Practices
- Meredith Small, “Our Babies, Ourselves.” Natural History (1997)
Rethinking Culture in Anthropology
- Finish chapter 8, “Why is the concept of culture important?”
Cultivating Reflexivity
- Module 3, “On Ethnographic Methods”
Shakespeare in the Bush: Cross-Cultural Interpretation Challenges
- Laura Bohannan, “Shakespeare in the Bush.” Natural History (1966)
Language
- Chapter 9, “Why is understanding human language important?”
- Module 4, “Components of Language”
Part 3: Humankind Today
Meaning
- Chapter 10, “How do we make meaning?”
Economies
- Chapter 11,”Why do anthropologists study economic relations?”
- Richard Borshay Lee, “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari.” Natural History (1969)
Politics
- Chapter 12,”How do anthropologists study political relations?”
Sex-Gender-Sexuality
- Chapter 13, “What about sex, gender, and sexuality?”
- Alexandra Kralick, “What Our Skeletons Say About the Sex Binary.” Sapiens (2018)
Early Kinship & Making Kinship
- Chapter 14 (part 1), “Where do our relatives come from?”
Marriage
- Chapter 14 (part 2), “Why do our relatives matter?”
Inequality
- Chapter 15, “What about social inequality?”
For updated courses see Teaching Anthropology Hub.