Anth 110'11

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Anth 110.11

• An Introduction

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Basic information

• Instructor Clare Fawcett
• Office  Bruce Brown 335H
• Tel [phone]
• E-mail cfawcett_at_stfx.ca
• Office hours Wednesday 130-330 pm and
  Thursday 1000-1145 am

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Course goals

• Learn about the subject of anthropology
• Biological or physical anthropology
• Archaeology
• Linguistic anthropology
• Socio-cultural anthropology
• Develop skills
• Reading an academic paper
• Writing an academic essay

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Course outline

• http//people.stfx.ca/cfawcett/ANTH110/Anth20110
  202008-09/Anth2011020Outline202008-0920August
  20copy.htm

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What is anthropology?

• Study of humans and human diversity across time
  and space
• Anthropology is
• Bioculturalinteraction of biology and culture
• Holistic
• Comparative
• Global and local
• Academic, applied and sometimes activist

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Anthropologys four sub-fields

• Biological or physical anthropology
• Archaeology
• Linguistic anthropology
• Socio-cultural anthropology

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Biological or physical anthropology

• Humans as animals humans as cultural beings
• Paleoanthropology
• Primatology
• Hominid and human evolution
• Human physical diversity
• Forensic anthropologyWho is buried in this grave
  and how did they die?

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Archaeology

• Material culture
• Explaining changes in material culture over time
• Prehistoric archaeology
• Historical archaeology
• When, where and why did people begin cultivating
  plants and domesticating animals?
• What can we learn about the use of the land,
  marine and river resources by people living in
  the Maritimes before European contact?

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Linguistic anthropology

• Historical linguistics
• How do languages change over time?
• Structural linguistics
• How do languages differ in construction?
• Sociolinguistics
• The social context of language use
• How do people use language to gain social status?
• Why do medical professionals and their clients
  sometimes fail to communicate effectively?

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Socio-cultural anthropology

• What is culture?
• Ways people living in a particular society think
  and behave
• Metaphors
• The water in which we fish swim
• A lens through which we see

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Socio-cultural anthropology

• Characteristics of culture
• - Adaptive
• - Culture is not natural, it is learned
• - Culture influences everything biological
  about people
• - Cultures are integrated
• - Cultures interact with other cultures and change

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Socio-cultural anthropology

• Ethnography of a specific culture
• Ethnologycomparisons between cultures and
  explanations for similarities and differences

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Socio-cultural anthropology

• Materialist explanations for cultural differences
  and cultural changeBottom up
• Interpretive explanations for cultural
  differences and cultural changeTop down

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Anthropologysgeneral principles

• Cultural relativism
• Critical cultural relativism
• Ethnocentrism
• Reflexivity

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Anthropologys big questions

• Biological determinism or cultural construction?
• Materialist or interpretive explanations?
• Agency or structure?

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Readings

• For this class
• Ember et al. Chapter 1
• For the next class
• Ember et al. Chapters 2 and 3