Introduction to Socio-Cultural Anthropology-ANTH 100

 

Course Description

Basic concepts and methods of anthropology; culture and race; comparative study of social systems, religion, symbolism, art, and other institutions.

Classes run twice a week from 12:00-13:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Weekly tutorial groups are scheduled each Friday for 50 minutes.

No tutorial first week of class.

Course Syllabus

Download course syllabus here.

Course Blog

The course blog contains commentaries and resources to complement learning and to supplement lectures. You can find the blog here http://blogs.ubc.ca/anth100.

Required Textbooks

• Andrew Walsh. Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism, and the Global Bazaar.
• Charles Menzies. Red Flags and Lace Coiffes: Identity and Survival in a Breton Village.
• Charles Menzies & Anthony Marcus. Anthropoogy for a Small Planet, Second Edition.
• L. Kaifa Roland. Cuban Color in Tourism and La Lucha: An Ethnography of Racial Meanings.

Tutorials

Each student will sign up for one of the weekly tutorial/discussion groups. There are no tutorials during the first week of classes.

Each tutorial group is led by a teaching assistant from the Department of Anthropology.

Evaluation

• Participation in tutorial discusions: 10 marks
• Mid-term Exam: 30 marks

• Research Paper (1500 words max): 20 marks
• Final Exam: 40 marks

Teaching Evaluation Comments from Former Students

I really enjoyed how passionate Dr. Menzies was in his field. His clear enthusiasm for the subject was infectious. Well done.

It was very helpful to see images of relevant anthropology books in the power point presentations during lecture. It was valuable to show films concerning the indigenous people of northern b.c. Their voices have long been silenced and I applaud menzies in the work he is doing.

I really enjoyed the different activities that were planned for the tutorials; they definitely helped encourage participation and learning.

The use of videos was very helpful in grasping concepts. Also the amount of information on the slides was well proportioned, so it made it easy to follow what the prof was saying.

Additional Resources

These additional readings are useful for those students who want to go beyond the core materials.

• Kathleen Gough wrote in the 1960s about the political changes facing anthropology. Her 1968 article (published variously as Anthropology: Child of Western Imperialism or New Proposals for Anthropologists) set the stage for the political critique of anthropology that was to following in the coming decades.
• Eric Wolf's 1982 classic, Europe and the People Without History, is a must read for any aspiring anthropology student. His third chapter on modes of production is a particularly important background to discussions and lectures in this class.

Anthropology and Society. Podcasts of presentations made by Charles Menzies on a variety of topics. Some of the items may have relevance for the course. To access a podcast of available presentations copy this URL http://www.ecoknow.ca/podcast/rss.xml and paste it into your podcast software application or click here to select individual talks.