Social Studies Curriculum

History/Social Sciences Electives

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Adopted January 1999

Anthropology

Course Description:

Anthropology is a study of humankind around the world and throughout time to seek understanding of human diversity. Students in this course will explore how the environment, culture, history, and technology affect human development. Did you know old bones and artifacts can unlock the mystery of humankind?

Sample topics in anthropology include:

• Fieldwork and its methodology
• Early civilizations and societies
• Famous anthropologists and their discoveries
• Cultures past and present and how they compare

The course title and description have been approved by the Anchorage School Board.  This course outline is meant to serve as an example of one possibility for organizing this class.  It does not represent the only way the course may be organized.  Each course outline has been written by a different teacher so there will be differences in the approach used from one course to another.

Course Goals:

Through this course students will:

• Examine the sub disciplines of anthropology and the perspectives, methods, and techniques associated with each.
• Understand and practice the field methods used in anthropology.
• Examine the emergence of modern humans and the biological and genetic diversity in human populations.
• Examine the development of human culture and civilization through the study of material remains (the archaeological record).
• Examine the similarities and differences between cultures around the world and discuss cultural universals and generalizations about cultures.

Course Objectives:

The student will:

• Identify and describe the sub disciplines of anthropology and the perspectives, methods, and techniques associated with each one. (cultural, physical [biological], linguistic, archaeological, and applied anthropology).
• Identify and participate in the field methods used in anthropology.
• Identify and discuss problems facing anthropologists in the field.
• Examine and compare the methods and techniques used by ethnographers, archaeologists, and other anthropologists.
• Describe the emergence of modern humans as evidenced in the archaeological record, (e.g., Australopithecus, Homo Erectus, Neanderthal, and Homo Sapiens)
• Explain the influence of the following on the emergence of modern humans: language, culture, technology, art, anatomical differentiation, and changes in the environment.
• Identify and describe the development of technologies used by hominids through time.
• Trace the origin and spread of food production and its impact on the development of culture and civilization.
• Explain the origins, development, and spread of early civilizations throughout the world.
• Define and describe culture, ethnicity, social stratification, and mechanisms of cultural change around the world.
• Explain adaptive strategies and economic systems. (e.g., foraging, cultivation, pastoralism, modes of production, distribution and exchange)
• Describe the development of social and political systems. (e.g., bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states)
• Describe and define kinship and descent, marriage, gender roles, religion, personality and world view.

Course Outline:

1. The Scope of Anthropology
   1. General anthropology: adaptation, variation, and change
   2. The sub disciplines of anthropology
      1. Cultural: the study of society and culture around the world
      2. Archaeological: the reconstruction, description, and interpretation of human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains.
      3. Physical (biological): the study of human biological diversity in time and space, as well as human genetics and human growth and development.
      4. Linguistic: the study of language in its social and cultural context in space and through time.
      5. Applied: the application of anthropological knowledge and/or techniques to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems.
   3. Field Methods Used in Anthropology
      1. Ethnography
         1. Observation/participant observation, informants, interviewing, genealogical methods, life histories, and research strategies
      2. Archaeology
         1. Sites: distribution and duration, tools, stratigraphy, excavation, dating techniques, recording and note taking, analysis and interpretation.
      3. Primatology
         1. Observation with no contact: Jane Goodall and the Gombe Reserve
         2. Observation with contact: Dian Fossey
   4. Culture
      1. Culture is: learned, symbolic, shared, patterned, all-encompassing, general/specific, adaptive/maladaptive.
      2. Universality, particularity, and generality
      3. Mechanisms of cultural change
   5. Evolution, Genetics, and Biological Adaptation
      1. Creationism, catastrophism, and evolution
      2. Genetics: the basis of biological variation
      3. Population genetics and mechanisms of genetic evolution
      4. Diversity through adaptation
   6. Human Biological Diversity and the Race Concept
      1. Social race: hypodescent, “not us,” phenotype and fluidity
      2. Biological race: a discredited concept
   7. The Primates
      1. Taxonomy and the primate order
      2. Primate tendencies, trends and hominoids
      3. Similarities and differences between humans and other primates
   8. Early Hominids and the Emergence of Modern Humans
      1. Dating the past
      2. The australopithecines: gracile and robust
      3. Paleolithic tools
      4. Homo erectus: adaptive strategies, evolution and expansion
      5. rchaic homo sapiens: Neanderthals
      6. Evolution in technology, glacial retreat, and the broad-spectrum economy
      7. Cave art and the Mesolithic
   9. The Origin and Spread of Food Production
      1. The origin of food production in the Middle East and the Old World
      2. The first American farmers
      3. Costs and benefits of food production
   10. Adaptive Strategies and Economic Systems
       1. Adaptive strategies
       2. Foraging
       3. Cultivation
       4. Pastoralism
       5. Modes of Production
       6. Distribution and exchange
   11. Political Systems
       1. Bands
       2. Tribes
       3. Villages and pan-tribal structures
       4. Pastoralists
       5. Chiefdoms
       6. States
   12. Universals and Cultural Generalizations
       1. Kinship and Descent
       2. Marriage
       3. Gender: roles and issues
       4. Religion
       5. Personality and World view
   13. Language and Communication
       1. The structure of language
       2. Language, thought, and culture
       3. Sociolinguistics
       4. Historical linguistics
   14. Applied Anthropology
       1. Anthropology and education
       2. Urban anthropology
       3. Medical anthropology

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