Outline

Overview

Anthropologists want to know what makes us human. This unit introduces you to the unique perspective on human experience in cultural anthropology. Anthropologists argue that each individual is incomplete without the input of the shared patterns acquired from one's community. In this class you will learn how anthropologists define the concept of culture, how they use cultural relativism, and how they conduct research through cultural immersion and participatory fieldwork. You will examine several cases that demonstrate the human capacity for cultural diversity, and will understand several of the core topics that anthropologists investigate to capture a society's worldview and way of life.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Anthropology
Credit points	6
Prerequisites ?	None
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	ANTH1003
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Ryan Schram, ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s)	Jadran Mimica, jadran.mimica@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s)	Aila Naderbagi, aila.naderbagi@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s)	Emma Young, emma.young@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Participation	Canvas tutorial discussion participation Make a good, regular effort to prepare for class and participate actively	10%	Ongoing	Every tutorial
Outcomes assessed:
Online task	Weekly reflections A multiple-choice question posted as a quiz on Canvas, and given in lecture	10%	Ongoing	1 question per lecture, minimum 22 req'd
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Module 1 concept quiz Multiple-choice questions on your knowledge and comprehension of Module 1	10%	Week 03 Due date: 13 Mar 2020 at 17:00	10 questions (500 words equiv.)
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Report on qualitative data An ethnographic description and analysis of public behavior. See Canvas.	20%	Week 06 Due date: 03 Apr 2020 at 17:00	1000 words
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Plan for a HSC lesson on kinship Plan a lesson for HSC students on the implications of kinship. See Canvas.	20%	Week 09 Due date: 01 May 2020 at 17:00	1000 words
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Comprehensive (open-book, take-home) essay assignment Short-answer questions and two 750-word essays. See Canvas.	30%	Week 14 (STUVAC) Due date: 05 Jun 2020 at 17:00	2000 words
Outcomes assessed:

Assessment summary

Detailed information for each assessment can be found on Canvas.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name	Mark range	Description
High distinction	85 - 100
Distinction	75 - 84
Credit	65 - 74
Pass	50 - 64
Fail	0 - 49	When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	Module 1 (What makes us human?): Humans are natural and cultural beings—An introduction to anthropology (Read Eriksen, chs. 1–2.)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 02	Module 1 (What makes us human?): Culture is not race—The beginnings of cultural anthropology (Read Pierpont)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 03	Module 1 (What makes us human?): Culture, the natural environment, and utilitarian explanations (Read Lee, Sahlins 2017 [1972]*)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 04	Module 2 (Can an anthropologist really leave her culture?): Anthropologists are professional strangers—The method of “fieldwork” (Read Eriksen, ch. 3)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 05	Module 2 (Can an anthropologist really leave her culture?): The social world is a stage, and our actions are symbols (Read Becker, Goffman*)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 06	Module 2 (Can an anthropologist really leave her culture?): Anthropologists are people studying people (Read Bohannan, Gottlieb)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 07	Module 3 (Is family universal?): Humans are intrinsically social beings (Read Zonabend [see Canvas for pages], Sahlins 1960*)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 08	Module 3 (Is family universal?): A kinship system is a symbolic language (Read Zonabend [see Canvas for pages], Lévi-Strauss*)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 09	Module 3 (Is family universal?): Gender is a cultural construct and a social process—Cases of “woman-marriage” in Africa and matrimonial alliance (Read O'Brien, Carrier and Murray, Krige)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 10	Module 4 (Where is the mind?): Shamans are a hard problem for anthropology (Read Langdon, Sullivan*)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 11	Module 4 (Where is the mind?): Shamans become the other (Read Jokić, Chaumeil*)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 12	Module 4 (Where is the mind?): Shamans and the varieties of religious experience (Read Saler)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 13	Review of the class: How do anthropologists think? (See Canvas for reading)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.
Lecture recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.
Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Required and supplemental readings (noted with an asterisk)

Becker, Howard S. “Becoming a Marihuana User.” The American Journal of Sociology 59, no. 3 (1953): 235–42.

Bohannan, Laura. “Shakespeare in the Bush.” Natural History Magazine, September 1966.

*Carrier, Joseph M., and Stephen O. Murray. “Woman-Woman Marriage in Africa.” In Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies in African Homosexualities, edited by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe, 255–66, 320–21. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

*Chaumeil, Jean-Pierre. “Varieties of Amazonian Shamanism:” Diogenes, July 26, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1177/039219219204015809.

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. “A Brief History of Anthropology.” In Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 12–31. London: Pluto Press, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183p184.16.

———. “Anthropology: Comparison and Context.” In Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 1–11. London: Pluto Press, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183p184.16.

———. “Fieldwork and Ethnography.” In Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 32–51. London: Pluto Press, 2015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt183p184.16.

*Goffman, Erving. “Introduction.” In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1–16. Woodstock, N.Y.: The Overlook Press, 1973.

Gottlieb, Alma. “Processing Privilege: Reflections on Fieldwork (Early, and Otherwise) among Beng Villagers of Côte d’Ivoire.” Mande Studies 20, no. 1 (November 7, 2018): 123–35.

Jokić, Željko. “Shamanic Battleground: Magic, Sorcery, and Warrior Shamanism in Venezuela.” Social Analysis 58, no. 1 (January 1, 2014). https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2014.580106.

*Krige, Eileen Jensen. “Woman-Marriage, with Special Reference to the Loυedu. Its Significance for the Definition of Marriage.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 44, no. 1 (1974): 11–37. https://doi.org/10.2307/1158564.

Langdon, E. Jean Matteson. “Introduction: Shamanism and Anthropology.” In Portals of Power: Shamanism in South America, edited by E. Jean Matteson Langdon, 1–21. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.

Lee, Richard Borshay. “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari.” Natural History, December 1969, pp. 14–22, 60–64.

*Lévi-Strauss, Claude. “The Family.” In The View from Afar, translated by Joachim Neugroschel and Phoebe Hoss, 39–62. London: Basil Blackwell, 1985. https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/43296108.

O’Brien, Denise. “Female Husbands in Southern Bantu Societies.” In Sexual Stratification: A Cross-Cultural View, edited by Alice Schlegel, 109–26. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977.

Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “The Measure of America.” The New Yorker, March 8, 2004, 48–63.

*Sahlins, Marshall. “The Original Affluent Society.” In Stone Age Economics, 1–37. London: Routledge, 2017 (1972). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315184951.

*Sahlins, Marshall D. “The Origin of Society.” Scientific American 203, no. 3 (1960): 76–87.

Saler, Benson. “Supernatural as a Western Category.” Ethos 5, no. 1 (1977): 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.1977.5.1.02a00040.

*Sullivan, Lawrence E. “The Attributes and Power of the Shaman: A General Description of the Ecstatic Care of the Soul.” In Ancient Traditions: Shamanism in Central Asia and the Americas, edited by Gary Seaman and Jane Stevenson Day, 29–45. Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1994.

Zonabend, Francoise. “An Anthropological Perspective on Kinship and the Family.” In A History of the Family, Volume 1: Distant Worlds, Ancient Worlds, edited by André Burguière, Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, Martine Segalen, and Francoise Zonabend, translated by Sarah Hanbury Tenison, Rosemary Morris, and Andrew Wilson, 8–68. Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 1996.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. understand the aims and scope of cultural anthropology
LO2. demonstrate an appreciation of the systemic nature of social and cultural life
LO3. demonstrate an appreciation of the ethical importance of understanding other cultures
LO4. demonstrate an appreciation of the diversity of human technology and forms of livelihood
LO5. understand the ways in which people pursue livelihoods in order to realise cultural values
LO6. demonstrate an understanding of participant observation as a fieldwork based research method
LO7. demonstrate an understanding of the symbolic foundations of social relationships
LO8. demonstrate critical reading skills
LO9. demonstrate skills reading empirically-based analyses of different cultures
LO10. use empirical accounts of different cultures to make arguments
LO11. demonstrate an understanding of social science concepts and how they are used and debated in making arguments
LO12. demonstrate an understanding of the background and key conceptual frameworks of the field of cultural anthropology

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This unit has been completely redesigned based on our experience over several years of teaching in the first-year anthropology units, feedback from students in these classes, and the best practices in helping students develop intellectually and to take responsibility for their own learning. We want this to be a fun, exciting, and stimulating experience that both challenges students to do new things and think in new ways, while also giving them the guidance and support so that they feel comfortable taking risks and pushing themselves to grow and change.

Additional information

Complete, detailed information about the topics, weekly readings, lectures, tutorials, and assignments is presented on the class Canvas site. Students should consult this unit outline in conjunction with the pages for each module and each week for full information on what we will be doing. Additionally, students can make use of Ryan’s notes on the class and his lecture outlines at his external teaching site, http://anthro.rschram.org.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect

Current students

ANTH1001: Introduction to Anthropology

Semester 1, 2020 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect