| Week 1: How Did Humans Originate?
March 31 Lecture: Our ideas about how we originated and why we're here
April 1-2 1st section: Introductions; Instructions for Writing
April 3-4 2nd section: Brief paper due: Go over what you wrote in first paper |
Readings:
Genesis 1-2
Jones: "The Nature of Evolution"
Jenness: The Faith of a Coast Salish Indian
Assignment: Short paper looking at 3 origin myths, due in second section
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| Week 2: How are we like/unlike other primates
April 7 Lecture: the brain, evolution, and behavior
April 8-9 First section: observe film on baboons and practice worksheet (Smith 120)
April 10-11 Second section: Have gone to the zoo and observed primates, bring worksheet to discuss and hand in |
Readings:
Goodall, My Life Among Wild Chimpanzees
Assignment: Go to the zoo and complete the worksheet on primate behavior; bring it to Section 2
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| Week 3: Who are the ancestors of modern humans?
April 14 Lecture: Controversies over hominid evolution
April 15-16 First section: Go over biological and archaeological evidence and how it works
April 17, all day Second section: Come to lab in Denny 401 and fill out worksheets |
Readings:
Thorne: The Multiregional Evolution
Wilson and Cann - The Recent African Genesis
Assignment: Fill in the three worksheets from the lab. Due in Section 1, week 4
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| Week 4: How do languages work to communicate?
April 21 Lecture: How do languages work; how do different languages work?
April 22-23 First section: Interview speakers of different languages about how they work
April 24-25 Second section: Analyze tapes of different people talking about the same thing |
Readings:
Whorf: "Linguistics and Science"
Maltz and Borker: "A Cultural Approach"
Assignment: Write about a conversation with a person of the opposite sex. Due in Section 1, Week 5
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| Week 5: What is natural and what is cultural about gender?
April 28 Lecture: Natural and cultural aspects of maleness and femaleness
April 29-30 First section: Go over papers on language and gender; talk about your ideas of what's a guy thing and a girl thing
May 1-2 Second section: Bring in and discuss gender images from popular media; talk about how our gender ideas are different from Tchambuli or 1960s America |
Readings:
Mead: "The Contrasting Roles of Tchambuli men and women"
Martinson, "Men and Women" (1960 textbook on Marriage and the Family)
Assignment: Collect images from popular media and comment. Bring to second section.
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| Week 6: What is natural and what is cultural about the family?
May 5 Lecture: Systems of family and marriage
May 6-7 First Section: Debate on family values
May 8-9 Second Section: Discuss your own family, using kin diagrams brought to class |
Readings:
Coontz: The Way we Never Were
Whitehead: "Dan Quayle was Right"
Assignment: Draw a chart of your own family and kin network, and be prepared to present it to the class. Due in Second Section.
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| Week 7: How do religious rituals work?
May 12 Lecture: Religion as practice and belief
May 13-14 First Section: see Film, Holy Ghost People in Smith 120
May 15-16 Second Section: Learn about ethnographic observation. Read Spradley before this section |
Readings:
Bogoras: "Shamanistic Performance"
Rasmussen: "A Shaman's Journey"
Spradley: "Participant Observation"
Assignment: Observe a religious ritual, preferably in a tradition not your own, and write a structured account. Due in Section 1, Week 8.
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| Week 8: What is race, and why is it important?
May 19 Lecture: The unreality and reality of race.
May 20-21 First Section: Talk about American categories of race
May 22-23 Second Section: Go over your written narration of a race-based event in your own life |
Readings:
Gates: Colored People
Assignment: Narrate a race-based event in your own life, and bring a draft or outline to the second section. Write a final draft, comparing your experience to an experience in Skip Gates's life, due in Section 1, week 9
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| Week 9: What is class in America, and what does it have to do with consumption?
May 26 Lecture: Class as income, class as role in production, class as style of consumption
Video PDF outline
May 27-28 First Section: Discuss Paul Fussell's account (read it first!) and how it fits with your own experience
May 29-30 Second Section: Go over the Consumption log that you kept over Memorial Day weekend. |
Readings:
Fussell, Class: "An Anatomy of the Classes."
Assignment:Keep a log of everything you consume over a 2-3 day period on Memorial Day Weekend, and comment on where it puts you in terms of classes measured by consumption. Due in Second Section. |
| Week 10: What is a nation; what is nationalism?
June 2 Lecture: Deconstructing the idea of nation
June 3-4 First Section: Read and analyze nationalistic rhetoric from US and elswhere
June 5-6: Talk about relations between race, gender, ethnicity, and nation, in preparation for your final paper. |
Readings:
Read these short pieces before coming to section on Tuesday or Wednesday
Assignment:Write 4-5 pages on how your own identity is shaped by a combination of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and nation. Double points.. Due on Monday, June 9, at 5:00 p.m.
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