Syllabus ANT 1000 Introduction to General Anthropology

Professor Telephone E-Mail WebPage Office Office Hours James Lett, Ph.D. (772) 462-7689 (toll free 866-792-4772) jlett@irsc.edu http://faculty.irsc.edu/faculty/jlett Main Campus, Ft. Pierce, Building R, Room 203 As Announced in Class & Posted on WebPage

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Course Objective

This course provides an overview of the entire field of anthropology by focusing on the essential methods and findings of the disciplines four principal subfields (biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics). Students who successfully complete ANT 1000 will be well prepared for subsequent elective courses in anthropology, such as Forensic Anthropology (ANT 2524). However, ANT 1000 is not intended for students who have either taken or plan to take either of the two core courses offered at IRSC, Biological Anthropology & Archaeology (ANT 2140) or Cultural Anthropology & Linguistics (ANT 2410). Students who have already determined that they have an interest in taking other General Education anthropology courses at IRSC should take ANT 2140 and/or ANT 2410 rather than ANT 1000. Topics to be covered in this course include evolution, human ancestors, human prehistory, ancient civilizations, subsistence strategies, kinship, political organization, religion, descriptive linguistics, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics. Students must score into college-level English on placement test. Anthropology: The Human Challenge (2011 13th edition, Thomson) by William A. Haviland, Harald E.L. Prins, Dana Walrath, and Bunny McBride. (Available for purchase through the IRSC Bookstore.) Study Guide & Additional Resources for General Anthropology (2011) by James Lett. (Available as a free downloadable pdf file on the course website.)

Prerequisite Required Texts

Exams

There will be eight multiple-choice Unit Tests, one multiple-choice Review Exam, and one multiple-choice comprehensive Final Exam. All exams will be computer graded on Scantron scoring sheets, which means that students will bear full and exclusive responsibility for ensuring that all correct answers are completely filled in and that all incorrect answers are completely erased. For the purpose of computing final grades, the two lowest Unit Test scores will be automatically dropped. Complete details regarding the Review Exam are described below. All students are required to take the Final Exam. In exceptional circumstances, students who have a legitimate reason for missing a Unit Test may arrange with the Instructor to take the test early, before the regularly scheduled test date. No make-up exams for the Unit Tests will be given after the regularly scheduled test date under any circumstances whatsoever. Details of the policy concerning make-ups for the Review Exam are described below. No Final Exams can be rescheduled (either early or late) under any circumstances. Students with a legitimate excuse for missing the Final Exam will be given an Incomplete for the course; students who lack a legitimate excuse for missing the Final Exam will be given a zero for the exam and their grade for the course will be calculated accordingly (see the section below regarding the Review Exam for a description of what constitutes a legitimate excuse for missing an exam). Students will be expected to exhibit a consistent level of courtesy and consideration that is appropriate for an academic environment. Such decorum would include arriving for class on time, remaining for the entire duration of the class, keeping cellular phones, beepers, pagers, & other electronic devices turned off, and refraining from all extraneous conversation during class time. Students who are in any way discourteous or disruptive will be asked to leave the classroom, and they can expect to receive both academic and disciplinary penalties, including complete loss of credit on one or more assignments. (As a minimum, students who violate this policy will be counted as absent for that class session.) Any student found guilty of academic dishonesty or cheating in any form will automatically receive a grade of F for the course and will be referred to the Vice-President of Student Affairs for possible disciplinary action that could include probation, suspension, or expulsion.

Make-Up Exams

Classroom Decorum

Academic Integrity

Attendance

Since the material presented in class constitutes an important part of the learning experience for the course, attendance is mandatory. Students are responsible for all announcements made in class, including notifications of test dates and due dates for assignments. For classes that meet twice a week, students may miss up to four class sessions without penalty; after that, each missed class session will result in a 5-point reduction from the student's final grade (for classes that meet once a week, students may miss up to two class sessions before a 10-point reduction is applied for each missed class session). Attendance at each class session will be counted as all or nothing, regardless of the reasonthus students who arrive late, leave early, or step out of the classroom during the class period will be counted as absent for that class session; students whose cell phones ring during class will also be counted as absent. The instructors attendance will be counted in the same way. Each time the instructor is absent (which would include each time the instructor arrives late for class, takes a bathroom break, or leaves class early), the number of allowable absences for every student will be increased by one. Students who have a perfect attendance record for the entire semester will have 5 bonus points added to their grade for the course. (To be eligible for the 5 bonus points, students must also earn a grade of C or better on the comprehensive Final Exam; bonus points cannot be used to increase the course grade to an A unless students score at least 90% on the comprehensive Final Exam.)
If you have been certified by Student Disability Services to receive special accommodations (such as extended time for test taking), please contact your instructor to make the necessary arrangements. If you fail to do so well in advance of the assignment in question, it will be taken as an indication that you can complete the assignment without any special accommodations.

Disabled Students

Withdrawal Deadline

Please pay close attention to the semester deadline for withdrawing from a course without receiving a failing grade (the deadline is published in the College Catalog, the Student Handbook, and the Semester Course Schedule, as well as the college website). Instructor Withdrawals after that date can be given only in the most extreme circumstances, such as hospitalization. Instructor Withdrawals cannot be given simply because of poor academic performance. Final grades for the course will be based on the weighted average of the Six Highest Unit Tests, the Review Exam, and the Final Exam, calculated according to the following formula: GRADE CALCULATION FORMULA Average of Six Highest Unit Tests 40% Review Exam 20% Final Exam 40%

Grading

Numerical averages will be converted to letter grades on the basis of the following scale: GRADING SCALE 90.00 - 100 A 80.00 - 89.99 B 70.00 - 79.99 C 60.00 - 69.99 D 00.00 - 59.99 F

SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS

The topics and assigned readings for each of the eight Unit Tests are listed below. Note that the Final Exam is a comprehensive exam, which means that it will cover all of the topics and assignments listed below.

Dates of the tests will be announced in class.

READING ASSIGNMENT SUBFIELD UNIT TOPIC Study Guide (Lett) #1 Biological Anthropology #2 Human Ancestry Chapter 2 Chapters 3, 4, 7, & 8 Anthropology & Evolution Chapter 1 Anthropology (Haviland et el.) Chapters 1 & 2

#3 Archaeology #4

Human Prehistory

Chapter 3

Chapters 5 & 9

Ancient Civilizations

Chapter 4

Chapter 10 & 11

#5 Cultural Anthropology #6

Subsistence Strategies & Kinship

Chapter 5

Chapters 14, 15, 18, 20, 21

Political Organization & Religion

Chapter 6

Chapters 22, 23, 24, 25

#7 Linguistics #8

Descriptive & Sociolinguistics

Chapter 7

Chapters 16 & 26

Historical Linguistics & Writing

Chapter 8

Chapters 16 & 27

REVIEW EXAM The Review Exam covers material presented in all eight Units of the courseit is, in essence, a vocabulary test that measures your knowledge and understanding of an essential list of fundamental anthropological terms. The Review Exam will consist of 100 True-False questionsyoull need to bring a Scantron and a #2 pencil to take the exam on the date announced in class. If you can correctly define all of the following terms as theyre used in anthropology, you should be able to earn a score of 100% on the Review Exam: acculturation agnatic descent agriculture anthropoid archaeology artifact assemblage authority band Beringia bilateral descent biological anthropology ceboid cercopithecoid chiefdom chinampa civilization clovis point communal organization context cranial capacity cultural anthropology cuneiform writing datum point daughter language diffusion diglossia ecofact endogamy ethnography ethnology exogamy faience feature folsom point foraging forensic anthropology gene flow genetic drift genetics glottochronology hieroglyphic writing historic archaeology hominid hominoid horticulture hylobatid industrialism linguistics matrilineal descent matrilocality monogamy monotheistic organization morpheme morphology multiculturalism mutation natural selection neolocality olympian organization paleoanthropology participant observation pastoralism patrilineal descent patrilocality phoneme phonology phylogeny Pleistocene Pliocene polyandry polygamy polygyny pongid power prehistoric archaeology primate primatology prognathism prosimian protolanguage proxemics quipu sagittal crest scapulimancy shamanic organization signal site sociolinguistics state stela strata subsistence strategy syncretism syntax thermoluminescence tribe Upper Paleolithic uterine descent uxorilocality virilocality ziggurat

Review Exam Make-Up Policy If you have a legitimate reason for missing the Review Exam, you will be given the opportunity to take an essay version of the exam as a make-up. If you complete the make-up exam within one week of the date of the original Review Exam, your make-up exam will be accepted for full credit; after that, a 10-point deduction will be applied to your grade for each week or fraction thereof that passes before you complete the make-up exam. The essay version of the exam will be much more demanding and challenging than the True-False version, so you are urged to do everything within your power to insure that you are able to take the exam on the originally scheduled date. As your instructor, I will make the final determination about what constitutes a legitimate reason for missing the Review Exam, which means that I will make the final determination as to whether you are eligible to take a make-up exam. As a general guideline, unexpected and unavoidable emergencies such as hospitalization or a death in the family will be considered legitimate excuses; poor planning or forgetfulness on your part will not (it is your responsibility to keep up with the schedule of assignments for the course and to solve such problems as work conflicts or transportation difficulties). In determining whether the circumstances that prevented you from coming to campus to take the exam constituted a legitimate reason, I will ask myself this question: if I, as the instructor in the course, found myself facing the same set of circumstances, would I be able to find a way to overcome the problem and come to campus on time, or would I be forced to cancel the class? If I decide that I would have been forced to cancel the class, then your excuse will be considered legitimate; if I decide that I would have been able to solve the problem, then I will hold you to the same standard. In any event, it is extremely unlikely that you will be permitted to take a make-up exam if you do not contact me on the date of the exam; if something happens to prevent you from taking the exam as originally scheduled, call or e-mail me immediately to let me know what the problem isdo not wait until after the fact to tell me that you were unable to take the exam as scheduled. Finally, if your excuse for missing the original exam is deemed to be legitimate, you should be prepared to provide verifiable documentation for the reason you failed to take the exam as scheduled.

LEARNING OUTCOMES ANT 1000 For students who successfully complete the course, the following outcomes (which refer to skills and knowledge that are embedded in the course) will be demonstrated by specific assessments: Learning Outcome Students will be able to describe the four subfields of anthropological, with particular attention to the anthropological subfield of biological anthropology. They will also be able to describe the modern synthetic theory of evolution. Students will be able to describe the taxonomy of primates (to include phylum, subphylum, class, sub-class, order, sub-order, superfamily, family, genus, and species) with particular attention to the taxonomic status of humans, and they will be able to describe the general outline of hominid evolution in the Pliocene and Pleistocene as indicated by the fossil record, and to describe the diagnostic characteristics of multiple species from at least two genera of hominids. Students will be able to describe the anthropological subfield of archaeology, to include the fundamentals of excavation procedures and dating methods, and they will be able to describe the causes and consequences of both the peopling of the New World and the Neolithic Revolution. Students will be able to describe the defining characteristics of civilizations and to describe the specific features of ten early civilizations, including five in the Old World and five in the New World. Students will be able to describe the anthropological subfield of cultural anthropology, and they will be able to describe the principal types of subsistence strategies found in cultures around the world (foraging, pastoralism, horticulture, agriculture, and industrialism). Students will also be able to describe the universal elements of marriage and descent. Students will be able to describe the principal types of political organization found in cultures around the world (i.e., bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states), and they will be able to describe the principal features of shamanic, communal, olympian, and monotheistic religious organization found in cultures around the world. Students will be able to describe the anthropological subfield of linguistics, and they will be able to describe the basics of descriptive linguistics (phonology, morphology, and syntax) as well as the fundamentals of sociolinguistics. Students will be able to describe the essential elements of historical linguistics, to include language families, and to describe the principal forms of writing. Students will be able to define an essential list of more than 100 fundamental terms used in biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics. In addition, students will be able to describe a wide range of global, social, and cultural points of view and to apply various perspectives to analyze human behavior. Students will be able to demonstrate tolerance for a wide range of global, social, and cultural points of view. Specifically, this means that students will be able to demonstrate understanding of one of the fundamental conclusions of the social sciences, which is that no system of beliefs or values can be accepted at face value or protected from critical scrutiny, because all systems of beliefs and values are embedded in a cultural context that is contingent upon a wide array of social, economic, political, geographical, and psychological factors. Students will be able to describe the reasoning which demonstrates that no single culture, nation, society, ethnic group, language, or religious tradition occupies a privileged position at the center of the world. How Assessed Unit Test # 1

Unit Test # 2

Unit Test # 3

Unit Test # 4

Unit Test # 5

Unit Test # 6

Unit Test # 7

Unit Test # 8

Review Exam

Final Exam