ANTH 109

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

The intent of this course is to acquaint you with cultural anthropology, the study of the varieties of human culture. Studying human cultural diversity is fascinating, surprising, and worthwhile. If you don't find something that gets you keenly interested, you should probably make sure you still have a pulse. Also, you will find that looking at other cultures tells us a great deal about our own society and about ourselves. It's not enough to just take this course. I ask, and expect, you to engage this material, to think about its ramifications, to question whether it is true or not, to see what light it can shed on things you've observed and wondered about.

Our study entails getting acquainted with the work of specific anthropologists, with the strengths and weaknesses of anthropology's tool kit of methods, and with a broad selection of the discipline's findings. Cultural Anthropology is actually one of five subfields of General Anthropology (the others are archaeology, physical anthropology, anthropological linguistics, and applied anthropology). While this course will focus mainly on Cultural Anthropology, it will also devote some time to material dealing with culture that stems from the other four subfields. Anthropologists have found that a full understanding of human culture requires the insights of each of the subfields