ANT 125 - Applications of Anthropology

1. Demonstrate an overall understanding of how anthropology has been organized in North America
   1. Define the four major (sub) field and their major research concerns
   2. Explain how applied anthropology can apply methods and theory from any one subfield or how applications crosscut subfields and even disciplines
   3. Explain the history of subfields and applications of anthropology
   4. Explain the importance of detailed ethnographic study and ethnological comparison
2. Demonstrate understanding of key concepts and insights and ethnological comparison
   1. Define “culture”, “holism”, “cultural context”, “cultural relativism”, “ethnocentrism”.
   2. Distinguish between cultural determinist, biological determinist, and biosocial approaches to social organization
   3. Explain different ways of apply anthropological knowledge, e.g., “advocacy”, “action anthropology”, “cultural brokering”
   4. Discuss applied anthropology as a “practice”, synonymous with “practicing anthropology”
   5. Explain the emergence of “publicly engaged anthropology” in recent years
3. Demonstrate throughout the course how anthropology addresses issues of diversity and how diversity is linked to applied areas of policy and problem solving
4. Demonstrate a basic knowledge of ethnographic field methods and their use to learn about social issues
   1. Outline the major features of participant observation
   2. Explain basic forms of interviewing with key consultants
   3. Explain the importance of field records and the uses of technology
   4. Compare two or more case studies that demonstrate the applied use of these methods to gain knowledge and solve problems
   5. Demonstrate a basic awareness of crosscultural variation in nonverbal communication as a factor in research relationships
5. Synthesize knowledge of research ethics and methods with a small course project on an appropriate topic
   1. Incorporate observation of the social context for the project, including any participatory elements
   2. Arrange and conduct interviews with key informants that integrate practical research outcomes with anthropological concepts and ethnographic methods
   3. Keep detailed field notes and uses and use these for a summary paper and final paper
   4. Establish rapport with persons used as points of contact or who are interviewed
   5. Use written informed consents that describe the topic, responsibilities and rights of those involved in the student”s project
   6. Write a final report of results that demonstrates a grasp of basic field methods, field notetaking and an emphasis on issue description and problem solving
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the ethics of ethnographic research and common ethical dilemmas and problems that can affect applied anthropologists
   1. Define anonymity and confidentiality, and explain their importance
   2. Compare/contrast the uses of informed consent with professional responsibilities and personal relationships
   3. Explain cultural variations in social obligations and responsibilities that complicate ethical procedures, including the mandate that one’s primary responsibility be to those being studied.
   4. Outline the main expectations found in the American Anthropological Association’s “statement on Ethics”.
   5. Demonstrate a clear understanding of plagiarism and research misconduct as ethical violations
7. Understand differing ways in which applied anthropologists attempt to influence policies and how anthropological insights can be brought to bear in developing and implementing policies
   1. Understand how the meaning of “policy” is context-dependent
   2. Understand the relevance of conflict and negotiation in the policy-making process
   3. Identify the different roles that anthropologists may take in policy-making
8. Describe the major anthropological approaches to research on education and enculturation
   1. Define the concept of enculturation and recognize its uses in child development studies and cultural learning
   2. Appreciate interdisciplinary uses of theory and research on child learning and socialization
9. Demonstrate an understanding of major research trends and theoretical areas in the anthropology of health and illness (medical anthropology).
   1. Explain the application of public health perspective in Third-World situations
   2. Differentiate “illness” from “disease”, using Eisenberg”s work, and distinguish types of healing identified by Foster: personalistic, naturalistic, emotionalistic
   3. Explain one of feminist criticism and research on gender issues in medical anthropology, e.g., the impact of new reproductive technologies
   4. Describe the use of critical theory in medical anthropolo9gy to address health problems that are associated with social stratification
   5. Explain problems in medicine and mental health that arise from the interaction of illness categories with patient’s identity formation
   6. Explain one or more cases of cultural change in which a “traditional” healing system has come in contract with scientific biomedicine
10. Describe the uses of anthropological studies in organizational and corporate settings (organizational or business anthropology).
    1. Explain the uses of “culture” in organizations, e.g., “corporate culture”
    2. Describe major issues in the changing social organization of work
    3. Explain one or two cases of cultural conflict and adjustment when wage labor and factory work is outsourced to societies that had little or no experience with these
    4. Explain historical changes in the concept of “cultural competency” and how this concept is currently applied in international relations
    5. Explain the benefits of anthropological consultancy as a set of marketable skills in businesses and organizations
    6. Discuss one example of how ethnography can inform organizational responses to human-caused and or natural disasters
11. Demonstrate understanding of how ethnographic research yields insights into urban living (urban anthropology)
    1. Describe how cultural memory is shaped within the social spaces of urban areas, e.g., how it is disturbed and reshaped by urban development and suburban sprawl
    2. Explain how ethnographic field research illuminates the lives of and interventions with one or more socially marginalized groups, e.g., IV drug users, homeless mentally ill, drug dealers, HIV-positive persons.
    3. Explain historical and current culture-based theories of poverty and illustrate with classic and recent research examples
12. Demonstrate an understanding of transnational migration and the cultural and historical reasons for migration and polices of assimilation and resettlement
    1. Distinguish between the legal definitions of asylees, refugees and various kinds of migrants, and the social opportunities and rights of each legal category
    2. State the major “push-pull” factors that encourage internal and external migration and displacement
    3. Identify the experiences and problems of adjustment of migrants from one or more case studies
    4. Explain how anthropologists can serve in advocacy and service roles with migrants in various categories
13. Demonstrate an understanding of the goals of economic development work and the roles of applied anthropologists in planning and assisting development projects
    1. Identify negative and positive local impacts of capital investment in second and third world nations
    2. Explain cultural factors that influence the success or failure of development projects, and how “success” and “failure” depend on the perspectives of those affected and involved
    3. Explain the concepts of “cultural rights” and local self-determination and how these conflict with development goals
14. Demonstrate an understanding of applied linguistic anthropology in the areas of sociolinguistics and language preservation
    1. State the relation between language use and cultural/social identity
    2. Describe how and why pidgin languages formed during the colonial period and how these sometimes developed into full languages
    3. Explain how linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics inform problems in communication between dominant and subordinate social groups
    4. Understand the impact of literacy and formal language training
15. Demonstrate an understanding of ecological/environmental anthropology as it applies to human impacts on the natural environment and notions of sustainability
    1. Describe basic features of evolutional, ecological/materialist, and symbolic theories of social dependence on “the environment”.
    2. Assess the impact of modern lifestyles and the cultural practices and values that inform them
    3. Explain how “culture” can serve as a set of meaningful guides that result in ecological adaptation and maladaptation
    4. Define “sustainable” or adaptive uses of natural resources and the reasons why “sustainability” is a crucial concept in the global world
    5. Understand the uses of archaeological research on prehistoric societies in determining how past societies have used and overused their environments
16. Demonstrate the cultural and scientific interest in preserving and interpreting evidence of past societies (cultural resources management).
    1. Explain the interaction between North American archaeology and the mitigation of archaeological sites that are threatened by development
    2. Assess cultural conflicts over the archaeological record that led to the Native American Graves Pro0tection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).
    3. Understand archaeological preservation and problems in preserving the past, e.g., shifts aware from government funding and the bombing and looting of ancient Babylon in the violence in Iraq