Mar 28, 2024  
2018-2019 Course Catalog 
    
2018-2019 Course Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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ANT 150 - Global Issues-Local Perspec

Credits: 3
Lecture Hours: 3
Lab Hours: 0
Practicum Hours: 0
Work Experience: 0
Course Type: General
Examines a variety of ways in which global connections affect cultural groups. Introduces the concepts and historical backdrop needed to understand global processes with specific cases from anthropological research that illuminate ties between local effect and general changes. The concept of “culture” is explained from critical and historical perspectives, along with recent shifts in theorizing and applying anthropological knowledge. The uses of qualitative field research in studies of globalization are emphasized. Students conduct a small topic-focused research project to see how globalization affects local processes in Iowa.
Prerequisite OR Corequisite: ANT 100  or ANT 105  or instructor approval
Competencies
  1. Explain anthropological perspectives on global change and their local effects on cultural groups
    1. Define the concepts of “culture” and “power”, and their uses in recent anthropological thinking
    2. Distinguish “culture” from other social categories, e.g., ethnic group and race
    3. Define basic concepts in social/cultural anthropology: acculturation, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, particulars, universal and others
    4. Explain what “globalization” is and the problems in defining it
    5. Distinguish humanistic from scientific approaches and goals
    6. Define “ethnography” and explain basic ethnographic field study methods
    7. Identify the four basic subfields on North American anthropology and several specializations in social/cultural anthropology
  2. Apply anthropological methods and perspectives to major trends in globalization that have impacts in Iowa
    1. Explain what is meant by “social constructivism” and how this thinking shapes anthropological perspectives
    2. Explain how anthropologists understand their own and others; social positioning as opportunities for reflective thinking
    3. Apply knowledge of ethnographic methods and social positioning in the design and implementation of a course research project
    4. Select from appropriate topics that demonstrate an understanding of local tire to global trends
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of the history of colonization as it relates to globalization
    1. Summarize the importance of colonialism studies and history in social/cultural anthropology
    2. Explain the major differences in the goals of colonizing nations
    3. Explain how these colonial goals are linked to the acculturation and diffusion of “culture”, economic practices, and political organization in non first world nations.
    4. Explain “world systems theory” as set forth by Immanuel Wallerstein and the implications of the theory for a global social structure
    5. Link colonial history to specific cultural cases (ethno history) and research on recent outcomes (ethnographic field research).
  4. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the concepts of ethnicity, ethnic group, and race, and apply these in understanding how ethnic group identify is expressed globally and locally
    1. Explain theories of contrasting theories of “ethnicity” and social identify, e.g., “ethnoscape” (A. Appadurai), “hybridity”, and “primevalism/traditionalism”
    2. Explain the arguments for “race” as a social construction, not a biological fact
    3. Explain the basis for many cultural anthropologists” preference for a contextual, flexible view of social identify
    4. Describe how diasporas, transnational migration and internal displacement have supported these new ideas about identity
    5. Compare/contrast ethnic and racial identities with national citizenship
  5. Demonstrate understanding of current issues in globalization that regard gender and gender stratification
    1. Discuss cross-cultural research on gender and “sexual orientation” and its implications for gender identity
    2. Explain current anthropological perspectives on gender stratification, its variability and how globalization processes can affect gender equality
    3. Describe worldwide trends in the “feminization of poverty”, including details from one or more case examples, and why these trends do not affect men as strongly
    4. Describe global linkages in “sex work” and sex trafficking, and how these are tied to economic and social changes
  6. Demonstrate an understanding of the global economy as an economic system
    1. Explain basic anthropological concepts of exchange: reciprocity, redistribution and market
    2. Explain “neoliberalism” and related theories of economics
    3. Outline the global system of capital distribution and wealth accumulation using Wallerstein”s world systems theory
    4. Describe the emergence of the international finance system and its negative and positive effects
    5. Illustrate the potentially disruptive effects of economic development on once self-sufficient people and their sustainable ways of life with a case study
    6. Explain how “economics”, “politics”, “religion” and other areas of cultueral life and anthropological study have been integrated in a single cultural practice in non-state societies
    7. Describe attempts at equitable wealth redistribution by governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
  7. Demonstrate an understanding of transnational migration as a global phenomenon with numerous causes and outcomes
    1. Explain the legal and social differences among “asylees”, “refugees”, “migrants”, and other categories, along with the effects on categorized people
    2. Explain the origins and current uses of the term “diaspora” in ethnographic research
    3. Compare historical causes for recent migrations
    4. Contrast various political strategies for managing diverse populations, including genocide, relocation, assimilation, and multicultural accommodation, and how these affect out-migration
    5. Explain the responses of receiving nations like the U.S. in creating immigration policies, tolerating ethnocentric reactions, and granting legal status to immigrants
  8. Demonstrate a critical understanding of the role of new technologies as solutions to old and new problems, and the link between technology and the economics of growth
    1. Explain cultural solutions to problems as simultaneously adaptive and maladaptive, or as having both benefits and costs, using appropriate examples.
    2. Analyze the global spread of consumerism and its effects on environment, foreign policy, and the maintenance of cultural identity
    3. Explain two or more areas in which technology has been offered as a solution along with the repercussions of that technology for society, social identity and cultural values
    4. Outline the approaches and goals of cultural anthropology in studying these technologies
    5. Describe some of the roles of the Internet in the diffusion of cultural practices and values
  9. Demonstrate a basic comprehension of ecological/environmental anthropology as a specialty area
    1. Explain how archaeological research can inform an understanding of present human-environment interactions
    2. Explain “sustainability” in regard to the subsistence strategies of foraging and horticultural peoples, using one or more case studies
    3. Describe how culture as a symbolic system of meanings mediates understandings of what is sustainable and possible
    4. Explain arguments for and against global warming and the potential impacts of warming on climate, cultural systems, and humans” capacity to adapt to and use the natural world, using one or more case studies and/or hypothetical projections
  10. Demonstrate an awareness of the conflicting roles of cultural and human rights
    1. Explain the conflict between individually based human rights and collectively granted privileges
    2. Describe culturally variable assumptions about privacy, social control and surveillance, using one or more cultural examples of each
    3. Explain anthropology”s emphasis on cultural relativism and cultural advocacy as a preference for cultural, not human, rights
    4. Describe the basic human rights defined by the United nations Charter
    5. Describe the work of human rights organizations and some reasons for their conflicts with national and other political interests
  11. Demonstrate an understanding of “the exotic” as a part of modern consumer societies
    1. Describe the problems of exoticism that have plagued European understandings of other people, e.g., the “noble savage”.
    2. Explain the effects of various portrayals on anthropological understanding and popular notions
    3. Describe the positive and negative effects of ethnotourism for hosting societies
    4. Describe the role of nostalgia for the past as part of modern fascination with the “exotic”.
    5. Explain how exotic cultural practices may help define social identities
  12. Express in a written project paper the findings from interviews on a specific topic related to the course
    1. Demonstrate an understanding of basic interviewing abilities using semi-structured and/or unstructured techniques, as explained in competencies 1 and 2
    2. Successfully complete 2 to 4 hours of interviewing with one or two persons whose connections to global processes are clearly formulated in a project proposal
    3. Cite at least three sources in the body of the paper that fit the topic and meet basic expectations fro accuracy and reliability
    4. Organize the results into a coherent course paper that addresses one of the major topics of the course
    5. Integrate the results with topic-specific readings and lecture materials, and with broader themes and issues from course content
    6. Present a summary of the project in class
    7. Demonstrate college-level writing skills in organizing thoughts, editing and proofing, providing topic-appropriate and complete citations (using a recognized style).



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