UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM FORUM LIBERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM COURSE PROPOSAL- SIGNATURE FOR EXISTING COURSES THAT REQUIRE No REVISION

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1 UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM FORUM LIBERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM COURSE PROPOSAL- SIGNATURE FOR EXISTING COURSES THAT REQUIRE No REVISION Created: 10/4/11 Course number: ANT 10 1 Course Title: Cultural Anthropology Course Proposed for: Tier 1: Tier 2: Social Structure... Department: Anthropology Contact Person: Joseph C. Manzella Phone Ext.: ma nzellaj ed u Department Votes: For: 2. Against: Q. Abstentions: Q Tier 3: -----;i:;:!;:;:!:.::;~~:±~:=::::::dj Signatures: Date Dept. Chair Approved: /:J--//--/) Date DCC Approved: ( 2/1/13 Attachments Required: ~ Completed LEP Proposal forms for the appropriate tier. UCF Use Only: ==~""'Proposal (with all necessary attachments) was received in UCF Office:----,--- UWIC Chair:,..._.~~:..:::::_4---/f.F----J VI-~t...~= UCF Chair: Date UWIC Approved: J)Jl_j_ct Date UCF Approved:~ Provost or Designe~. Date UCF Received Final Approval: C2,(? L-- Date Approved:.2:..:::/+f ~-""---'1-1--\-1---'-1 '1-t--

2 UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM FORUM LEP -TIER 2 COURSE PROPOSAL FORM UCF Approved: 10/27/2011 Subject Code: ANT Course Number: 101 Department:Anthropology Course Title: Cultural Anthropology Contact Person:Joseph C. Manzella manzellajl@southernct.edu No Ph Ext.:25803 Current AUR Course? i:g] Yes D D American Experience D Global Awareness D Creative Drive D Mind and Body D Cultural Expression D Natural World I: Physical Realm D Natural World II: Life & Environment D Time and Place l:g] Social Structure. Conflict & Consensus Pl~ase insert an explanation of how your course will meet EACH of the. "Key Elements" of your chosen Area of Knowledge and the requirements of a Tier 2 course. See directions for a detailed description of the required explanation components: SEE ATTACHMENTS Please insert explanations of how your course will meet the Tier 2 requirements as outlined below: A) Have enough scope to provide adequate foundation to the particular Area of Knowledge and Experience: B) Address a number of topics in depth: C) Make an effort to integrate knowledge from a variety of perspectives: D) Provide insight to issues of the 21st century and/or important issues in students' lives: E) Include problem-based learning appropriate to the topic: F) Provide an introduction to the analytical tools of the discipline(s) offering the course: Please insert course syllabus below: Each Tier 2 course must assign at least one primary influential (non-textbook) expository source. Please indicate below and in your inserted syllabus which source(s) is a primary expository source. Please indicate below how this source(s) makes an influential argument about a major idea in the field. Ver. 8 Page 1 of4

3 UCFApproved: 10/27/2011 Competencies: (Choose one additional) r:gj Creative Thinking r:gj Interpersonal Effectiveness D Quantitative Reasoning 129 Critical Thinking D Multilingual Communication D Technological Fluency D Information Literacy D Oral Communication ~ Written Communication Please insert an explanation of how students will continue developing your chosen Competencies (including methods of evaluation): Discussion(s) of Values: (Choose at least one) D Aesthetic Sensitivity D Civic Engagement r:gj Ethical Judgment r:gj Human Diversity D Environmental Awareness r:gj Rational Thought Please insert an explanation of how your chosen Discussion(s) of Values will be addressed in this course (including methods of evaluation). Ver. 8 Page2of4

4 ANT 101: Cultural Anthropology UCF Tier 2 Course Permanent Status Cultural Anthropology is currently listed as a Tier 2 course under Social Structure, Conflict and Consensus. It was provisionally grandfathered into Tier 2 because it is an AUR listed under Social Science B. This proposal is to make pennanent its status as a Tier 2 course. As such the course has been slightly revised to make sure it confonns to all of the Tier 2 requirements. Two revisions stand out: the addition of two prominent works in modem cultural anthropology as primary texts, and the addition of two problemsolving scenarios as exercises in group dynamics, critical thinking and creative expression. Otherwise the subject matter as outlined in the catalog description remains the same, and as such: "Study of living cultures, stressing such aspects of social organization as religion, economics, political behavior, language, kinship, and art. While the models used are primarily so-called traditional societies, efforts are directed toward the comparison of all types of cultures and societies existing in the world today." Cultural Anthropology is about the human experience and condition in the context of the world's diverse cultural phenomena and the social structures that undergird the human experience. As such the course compares and contrasts the cultural systems found in both past and contemporary, in other words, in both tribal and modem human societies. More specifically the course examines the symbols, beliefs and traditions that give context to the human condition and how human's use those elements to construct religious, political, economic, artistic, medical, legal, kinship and linguistic systems. Although the course puts much emphasis on traditional (or tribal) societies, attention is paid to the interaction of these societies and modem societies. In the process, sociocultural processes are discussed in relation to issues of race, social status, gender and other, often controversial, aspects of human culture. Box B: Tier 2 Area of Knowledge & Experience: Social Structure Explanation how course fulfills Tier 2 Requirements A) Have enough scope to provide adequate foundation to Area of Knowledge and Experience: The holistic aspect of this course means students examine a broad spectrum of social structures and cultural phenomena. These include religion, art, gender, war, ecosystems, race relations, kinship systems, colonialism, language, nations and states, subsistence strategies, mass media. B) Address a number of topics in depth: As mentioned above, the course is broad in terms of the human experience. Having said that, the course uses specific examples to illustrate various facets of human culture. For example, subsistence strategies among traditional societies are discussed from the perspective of food foraging groups such as the San of the

5 Kalahari or horticulturalists such as the Dani of West Papua, Indonesia. One of the two primary texts, Assault on Paradise, examines cultural change in relation to a Brazilian village over three decades. C) Make an effort to integrate knowledge from a variety of perspectives: As the previous answer alludes to the course draws upon various disciplines in addition to anthropology, such as sociology, geography and history. One of the essential elements of cultural anthropology is to direct thinking away from the notion that any single culture is isolated in time and place. The idea is to introduce human societies not as static textbook constructs but as collectives entities that undergo change and transformation. That can only effectively be done through incorporating different disciplinary perspectives. D) Provide insight to issues of the 2 F 1 century and/or important issues in students' lives: Cultural anthropology examines contemporary-social issues through cross-cultural comparisons between traditional and modem societies and considers how each handles the same cultural phenomena, such as 21st century inequality and social hierarchies, health and crime. Cultural anthropology, in essence, is a critical tool that allows students to make sense of contemporary human society and culture. E) Include problem-based learning appropriate to the topic: Both the Urban Enclave Scenario and the Imagining the Future Scenario are intended to be exercises in thinking creatively about and finding solutions to contemporary issues. They are group projects that require extensive research into American Indian socio-economic issues. The "scenarios" are based on probable and possible challenges that face American Indian nations as they grapple with high unemployment and generations ofpoverty-:level economies. The scenarios also challenge students to consider ethnical issues in a local and regional context. F) Provide an introduction to the analytical tools of the discipline(s) offering the course: In the first few weeks of the course, students are introduced to the basic methodology of ethnographic research, or participant observation. This qualitative approach to data collection involves a complete immersion into the society under study and is a technique also used with variations in other disciplines, such as sociology. The text, The Interpretation of Culture, deals specifically with a late 20th century approach participant observation, i.e., the symbolic approach to ethnographic research. The text spawned the subfield of symbolic or interpretative, anthropology. The second primary text, Assault on Paradise, is also a manual for how to conduct longitudinal studies of specific cultures. Key Elements of, Social Structure, Conflict and Consensus 1) Institutions and Power Dynamics (IP)

6 Cultural anthropology examines power structures by contrasting and comparing the construction of power in various tribal vs. modem societies. It the context of traditional societies the course links power and social institutions, such as kinship, to several factors, including the environment, colonialism and urbanization. Examples of this may be an examination of the way power is negotiated in a "Big Man" societies in comparison to a modem nation-state. 2) Sources of Social Conflict (SC) Social conflict is a human universal that is explored comparatively, usually through contrasting conflict resolution between societies that differ geographically and in terms of subsistence strategies. More to the point, social conflict is also addressed in an evolutionary context, I other words, comparisons are made to our hominid ancestors and to other living species that are closely related to us, such as chimpanzees and bonobos. It is also expected that in the process of examining the human past, students will draw an appreciation of both the varieties of culture and of the hierarchies and inequalities in the 21st century. 3) Variety of Perspectives (VP) In should be evident from previous statements that the "science of culture" as some have dubbed anthropology, is intrinsically interested in the full range a human experience both historically and contemporaneously. Thus cultural anthropology's holistic approach to the study of humanity and takes head on issues of ethnicity, gender and power, for example, that have been part of the human past for millennia. 4) Specific Social Conflicts (SpC) Examples of social conflict in the course are numerous, with special attention to traditional societies and conflict resolution, such as the notion of warfare and sports among Melanesian societies; the struggle over the use of Ebonies in American secondary schools, or the upending of the legacy of colonialism in East Africa. Box C Intellectual Foundations Component The Interpretation of Cultures by Geertz is a seminal work in modem anthropology written by one of the disciplines foremost practitioners. Its key notion is that the study of human cultures requires peeling back the layers of cultural phenomena to interpret the deeper meanings behind human activity. One of the essays in the Geertz text, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight," has been a used as a te;xt is in other disciplines, such as English, as well as being a standard reading in anthropology courses. As mentioned earlier, the work engendered a theoretical subfield of anthropology. Box E: Competencies 1) Creative Thinking (CR)

7 The two scenarios provide an opportunity for students to collaboratively investigate two very different situations, one involving and ethnic enclave in New York City, the other the eventual fate of a seacoast village in Brazil. The second scenario, in particular, requires predictive thinking, in other words, a bit if imagination in addition to a mastery of factual information. 2) Critical Thinking (CT) The first scenario requires research into a community and then reasoning out an approach to conducting fieldwork. It challenges students to engage thinking critically about a difficult issue in contemporary anthropology. The second scenario, as mentioned above, requires creative thinking, but before that students must think critically about all the possible circumstances that might led to their project future. 3) Interpersonal Effectiveness (IE) Both the scenarios obviously require students to work collaborative, since members of each two- or three-person groups share the same grade with other group members. Box F: Discussions of Values 1) Ethical Judgment (EJ) Ethics comes into play in a several ways in this course. Most prominently, anthropological ethics come into play in certain weekly topics as noted in the syllabus, such as race and ethnicity, fieldwork techniques, ritual and religion and applied anthropology. An example from the fieldwork section of the course would be the question: When should an anthropologist take an active role in affecting the circumstances of a tribal group with whom she or he is working? Another issue related to race and ethnicity might be: At what point does the appreciation of cultural differences (an important anthropological theme) lead to ethnic stereotyping? 2) Human Diversity (HD) At the heart of all four fields of anthropology, including cultural, is the term "human diversity". The central premise of the discipline is to understand how humankind came to be a culturally and biologically diverse species and how that diversity played out in the past and plays out today. Among the di(ficulties in addressing the issue of diversity is suggested in the last sentence of the Ethical Judgment answer above. 3) Rational Thought (RT) Anthropology has dealt with the notion of rationality from a somewhat unique perspective. That is embodied in the question: Do some societies have a lock on the notion of rational thought? In other words, are there cognitive differences between societies that are the result of the clan, tribal or national structures of various ethnic groups? These issues come up in the scenarios and in several topics throughout the course.

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