STANDARD COMPETENCIES:

 

 1.   Explain the methods of research and investigation utilized by anthropology, both scientific and humanistic.

 2.   Describe the history, purpose, branches, and features of anthropology as well as its relation and relative position within the general framework of academic disciplines.

 3.   Identify and explain the procedures used by anthropologists to study world cultures, especially field and comparative methods.

 4.   Differentiate the qualities, both specific and universal, of culture and some of the important anthropological theories formulated to explain its formation and development.

 5.   Compare and contrast distinct cultures with regard to any cultural facet.

 6.   Explain the academic and applied goals of the field, and especially with regard to the promotion of intercultural tolerance and understanding.

 7.   Describe the field of linguistics and its important contributions concerning the foundations of human language (historical linguistics) its features (descriptive linguistics) and its intrinsic relationship to culture.

 8.   Define the important cross-cultural systems developed by human groups to reckon kinship and descent, and social affiliation.

 9.   Compare and contrast a given number of cross-cultural systems of familial descent.

 10.  Describe strategies developed by different world cultures for the establishment of marriage, divorce, and residence.

 11.  Identify the non-kinship systems of establishing human relations and association such as age, gender, and status.

 12.  Describe some of the institutions developed by humans for the purpose of organization and problem resolution.

 13.  Describe some of the methods used now and in the past by humans for the purpose of food acquisition and other material comforts.

 14.  Explain the universal nature and purpose of law and some of the cross-cultural strategies developed to impose legal rules of conduct.

 15.  Discuss the important anthropological ideas regarding the origins, causes, and effects of war.

 16.  Define cross-cultural patterns of political organization and explain how they may relate to particular circumstances.

 17.  Define the cultural institutions developed by humans to explain origins, causes, and events as well as express ethical, moral and esthetic values.

 18.  Define the anthropological theories regarding the origins and development of religion and magic, as well as their mythical, ritualistic and dogmatic aspects.

 19.  Explain the existence of folklore as a human cultural universal, its purpose with regard to mythological, epic, and historical events, and its value both as instruction and entertainment.

 20.  Explain the culturally specific and universal aspects of human values and their formation as a part of human conduct and attitudes.

 21.  Select and apply contemporary forms of technology to solve problems or compile information.

 22.  Write and speak clearly and logically in presentations and essays.

 TOPICAL OUTLINE:

 

 I.      Introduction and Methodology

         A.      Field of Anthropology

         B.      Ethnographic Methods

         C.      The Nature of Culture

         D.      Goals of Cultural Anthropology

 II.     Linguistics

         A.      Historical Linguistics

         B.      Descriptive Linguistics

         C.      Language and Culture

 III.    Kinship and Social Organization

         A.      Descent Systems

         B.      Marriage Systems

         C.      Residence Patterns

         D.      Non-kin Groups

 IV.     Political and Economic Organizations

         A.      Subsistence Patterns

         B.      Law and Social Control

         C.      War and Conflict

         D.      Political Structures

 V.      Belief Systems

         A.      Religion

         B.      Magic

         C.      Folklore

         D.      Values

         E.      Arts

 VI.     Culture and Personality

         A.      Enculturation

         B.      Cognition and Perception

         C.      Symbolic Anthropology

 VII.    Culture Change

         A.      Acculturation

         B.      Cultural Evolution

         C.      Processes of Change

 VIII.   Applied Anthropology

         A.      Ethics

         B.      Consequences of Modernization

         C.      Careers in Anthropology

         D.      Anthropology's Contribution to Society