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ANT 102H5
Summer 2006
INTRODUCTION
to SOCIOCULTURAL & LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Web Site with link
to online version of this
syllabus: http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3hmlmil
Course
CCNet page:
http://ccnet.utoronto.ca/20065/ant102h5f/
Lecture:
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm,
Room 205 North Building
Tutorials:
Thursday 1-3 or 3-5, Room
172 North Building
Instructor: Dr.
Heather M.-L. Miller
Anthropology,
University of
Toronto at Mississauga
Email: hmiller 'at' utm.utoronto.ca Office:
Room 208 North Building
Phone: 905-828-3741
Office
Hours: Tuesday & Thursday 2:30-3:30
Teaching Assistant: Laurie
Zadnik
Email:
laurie.zadnik 'at' utoronto.ca Office: To
Be Announced
Office Hours: By appointment
Course
Description
In
this course we survey how people around the world
interact, think, and communicate.
These questions are addressed by two subfields of anthropology. Sociocultural anthropology is the comparative
study of human behaviour. It
focuses on culture, or socially learned information that shapes thought
and
action, and on the ways people organize themselves in social groups. Linguistic anthropology is the comparative
study of language in various social and cultural contexts.
As we
will be covering a great deal of information, students must attend all
lectures
and tutorials, and complete all of the readings. Lectures,
films, tutorials and readings will provide
overlapping material, but students are responsible for all material
covered in
any of these formats.
Required
Course Materials
(Available
at
UTM Bookstore)
(1)
Lenkeit, Roberta Edwards
2003.
Introducing Cultural Anthropology.
2nd Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
ISBN: 0-07-282025-X,
paperback.
(2) Hickerson, Nancy
Parrott
2000. Linguistic Anthropology. 2nd Edition.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
ISBN:
0-15-505178-4, paperback.
Expectations,
Policies, and Common Courtesy
Attendance: Students are
expected to attend all classes, including lectures and tutorials.
Punctuality: You are expected
to arrive and be settled in your seat by the beginning of class or
tutorial and
to remain until the end of class.
Unless you become ill, do not begin packing up books or stand to
leave
before the end of class or tutorial, because this is distracting to all. If you know you cannot stay for the
entire period, please sit near the door and leave very quietly.
Courtesy
in Class: Every
student is expected to pay close attention in the lecture or
film. Refrain from talking during
lectures and films, except to ask or respond to a question from the
instructor. Even quiet talking is
distracting and disrespectful for your fellow students and your
instructor.
Turn off pagers and mobile phones.
In tutorials, your undivided attention and courtesy is also
expected;
however, this is your opportunity to discuss what you are learning in
class
with your TA and one another. You
are encouraged to thoughtfully ask and answer questions, but please, no
confidential, whispered conversations.
Anything you say should be directed to the class as a whole.
Email
Communication: Emailing with your
professor or TA is a form of professional communication.
Please write courteously and clearly;
do not use text-messaging abbreviations or slang. Please
clearly indicate your questions or concerns. Be
sure to provide a summary of the
email topic in the Subject line (do not just write 'Hi' or leave the
Subject
blank, or your email may be rejected as junk mail by the UTM server). You should ALWAYS use your UTM email
address if at all possible -- the UTM server regularly rejects hotmail
accounts
as potential spam.
Evaluation
& Requirements
The
marked work for this course will consist of tutorial participation
(12.5%), a
mid-term test (25%), a final examination (35%), and an essay or short
paper reviewing
an ethnography chosen by the student (2.5% + 25%).
The total marked work will be worth 400 points, or 100%.
TUTORIAL
PARTICIPATION
To
foster preparation for active discussion, your
teaching assistant will expect you to bring two neatly handwritten
questions or
comments to each tutorial, one on the lecture and one on the
readings.
Each
student should write his/her own questions
independently -- copying each other constitutes the academic offense of
unauthorized aid or plagiarism.
When
studying your readings and your lecture notes,
prepare questions about any particular items that seemed especially
puzzling to
you, and raise these questions in tutorial. Items can be
anything: a
statement, the location, a name, the situation, a conflict, an irony,
etc.
"How" or "Why" questions are especially useful,
because they encourage more thought and discussion. In tutorials,
your
task is not merely to ask questions of the teaching assistant, but also
to
respond to questions raised by others in your class in a thoughtful
way.
Your
two questions will be handed in for attendance
records. The TA will not answer
them in writing; to find the answer, you need to ask them in
class. To
receive a good grade for participation in tutorials you must not only
come to
virtually all classes, but also regularly contribute to discussions by
raising
questions and comments orally and respond to points brought up by
others in
class.
Participation
is worth 50 points or 12.5% of the
course grade.
MID-TERM
and FINAL EXAMINATIONS
Both the
mid-term and final exams will consist of multiple choice questions on
ALL
materials presented in the class and discussed in tutorial (readings,
lectures,
AND films).
The mid-term
will be worth 100 points or 25% and the final will be worth 140 points
or 35%,
for a total of 240 points or 60% of the course grade.
The final
exam will be cumulative, although material presented after the
mid-term
will be more heavily covered.
***MISSED
EXAMS***
Avoid
missing an exam - the procedure for taking a make-up exam is
strictly regulated by the university, and these policies will be
followed in
all cases. Please notify the
instructor by email or phone as soon as possible if you miss an exam.
* For
the Mid-term Exam, see Section 7.9 "Term Tests" in
the UTM Calendar for
2005-2006. A valid doctor's
excuse or
similar university-approved excuse will be required to take the make-up
for the
mid-term. ONE makeup will be
given for the mid-term, the week after the regular exam.
All makeup exams will be short answer format only,
not multiple choice.
* For
the Final Exam, see Section 7.14 "Examinations" in the UTM
Calendar
for 2005-2006. You will have to
submit a petition to Registrarial Services, among other requirements,
and
re-take the exam during the Deferred Examinations Period (possibly Feb. 2007 during
Reading Week, or
as otherwise scheduled by the university). All
makeup exams will be short answer format only,
not multiple choice.
The two
assignments related to your essay will be worth a total of 27.5% (110
points).
All
assignments are due at the beginning of class on the dates
specified in
the class schedule (below).
The
essay will be composed of two stages of marked work:
(1) library
searching and
submission of 5 titles of appropriate ethnographies -- 2.5% (10 points)
Submit
five titles of ethnographies you would like to read for your essay, in
order of
your choice, IN THE SPECIFIED American Anthropologist FORMAT.
This stage is worth only 2.5% (10 points), but if it is not
submitted, students may not progress to the next stage.
If the titles submitted are not in the
specified format, that used by the journal American Anthropologist,
no
credit will be given. Each student must do
a different ethnography; in case of duplicate requests, a coin will be
tossed to determine
who gets
their first choice, etc. You may
submit titles early, in which case I will indicate to the class that
the title
is taken.
(2) a final
essay, well
researched and well written, on the ethnography approved - 25% (100
points)
See the
separate, detailed instructions on how to write this essay; if
your essay is
not in the format specified, no credit may be given.
Also review Appendix A of your textbook by Lenkeit on how to
read an ethnography
****More
information on the assignments is available on the Essay
Instructions handout.****
Regulations
for Essay Assignments
(1)
Late assignments will lose 2 marks per calendar day, including weekends. 1 mark will be deducted for assignments
turned in after
the first hour of class on the date due, even if the
assignment is turned in on the
due date. It is your
responsibility
to turn in late assignments to the instructor in her office, at her
convenience.
(2)
When you hand in your essay assignments, you must sign the submission
form.
This form will be available on
the due date during class, or by special arrangement in advance
with the
instructor. DO NOT submit your assignment to the secretary nor to
anyone else
in the Department of Anthropology. DO NOT slide your assignment under
the
instructor's office door. The
assignment has not been officially submitted until you sign the
submission
form. You are also advised to make a copy of your assignments
before
submitting them.
(3) You may work with
other students
in preparing for assignments, but what you submit must be your own
work. You are encouraged to discuss questions
together, or share
source materials, or recommend readings and web sites.
However, as everyone in the class will
have a different book for their essay, your essays should be quite
different.
(4) Academic
Honesty: Please be especially
careful to avoid
plagiarism, which is a serious academic offence. Carefully
read the section under "Citations" in
the Essay Instructions. Be sure
to cite ideas as well as direct quotations, even if these ideas are
paraphrased. All quotes should be
either in quotation marks or indented if longer than two sentences.
Essays
in which plagiarism is detected will be severely penalized. For more details, see Section 7.11
"Academic Honesty" and Section 11.2 "Discipline Codes: The Code
of Behaviour on Academic Matters" in the UTM Calendar for 2005-2006. It is your responsibility to be
familiar with this code, and adhere to it. Be
sure to read the link to the information on plagiarism on
the web site, http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagsep.html
.
Class
Schedule
|
Week
|
Date
|
Topic
|
Reading |
|
1 |
T May 16 |
Introduction to Lectures & Essay Anthropology & Subfields; Definitions - Library Orientation by Pam King |
|
|
|
Th May 18 |
Discovering Culture Fieldwork in Anthropology Film - Ishi: The Last Yahi (56 min) |
[L xxix-xxxv, 1-73] 'To the Student'; Chapter 1:
Anthropology; Chapter 2: Culture; Chapter 3: Fieldwork |
|
|
Tutorial Th May 18 |
Introduction to Tutorials & Assignments Discuss Lectures, Film, and Readings - Fieldwork Experiences Lecture |
[L A1-A5] Appendix A: Reading Ethnographies |
|
2 |
T May 23 |
Language: Nature and Origins Film - Nova: In Search of the First Language (60 min) |
[L 74-93] Chapter 4: Language [H 1-50] Preface; Chapter 1: Language |
|
|
Th May 25 |
Ethnography Title Due at start of class Language Socialization Language Description |
[H 51-120] Chapter 2: Language Acquisition &
Socialization; Chapter 3: A World of Languages |
|
|
Tutorial Th May 25 |
Discuss Essay Assignment Discuss Lectures, Film, and Readings - Academic Skills Orientation |
Review: [L A1-A5] Appendix A: Reading Ethnographies |
|
3 |
T May 30 |
Language Change Linguistic Relativity |
[H 121-188] Chapter 4: Language and History; Chapter 5:
Language and Culture |
|
|
Th June 1 |
Language and Social Behaviour Film - Huchoosedah: Traditions of the Heart (57 min) |
[H 189-257] Chapter 6: Sociolinguistics and the
Ethnography of Speaking; Chapter 7: Language Maps and Classifications |
|
|
Tutorial Th June 1 |
Return Ethnography titles (approval) Discuss Lectures, Film, and Readings Review for Midterm |
|
|
4 |
T June 6 |
Midterm Test |
Review All Readings and Class Notes to Date |
|
|
Th June 8 |
Human Ecology Economic Anthropology Film - The Netsilik Eskimo: Fight for Life (51 min) |
[L 95-133] Chapter 5: Subsistence |
|
|
Tutorial Th June 8 |
Film - Asante
Market Women (52 min) Discuss Lecture, Films, and Readings -- compare Netsilik
& Asante cultures to your own |
|
|
5 |
T June 13 |
Marriage, Family, and Household Kinship and Descent Systems Film - Modern Brides: Arranged Marriages in South India (30
min) |
[L 134-183] Chapter 6: Marriage, Family & Residence;
Chapter 7: Kinship and Descent |
|
|
Th June 15 |
Essay Assignment due at start of class Gender and Sexuality Political Organization Film - Ongka's
Big Moka (52m) |
[L 184-230] Chapter 8: Gender and Sexuality; Chapter 9: Political Order |
|
|
Tutorial Th June 15 |
Return Midterm Test Discuss Lectures, Films, and Readings Kinship Exercise (bring your
textbook) |
|
|
6 |
T June 20 |
Anthropology of Religion Human Creativity and Expressions Film - The Asmat of New Guinea (30 min) |
[L 232-280] Chapter 10: Belief Systems; Chapter 11:
Expressions: Is this Art? |
|
|
Th June 22 |
Cultural Change and the Future Applying Anthropology Film - The Navigators (58 min) |
[L 284-319] Chapter 12: Cultural Change; Chapter 13:
Applying Anthropology |
|
|
Tuturial Th June 22 |
Discuss Lectures, Film, and Readings Review for Final Exam If time: Film - Anthropologists at Work (36 min) |
|
|
Exam |
TBA |
FINAL EXAM (week of
June 26-30) |
Review All Readings and Class Notes |