Lahore University of Management Sciences

ANTH 100 – Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Fall 2013-2014

Instructor Sadaf Ahmad

Room No. 213, New SS Wing
Office Hours TBA
Email sadafah@lums.edu.pk
Telephone
Secretary/TA
TA Office
Hours
Course URL
(if any)

COURSE BASICS
Credit Hours
Lecture(s) 2 lectures per Duration 1hr 50mins
week
Recitation/Lab (per Nbr of Lec(s) Duration
week) Per Week
Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Duration
Per Week

COURSE DISTRIBUTION
Core Yes
Elective
Open for Student Open to all
Category
Close for Student N/A
Category

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces students to the discipline of anthropology, paying particular attention to cultural
anthropology—the arm of the discipline that explores the social and cultural diversity of human experience,
practice, and knowledge.

Students taking this course will be exposed to the key schools of thought, concepts and domains covered
within cultural anthropology as well as the methods through which cultural anthropologists ‘produce’
knowledge. Furthermore, by presenting a variety of case studies from different parts of the world, this course
will also shed light onto the diversity of cultural systems prevalent in the world, enabling students to “make
sense” of the behavior and cultures of peoples unlike themselves, as well as gain insights into their own
behavior and society. These case studies will also help facilitate a nuanced understanding of the concept of
culture and cultural change. This means paying particular attention to the manner in which encounters between
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different peoples and cultures—for instance, through the media, migration, and globalisation—are constantly
shaping culture, and recognizing that people also actively shape the cultural world they inhabit through their
everyday decisions.

COURSE PREREQUISITE(S)

There are no pre-requisites for this course.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This introductory course addresses goal 1 as outlined in the learning goals identified by the
Anthropology and Sociology Stream.

Goal 1: Instill in the students an awareness of the overall unifying concerns of the discipline of
anthropology. Provide them with a solid grounding in the core concepts, theoretical perspectives,
and bodies of knowledge used and produced by the discipline.

Students should, by the end of the course, be able to

Objective # 1: Demonstrate the ability to summarize, analyze, critique, and compare the key
concepts, bodies of knowledge, and perspectives used by anthropologists.

Objective # 2: Demonstrate their ability to apply the key concepts, methodologies, and
perspectives to real world issues, both historical and contemporary.

The process of meeting goal 1 will allow students to

 Become familiar with an anthropological way of understanding the world

 Gain an enhanced conceptual understanding of “culture”
 Examine the processes bringing about cultural change
 Acquire knowledge of multiple cultural systems in order to recognize the variants and
parallels of belief systems and reflect upon the nature of one’s own culture in this larger
context

EXAMINATION DETAIL
Class Format: There will be 28 sessions of 110 minutes each. These 28 sessions will be broken up into a
combination of lectures, seminars and documentary sessions. Attendance is critical as all these sessions are
opportunities for learning and essential for a good performance in this course.
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Grading:
Class Participation 5%
Attendance 6%
Quizzes 34%
Group Project 20%
Kinship Assignment 15%
Final Exam 20%
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Attend the lectures:
You are expected to be present in ALL class sessions.

Be inclass on time.If you are more than ten minutes late, or if you leave class before it is over, you will get an
“absent” for that class.

Do the readings:
It is essential for you to do all the assigned readings. Careful and thoughtful reading will be crucial to your
performance in the course.

Turn your mobile phones OFF before entering the classroom.

ATTENDANCE POLICY
1. Please note that more than two unexcused absences will result in your losing your attendance
points (3 unexcused absences means you end up with 4 points, 4 unexcused absences mean you
end up with 2 points and more than 4 means you get no attendance points). Remember that
coming to class late or leaving early will also result in an “absent. “
2. Excused absences are only given to students if they are ill and can provide a note from the LUMS
doctor or if they have represented LUMS in an activity and can provide the relevant official
paperwork.
3. The two unexcused absences that are allowed with no penalty are for occasions such as weddings,
family emergencies, job interviews, etc. As students shall not be given excused absences for such
occasions, they are encouraged not to ‘waste’ the leeway they are given.
CLASS PARTICIPATION
Your class participation score will largely be based on your participation in class room discussions and on your
ability to answer any question posed to you. As a general rule, comments that illustrate your familiarity with
your readings, demonstrate your ability to link what you are learning to the world around you, reveal a certain
level of reflection and so forth will earn you solid points in comparison to comments that merely repeat things
others have already said (which will not earn you any points).
Students should have read the assigned reading material prior to each class so that they can contribute to class
room discussions in a constructive manner. If students are unprepared and therefore unwilling to contribute the
session becomes a wasted opportunity. If, however, students are well prepared, class participation can lead to a
very rich, varied and productive discussion.
ACTIVE READING
It is extremely important that you read your course material in an “active” manner in order to get the most out
of it. Some questions to help you do that and that you ought to keep in mind as you read are:
 What am I getting out of the assigned reading? What key arguments or points is the author making?
 How does what the author say that help me deepen my understanding of cultural anthropology in
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general and/or the theme under discussion in specific?
 What new concepts and terms am I learning?
 How am I reacting to what I am reading? How are my own assumptions shaping my reactions?
 What ideas, terms, and events am I not clear on?
 What questions have the readings raised for me?
 How can I connect this to other things I know (that I have learnt in class or know otherwise)?

Remember that while underlining/highlighting information and/or making reading notes as you read will
prolong the actual reading, doing so will make you engage with it in a meaningful manner, increase your
learning and play a key role in determining how well you do in this course.
SEMINARS & THE GROUP PROJECT
There are a number of seminar sessions in this course and the class will be divided up into groups that will
make presentations in these seminars. Each group will be given a pre-assigned topic on which to make a 25-30
minute presentation. This allows students a greater level of interaction and engagement with course material. It
also gives greater flexibility in terms of breadth of material covered.

Groups will be expected to research the topics and present new material on them. Simply reiterating what has
been said in lectures will not get you good marks. Once a presentation is made and comments made by the
class, the presentation should be revamped by making links between the presentation content and Pakistan,
given a new format (e.g. photo essay, documentary) and submitted. As a group students will have some
flexibility to decide what final shape the project takes.

Detailed instructions for the group project will be uploaded on LMS once the semester commences. All
members in a group will get the same points for their collective work unless a student does not contribute
sufficiently/does not pull his or her weight.
KINSHIP ASSIGNMENT
This individual assignment will require students to make their family tree and then analyze it by relying upon
relevant course content (particularly that related to “kinship and marriage”). Detailed instructions will be
uploaded on LMS once the semester commences.
QUIZZES & FINAL EXAMS
The quizzes and the final exam will assess your comprehension of the course material and your ability to
engage with, discuss and apply key anthropological concepts, theories, and terms. Different types of
questions—ranging from multiple choice and true/false to those requiring short and long answers—will be
utilized for this purpose. The days on which the quizzes will take place have been marked in the class schedule
below.

Please note that missed tests, quizzes and exams cannot be re taken unless permission is sought and given from
the OSA.
NOTES
1. The holiday schedule and the final class size may result in minor changes in the class schedule (below).
The instructor reserves the right to make these changes if/when the need arises.
2. It is the students responsibility to get in touch with the instructor if they find they are having any
problems in the course or if they are working under any special conditions—which may be physical
(e.g. hearing difficulties), academic (e.g. probation), etc—and require special or extra assistance.
Providing suitable assistance, be it extra coaching, a seating change and so forth, will not be a problem.
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But please remember that problems are best resolved when they are shared in a timely manner (and that
means not towards the end of the semester, and certainly not once the grades are in).
3. Scores and final grades are never changed (barring a miscalculation). Each and every paper and exam
shall be carefully read and graded on the basis of a particular pre-set criterion that shall be shared with
the class in advance. While students are welcome to come and discuss their work with the instructor to
find out how they can improve, requests to alter the final score or to “contest” the score/grade shall not
be addressed, no matter what the reason (please see the previous bullet point in this context).
4. There are certain norms of behaviour that students are expected to display in the class room. Talking to
each other during class time and using mobile phones are examples of a violation of these norms and
the instructor reserves the right to take appropriate action if such behaviour is displayed.

5. There is a zero tolerance policy for plagiarism and cheating in this course. Students caught
engaging in these behaviors will be immediately sent to the Disciplinary Committee.
PLAGIARISM
What is it?
Plagiarism is defined as “the representation of another’s words, ideas…opinions, or other products of work as
one’s own either overtly or by failing to attribute them to their true source.” 1 In other words, it is drawing
upon other people’s work without giving them credit for it.

Plagiarism is the use without (in text) citation of:

 another person’s written words
 a paraphrase of another person’s written words

Avoiding Plagiarism
In order to avoid plagiarism, make sure that you acknowledge the source of your ideas:
 You must use quotation marks around all material that you are quoting exactly, and immediately follow
it with a citation to the source in your text.
 You must cite all ideas and materials from other authors (including web pages) that you are
paraphrasing or referring to within the text.

A Common Mistake to Avoid

 Sometimes students put down the original text, but substitutes similar or equivalent terms throughout.
You should instead write the ideas completely in your own words/format, and then cite the source from
which you derived the ideas

Citing Sources
Citing sources in your text means providing the reader with
 the author’s last name,
 the year of publication of his or her work,
 and the page number from which the quote is taken (in case of a quote)

Bibliography
Your bibliography must follow either the APA, MLA or The Chicago Manual of Style. Whatever style you

1SyracuseUniversity Rules and Regulations, Section 1.0

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use, make sure you use it correctly and consistently. Do not have more than one style in a bibliography.

Class Schedule
Session 1 Introduction to the Course

PART I: FOUNDATION

Session 2 What is Anthropology?

* Gary Ferraro’s “What is Anthropology,” 2-14, in Cultural Anthropology: An
Applied Perspective, 1995, West Publishing Company.

* Thomas Hylland’s “Introduction: Comparison and Context” 1-2 (excerpt), in Small Places,
Large Issues, 2001, Pluto Press.

* Joy Hendry’s “Introduction” 1-7 (excerpt), in An Introduction to Social Anthropology, 2008,

Palgrave.

Session 3 Cultural Anthropology: History and Key Concepts

* Gary Ferraro’s “The Growth of Anthropological Theory,” 56-82, in Cultural Anthropology:
An Applied Perspective, 1995, West Publishing Company.

* Jack David Eller’s “The Anthropological Perspective” 12-19 (excerpt), in Cultural

Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives, 2009, Routledge.

Session 4 Fieldwork
* Murray Wax’s “Tenting with Malinowski” 1-12, in American Sociological Review 37(1).

Film: Tales from the Jungle: Malinowski. BBC Documentary.

Session 5 * Alma Gottlieb’s and Philip Graham’s “Choosing a Host” 24-57, in Parallel
Worlds, 1993, University of Chicago Press.

* Thomas Hylland’s “Fieldwork and its Interpretation” 24-39, in Small Places, Large Issues,
2001, Pluto Press.

Session 6 Culture and its characteristics

* James Spradley’s “Culture and Ethnography” 13-17, in Conformity and Conflict, James P.
Spradley and David W. McCurdy (eds), 1994, Harper Collins.
Quiz 1

Session 7 * Jack David Eller’s “Understanding and Studying Culture” 24-35 (excerpt), in Cultural
Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives, 2009, Routledge.

* Susan Wadley’s “From Sacred Cow Dung to Cow Shit: Globalization and Local Religious
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Practices in Rural North India" 1-25, in the Journal of the Japanese Association for South
Asian Studies 12.

PART II: TAKING A CLOSER LOOK

Session 8 Economic Systems

* “The Kung San,” “Tahiti” & “The State in North China” 264-265, 317-319 & 334-335

* “Economic Systems” & Lee Cronk’s “Reciprocity and the Power of Giving” 157-67, in
Conformity and Conflict, James P. Spradley and David W. McCurdy (eds), 1994, Harper
Collins.

Session 9 *Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s “Exchange” 176-192 in Small Places, Large Issues, 2001, Pluto
Press.

Film: Nanook of the North

Session 10 Political Systems & Social Stratification

* Jack David Eller’s “Politics: Social Order and Social Control” 207-229, in Cultural
Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives, 2009, Routledge.

* “A Mother’s Work” 27-32, in Personal Encounters, Linda Walbridge and April K. Sievert
(eds), 2002, McGraw-Hill.

Session 11 Kinship & Marriage

No readings

Session 12 Kinship & Marriage II

* “Kinship and Family” & Jack McGiver Weatherford’s “Kinship and Power on Capitol Hill”
197-199 & 308-317, in Conformity and Conflict, James P. Spradley and David W. McCurdy
(eds), 1994, Harper Collins

Session 13 Quiz 2

Session 14 TBA

Session 15 Gender
Film: Tales from the Jungle: Margaret Mead. BBC 4 Documentary. 60mins

* Frances Mascia-Lees and Nancy Black’s “The History of the Study of

Gender in Anthropology,” Gender and Anthropology. Long Grove: Waveland Press. 2000. Pgs.
1-12

Session 16 Seminar--Presentations
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Session 17 World views and Ways of Knowing
* Jack David Eller’s “Religion: Interacting with the Non-human World” (excerpts) 236-241,
258-259, in Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives, 2009, Routledge.

* Evans-Pritchard’s “The Notion of Witchcraft explains Unfortunate Events” 18-32,

inWitchcraft, Magic, and Oracles Among the Azande, 1976, Oxford University Press.

Session 18 World views and Ways of Knowing II

* “Religion, Magic & Worldview” and George Gmelch’s “Ritual and Magic in American
Baseball” 319-321 & 351-361 in Conformity and Conflict, James P. Spradley and David W.
McCurdy (eds), 1994, Harper Collins.

* Joy Hendry’s “Cosmology II: Witchcraft, Shamanism and Syncretism, 132-144, in An

Introduction to Social Anthropology, 2008, Palgrave.

“Magic: Theory and Practice”88-92.

Session 19 Seminar-Presentations

Session 20 Creative Expression

* Lowell Holmes and Kim Schneider’s “The Arts—Forms & Functions” 459-489, in
Anthropology, 1987, Waveland Press.

Session 21 Seminar-Presentations

PART III: CURRENT ISSUES AND PATHWAYS

Session 22 Cultural Change

* Jack David Eller’s “Cultural Dynamics: Continuity and Change” 267-288, in Cultural
Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives, 2009, Routledge.

* Thomas Rhys Williams “Three Case Studies of Cultural Change”344-347, in Cultural

Anthropology, 1990, Prentice Hall.

* George Ritzer’s “The Globalization of Nothing” 189-199, in the SAIS Review 23(2).

Session 23 Seminar-Presentations

Session 24 Cultures and Identities

* Thomas Hylland Eriksen’s “Identification” 156-169 in What is Anthropology?, 2004, Pluto
Press.

Film: Don’t Ask Why

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Session 25 Seminar-Presentations

Session 26 What anthropologists do

Topic 11 Anthropology and Conflict

* “US Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones” 1-, in The New York Times, 2007.
* “ESRC ‘ignores’ danger fears” 1-2, in the Times Higher Education, 2007.
* David W. McCurdy’s “Using Anthropology” 419-430, in Conformity and Conflict, James P.
Spradley and David W. McCurdy (eds), 1994, Harper Collins.

* Gary Ferraro’s “Applied Anthropology,” “The Future of Anthropology”& “Anthropology and

Jobs” 38-54, 350-353 & 355-357, in Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective, 1995,
West Publishing Company

Session 27 Seminar-Presentations

Session 28 Quiz 3