The word anthropology means literally "the study of man." We are a complicated species, and anthropologists poke into every aspect of our human nature.
* a free alternative to expensive Introduction to Cultural Anthropology textbooks
* includes a full textbook and several original videos
* includes 10 "challenges" (assignments)
* a hub of original and found resources for teaching and learning anthropology
* a “connected course” of many faculty around the world sharing instructional materials
* an open course freely available to anyone online
* an emerging producer of original anthropological videos and other digital content
This online database of our African Ethnographic collection includes artifacts that were found throughout the continent of Africa, from The Gambia to Madagascar, from Algeria to South Africa. The database allows you to see all artifacts for a country by clicking on a map or list of country names, search by object type, culture, and keyword find out what items are currently on display, and learn about recently acquired artifacts. There are two ways to search the collection as a picture-only gallery, or as a catalog that describes each artifact's provenance (country, locale, culture), materials, dimensions, and year of acquisition.
Assignment and discussion prompts for 100-level anthropology courses. Scoring criteria are included.
This is a collection of mini lectures created by anthropologist and those in conversation with anthropology as supplimental material to assist college and university instructors who were made to shift their courses online because of COVID19.For more information, see here.To contribute, please create an OER author account and send your name and OER registered email to AnthropologyTeaching@gmail.com.
This is a collection of mini lectures created by anthropologists and those in conversation with anthropology as supplimental material to assist college and university instructors who were made to shift their courses online because of COVID19.For more information, see here.To contribute, please create an OER author account and send your name and OER registered email to AnthropologyTeaching@gmail.com.
Please use this video to introduce questions about the environment, dispossession, colonial landscape histories, human / animal relations, and / or Papua New Guinea.
This lecture could work as a way of talking about anthropology and its relevance beyond academia, or as a companion to any of the articles included here: On Movement is a critique of PTSD as the dominant framework for thinking about how the violence of war transforms US soldiers; Queer Theory and the Possibilities of Critique is an article about how to think about US war-making as coestensive with assemblages of heteronormativity, looking at the case of how heteronormative love is transformed into a technology of suicide prefention for post-9/11 US soldiers; Slow Research is a call to do Global Health differently.
The following pages describe anthropology's relationship with colonialism. The reading emphasizes why colonial history is relevant to students' lives and emphasizes practical ways to practice cultural relativism.
The Antiquities of Wisconsin, Increase A. Lapham's most important published work, includes 92 pages of text, illustrated with 61 wood engravings, and 55 lithographed plates and was the result of his research into the Indian effigy mounds found on Wisconsin's Landscape.
In this Science NetLinks lesson, students determine what artifacts are, how they are discovered, and what information can be learned from them. They also learn how artifacts are initially buried and then excavated. This lesson is one of a two-part series on archaeology.
A free online textbook for Cultural Anthropology.
Anthropology is the study of all humans in all times in all places. But it is so much more than that. “Anthropology requires strength, valor, and courage,” Nancy Scheper-Hughes noted. “Pierre Bourdieu called anthropology a combat sport, an extreme sport as well as a tough and rigorous discipline. … It teaches students not to be afraid of getting one’s hands dirty, to get down in the dirt, and to commit yourself, body and mind. Susan Sontag called anthropology a “heroic” profession.” What is the payoff for this heroic journey? You will find ideas that can carry you across rivers of doubt and over mountains of fear to find the the light and life of places forgotten. Real anthropology cannot be contained in a book. You have to go out and feel the world’s jagged edges, wipe its dust from your brow, and at times, leave your blood in its soil. In this unique book, Dr. Michael Wesch shares many of his own adventures of being an anthropologist and what the science of human beings can tell us about the art of being human. This special first draft edition is a loose framework for more and more complete future chapters and writings. It serves as a companion to anth101.com, a free and open resource for instructors of cultural anthropology.
This online database of our Asian Ethnographic collection includes artifacts that were found throughout the continent of Asia, from Russia to Indonesia, from Turkey to Japan. The database allows you to see all artifacts for a country by clicking on a map or list of country names, search by object type, culture, and keyword, find out what items are currently on display and learn about recently acquired artifacts. There are two ways to search the collection as a picture-only gallery, or as a catalog that describes each artifact's provenance (country, locale, culture), materials, dimensions, and year of acquisition.
Becoming Human is a fast-paced, irreverent introduction to evolutionary theory, especially human origins. The book is based on the Open2Study MOOC, 'Becoming Human,' created by Dr. Greg Downey and Open Universities Australia. The book discusses traces of evolution in our bodies, basic evolutionary theory from Darwin to the genomic revolution, sexual selection and reproduction, and how human brain development affects our evolution, including into the future. Copiously illustrated, with some interactive diagrams, videos of Dr. Downey presenting the material are also available through Open2Study.
Becoming Human is an interactive documentary experience that tells the story of human origins. Multimedia, research and scholarship are presented to promote greater understanding of the course of human evolution. This site includes classroom materials, subject-designed exercises, games and activities to help make connections between the concepts that are presented and student learning. PDF versions of the resources may be downloaded from the site.
Students learn about material culture in this Moveable Museum lesson plan by taking a firsthand look at how culture influences the kinds of things we do. The 12-page PDF guide has educator materials including background information, teacher strategies, assessment guidelines, and detailed notes about the curriculum standards addressed. The Becoming a Cultural Researcher activity worksheet has a series of questions that prompts students to reflect on the material culture of daily activities, customs, or ceremonies. There is a kid-friendly glossary of related terms.
How this course is intended to be used: This course is set up to be used as either fully online, face-to-face (f2f), or hybrid. Note that the course outcomes and some assessments have variations available for each type of course (e.g., Public Awareness Campaign, Dancing Skeletons Essay & Discussion)
Resources for this course:
OER resources: The majority of materials used in this course are OER and can be found via this page (under Course Modules).
Paid resources: Only one small textbook is suggested for the course, the ethnography Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katharine Dettwyler (ISBN-10: 088133748X). It's approximately $13.00 new and can be found for approximately $5.00 used. It's used for the Unit 3 assessment, Dancing Skeletons Essay & Discussion. We think that it's an integral part of the course, due to its focus on human biology and biocultural/environmental interactions. It also provides an excellent portrayal of an anthropologist's experience in the field. If you require additional or alternate textbooks, we have put together a list of texts available for around $30.
Explanation of approach: As you peruse the reading material in the course module pages you might find that they contain less detail than what you would see in a "normal" textbook. This is intentional. One thing we find incredible about higher education is that the student often reads the textbook only to go into class and have the professor lecture for two hours on the exact same material. Because of this repetition of the material, students often become exasperated and either stop reading the material or stop paying attention in class. We've also found that students in the introductory anthropology courses frequently struggle with picking out the basic concepts from among the myriad of material from the textbook. We think that students in introductory anthropology courses such as this one, most of whom are not going to be anthropology majors, should read the basic information outside of class. This allows the instructor to focus on providing more explanatory details and help students work through critical thinking about the material in class. Therefore, the readings in the course modules have the basic information. Through in-class activities, discussions, and homework assignments, the job of the instructor is to help students move deeper into and synthesize the material.
These activities are meant to be used in connection with a full Biological AnthropologyCourse and full textbook. The instructor is expected to present the base material that students will need to complete each activity. This allows the instructor to mold the activities to their own approach. Students will need an assigned text to assist with these activities, identify bone and features, understand the proper use of Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, significance of primate taxonomy, and specific information about various early human forms. These activities are presented in the sequence they might be used if teaching with Introduction to Physical Anthropology by Robert Jurmain et al.1 These activities do not need to be used in the order presented and are meant to allow an instructor to have lab activities for students that do not require the students to purchase a separate lab manual. The contents of this manuscript are available by means of Creative Commons. They may be used free of charge as long as this author and all other copyright holders are given credit for their work. Should you have any activities you wish to add to this manual, and make available under creative commons to other instructors, please notify this author
This interactive activity from NOVA invites you to do the work of scientists and use a database to classify actual fossil records of human ancestors and related species.
Decoding an ancient cave bear. A two-ton, thirteen-foot cave bear, extinct for ten thousand years, has just experienced a rebirth of sorts. From a tooth and a bone, scientists have recovered its entire genetic code.Eddy Rubin, director of the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute, says finding genuine cave bear DNA was like looking for a needle in a haystack. The haystack were all the other organisms that were living in the bones and in the tooth of this ancient creature. And the needle was the little bit of the ancient creature's genome DNA, or genes.They used state-of-the-art computer technology to separate the bear genes from the clutter. Jurassic Park fans should note that they can't clone a new cave bear, nor can they recover DNA from creatures as old as the dinosaurs. But they do hope to reconstruct the genetic code of Neanderthals, our closest non-human relatives, to better understand how our own species evolved. This resource contains detailed text description of the research as well as likes for further inquiry.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a noted Anthropology Professor at UC Berkeley and author of numerous award-winning works joins UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler. (59 min)
This 10-minute video lesson discusses chronometry and the relatively recent changes in our ability as a species to shine light on our deep past. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 81 of 85]
This 13-minute video lesson discusses collective learning and how symbolic language drives collective learning and how this is one of the truly differentiating aspects of human beings relative to the rest of the animal kingdom. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 82 of 85]
This 14-minute video lesson considers energy consumption required for tilling land. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 84 of 85]
This 8-minute video lesson looks at Firestick Farming and how the indigenous Australians used fire to change their environment. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 76 of 85]
This 12-minute video lesson provides an overview of evolution from from the extinction of the dinosaurs to humanity. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 64 of 85]
This 13-minute video lesson ponders how we get calories from the land and the limits of human population density. [Cosmology and Astronomy playlist: Lesson 83 of 85]
An introductory cultural anthropology textbook covering all major topics and produced by Lumen Learning.
Students examine the anthropological perspective of human culture, including such institutions as kinship, politics, and religion, and evaluate the interrelationship between culture, environment and biology. Students explore the effects of globalization on culture while developing critical thinking skills through the application of essential anthropological approaches, theories, and methods.Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl
In this unit, you will explore globalization and development and its effects on indigenous peoples. Modern economic and political development is driven by the assumption that the results will be benefical for all people; however, cultural differences are not taken into consideration, leading often to the destruction of indigenous cultures. Understanding the context of modern development students become versant in the current debate about globalization.
By the end of the unit, you should be able to answer the following questions:
What is globalization?
How did the modern era of globalization develop?
What is the relationship between culture and globalization?
This PPT introduces students to the concept of cultural heritage and then gets them to reflect on cultural heritage tourism via independent internet-based research and the development of an advertisement.
An ethnography expedition enables you to gain understanding, discover insights, and (re)frame design opportunities.
Dr. Stephen O'Brien of the National Cancer Institute discovers a 700-year-old mutation that makes a person resistant to HIV infection. From Evolution: "Evolutionary Arms Race."
In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, learn how Muslims in America celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the Ű_í_Ű__Ű_Ű_Ű_Feast of Breaking the Fast.Ű_í_Ű__Ű_Ű_Ű_í_Ű_
This module provides descriptive notes and images that can support teaching and learning about ethnobotany and landscape ethnoecology, or the integrative study of human-resource relationships. The photos and graphics are mostly derived from field study and research at Mt. Kasigau, Kenya (1999-2015) as a case example. I openly make them available through the OER site for educational purposes. The resources attached to the module include:I. Ethnobotany- descriptive notes and images (ethnobotany_notes_oer) and a powerpoint presentation (ethno_div_oer);II. Landscape Ethnoecology- descriptive notes and images (landscape_ethnoecology_oer) and a powerpoint presentation (landscape_ethno_oer);III. Participatory Inquiry in Ethnobotany and Landscape Ethnoecology- descriptive notes and images (ethno_participatory_oer) and a powerpoint presentation (ethno_process_outcome_oer);IV. Collaborative Field Guide to Woody Plants and their Uses at Mt. Kasigau, Kenya (kasigauplantbook_may2013.pdf)
In this online activity, learners discover how random variation influences biological evolution. Biological evolution is often thought of as a process by which adaptation is generated through selection.Œć While it is recognized that random variation underlies the process, emphasis is usually placed on selection and resulting adaptation, leaving a sense that it is selection that drives evolution.Œć This simulation highlights the creative role of random variation, offering a somewhat different perspective: that of evolution as open-ended exploration driven by randomness and constrained by selection, with adaptation as a dynamic, transient consequence rather than an objective.
This video from Evolution explores the evolution of humans from a common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees, and other apes.
In this video from Evolution, an exploration of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in the Russian prison system highlights one reason it is important to understand evolution.