* 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.

Anteprima del volume "I BACINI CULTURALI E LA PROGETTAZIONE SOCIALE ORIENTATA ALL’HERITAGE-MAKING, TRA POLITICHE GIOVANILI, INNOVAZIONE SOCIALE, DIVERSITÀ CULTURALE. Il framework del Progetto ABACUS – Attivazione dei Bacini Culturali Siciliani, alla luce della Convenzione Quadro del Consiglio d'Europa sul valore del Patrimonio culturale per la società"

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.

ANTH 150 World Archaeology
Introduction to archaeology and cultural change from the earliest times to the advent of state-level societies.

Course Description:
• When did we become fully modern humans?
• When (and why) did we stop being hunter-gatherers?
• When did inequality emerge?
• Why did some people decide to start living in cities?
• What led to the development of complex state-level
societies?
These are important questions about what it means to
be human that archaeologists address. In this course,
we’ll consider these topics while providing an
introduction to archaeology and the study of world
prehistory. The course provides an overview of human
prehistory from modern humans up to the
development of literate civilizations. The approach will
be problem oriented and comparative. We will
consider ancient cultures from around the world in
order to foster an appreciation for human cultural
diversity. Explaining why cultural developments
occurred is often hotly debated among archaeologists,
and different perspectives will be explored critically
throughout this course.

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.

Archiving for the Future is a free training course designed to teach language documenters, activists, and researchers how to organize, arrange, and archive language documentation, revitalization, and maintenance materials and metadata in a digital repository or language archive. Then entire course can be completed in approximately 3-5 hours.

This course was developed by the staff of the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America at the University of Texas at Austin in consultation with representatives of various DELAMAN (https://www.delaman.org/) archives and other digital data repositories in the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia, and Cameroon.

The course material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. BCS-1653380 (September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2020). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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.

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.

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)

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_ŒŰ_ŒŒŰ‹_Feast of Breaking the Fast.Ű_í_Ű__Ű_ŒŰ_ŒŰ_í_Ű_Œ

Since the CoVID19 pandemic, essential workers have been impacted beyond that of others in the labor force.  Statistics on nonmedical essential workers and how CoVid19 affects their health and livelihood are lacking. No centralized reporting exists and corporations do not either collect or provide this data. This OER attempts to bring together various sources information from March-July 2020 for future research. This material is a compilation of original sources of varying restrictions to be used for educational purposes, so I have chosen the CC BY NC ND license.

This Voicethread lecture came out of a workshop developed around doing qualitative research while in quarantine. Drawing together a number of different resources, in this lecture I go over the ethical and technical considerations for conducting online qualitative research.

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)

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.

The first comprehensive, peer-reviewed open access textbook for biological anthropology courses. Produced with support from the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges (a section of the American Anthropological Association) and a grant from Minnesota State. Available free of charge for use in any setting.

In February, 2020 ancillary materials will be published, including test banks, PowerPoint slides and study guides. If you (adopting faculty) develop any ancillary materials you would be willing to share as open access materials on this website, please contact us at: explorationstextbook@gmail.com

If you adopt part of all of this textbook, please let us know by filling out our Adoptions survey. This information will help us report back to our funding agencies and, ultimately, help us develop more high quality, open access educational materials.

In this video segment from Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, learn about Muslims in Lawrenceville, Georgia, their plans to build an Islamic cemetery and the stiff objections from their Christian neighbors.

This Evolution video segment depicts the landmark hominid fossil finds by Don Johanson and his team in Ethiopia.

 In this lab students will learn how skeletal remains can be used to estimate the height of an individual. Students will measure several of their bones and the bones of a partner. They will then use a formula to estimate height and compare it to actual height. 

A site that has interesting information on forensics and interactive activities for kids to play. The student will learn investigative techniques that will enable them to better understand the science of forensics. The use will explore new technology related to anthropology and forensics.

This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how scientists use the fossil record to trace when early human ancestors and related species began walking on two legs instead of four, and to determine whether they were more apelike or human in appearance.

In Fossils and Dinosaurs, the first lesson of this two lesson series, students learned the differences between facts and ideas that are extrapolated from fossil evidence. This lesson allows students to go through an 'interview' with the remains of a Protoceratops. In preparation for the interview, students first brainstorm the questions they would like answers to, and then narrow their questions to those that can be answered by studying the Protoceratops fossils.

Our early human ancestors began migrating across the globe tens of thousands of years ago. Some left behind archaeological evidence of their travels. But as you'll hear in this Science Update, another record of where we come from and where we've been might be found right in our DNA.

This lesson plan was created by Jennifer Pritchett as part of the 2020 Nebraska CTE-Beginning Teachers Institute. The attached lesson plan is designed for students in grades 7-12 as a introduction to a service learning project.  This lesson plan can also be used in classes such as Sociology, Introduction to Education, Ethics, Leadership, etc. Students will learn the meanings of values and rank their top 5 values in a hands on or virtual format.  The culminating project is collaboration on a Google Slides presentation with the rest of the class.