Course Syllabus

Fall 2025 | ANT-1010-VU01 - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

In Person Class

Standard courses meet in person at CCV centers, typically once each week for the duration of the semester.

Faculty

Martha Lance
View Faculty Credentials
View Faculty Statement
Hiring Coordinator for this course: Gilberto Diaz Santos

General Education Requirements

Humanistic Perspectives

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

This course is a survey of basic issues, concepts, theories, and methods of cultural anthropology. Students think critically about the nature of culture and society from the perspective of the past and the present. Topics include social and political organization, gender, myth and religion, language, adaptation, and cultural change.

Essential Objectives

1. Describe the origin and development of anthropology as a social science and as a humanities field, the subject matter it includes, and how it relates to other disciplines.
2. Explain and apply key anthropological concepts, including culture, ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, adaptive strategies, agency, social stratification, magic, ritual, cultural change, and world-view.
3. Discuss the application of quantitative and qualitative anthropological methods to the study of human culture and examine the relationship between method and theory.
4. Describe the development of anthropological theories such as cultural evolution, structural functionalism, cultural ecology, and symbolic interactionism and understand how current theoretical approaches are used to explain cultural phenomena.
5. Examine the role and importance of fieldwork in cultural anthropology and discuss ethical conduct within the discipline, including bias in research design and practice.
6. Discuss the diversity of humans past and present by identifying differences, similarities, and interrelationships among individuals, cultures, and societies.
7. Apply basic anthropological concepts to better understand and respect the characteristics of unfamiliar cultures and critically examine aspects of familiar cultures, cultural conflict, and systemic racism.
8. Describe the various roles that cultural anthropologists play in today's world and give examples of current research questions and applied cultural anthropology in business, medicine, education, development, and advocacy.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV computer recommendations Support page.

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

*** This is a low cost ($50 or less) textbook or resource class. ***

ANT-1010-VU01 Link to Textbooks/Resources Information for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

Methods

This class is largely discussion based. You can count on reading a chapter a week of an OER text supplemented by short readings and films. While our approach emphasizes cross-cultural study of human behavior, the course invites you to carefully consider your own cultural behavior. This is truly an applied anthropology course and we will use our anthropological skillset to more deeply understand the issues facing us nationally, internationally and locally.

Consistent discussion and class participation is a must for this to be a lively and interesting online course.

You will also be asked to do fieldwork exercises throughout the course.

Short papers assigned throughout the course will test your anthropological skills as well.

Evaluation Criteria

Class Contributionand Attendance

Grades are based on attending class, participating and being fully prepared. Be present and put down those screens! One approved class absence is allowed per term. The instructor must be informed of the absence and legitimate reasons for missing the class must be articulated by the student. Your attendance really is significant and we cannot have a great class without you.

In-class experiences:

Each week a student will lead centering exercise at the start of the class and present classmates with a free gift.

Be prepared to participate. Weekly in-class discussions and short film responses need your voice to be interesting! Screens need not apply.

Journaling:

We will do a bunch of free-writes in class. I will be handing out journals so that you can write down your thoughts. The first class ofNovember and December, I will meet with each of you and ask you to share journal entries that reveal your personal growth in this class.

Journal entries include discussion items that sometimes are simply questions I pose to you or they might include a video that you need to watch and then answer additional questions.

Sometimes I will forward a news item via email to everyone that requires that you read the article and respond. I will ask each of you to keep your eye out for news items that are pertinent to the course as well.

Written Assignments (Paper and Exams):

You are required to do some writing in this course in the form of short responses, short papers, field notes, a midterm and a final. Exams will be mostly essays and will be posted several weeks in advance of the due date.

Semester Grading

Midterm: 20 % of grade (October 17)

Final: 25 % of grade (December TBD)

Paper Assignments: 25 % of grade (September 12 and October 3)

Fieldwork Journal 20 % of grade

For the fieldwork portion of the course, you will have several short assignments that require you move from your armchair.You will record your fieldwork experiences and conclusions in your journal and submit two of the most meaningful experiences for review and grading by Martha.

Martha will review your journal with you twice during the semester. Journal Review with Martha (November 4 and December 9)

Quizzes: 10 % of grade (4 quizzes TBD)

You will have four in-class quizzes. These are mostly multiple choice and designed to help you master course content and prepare for written assignments and exams.

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity

Apply Now for this semester.