This is a distance learning 14-week course that is taught asynchronously i.e., will we not have an official class meeting time. All course materials, assignments and open book/note exams will be online via Blackboard. Cultural Anthropology introduces the student to a holistic study of culture. The major elements of human social behavior, material culture, and cultural diversity are studied as adaptations to social and environmental change--past and present. The course consists of seven modules which include discussion board assignments and two open book/note exams. 

“Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology” by Nina Brown et al.

2nd Edition

The course textbook is free and avaliable online! 

Textbook Link - https://perspectives.americananthro.org/

Module 1 

Week 1 - Introduction to Anthropology

Week 2 - The Culture Concept

Module 2 

Week 3 - Doing Fieldwork: Methods in Cultural Anthropology

            Discussion Board Post

Week 4 - Language

Module 3 

Week 5 - Subsistence

            Discussion Board Post

Week 6 - Economics

Module 4

Week 7 - Political Anthropology

             Discussion Board Post

Week 8 - Family and Marriage

             Exam 1

Module 5

Week 9 - Race and Ethnicity

             Discussion Board Post

             Extra Credit (Optional)

Week 10 - Gender and Sexuality 

Module 6

Week 11 - Religion

              Discussion Board Post

Week 12 - Globalization

Module 7

Week 13 - Health and Medicine

Week 14 - The History of Anthropological Ideas

              Exam 2

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology is designed to provide students with an understanding of the interaction of culture and biology as it bears on the evolution of hominid and cultural diversity. This course will allow students to apply general anthropological knowledge and skills to everyday life and their chosen careers, to apply the course towards an associate degree at Austin Community College, and to prepare them for success in upper division courses in Anthropology at other institutions.

Students who complete this course will:

• Will be able to describe what anthropology and physical anthropology are
• Have gained a broad cross-cultural background against which to view our culture as well as contemporary social problems
• Be able to recognize similarities and differences in human cultures
• Be aware that there are various valid cultural solutions to the problems of life
• Be able to understand the factors involved in culture change
• Be able to understand some of the methods, theories, and procedures anthropologists use in studying cultures