Overview

This course consists of anthropological approaches and perspectives on humans, their culture, and their society. Basic concepts for analyzing cultural behavior and comparison of non-Western with Western societies will be presented.

Requirements

Prerequisites

No prerequisites.

Required Resources

This course uses a no-cost, electronically accessible textbook. Read the information in the Textbook Information module to learn how to access your textbook, and how to opt-out of this automatic purchase, if desired. The course materials are available in the Course Materials List.

Resource Title/Description (books, software, etc.)	Author/Provider	Ed./Vol.	13-Digit ISBN (if applicable)
Introduction to Anthropology	Hasty, Jennifer Lewis, David G. Snipes, Marjorie M.	NA	Print: 978-1-711494-99-9 eText: 978-1-951693-99-2

Proctorio

This course will use an online proctoring software called Proctorio to accommodate University requirements for student validation. This makes it possible for students to validate their identity without a human proctor being present. ANTH 101 will verify student credentials in W01 and W08 with a quiz where students will be asked to show their identification (ID) and agree to be honest in the course. These recordings can be made available should questions about student validation arise.

For step-by-step instructions on Proctorio installation, please refer to this help guide article.

Structure

Course Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course the student can be expected to do the following:

1. Define anthropology and explain key concepts of the discipline.
2. Analyze cultural behavior, including their own and others’ cultures.
3. Explain key differences between Western society and non-Western society.
4. Identify how culture influences individuals.

Teaching Assistant

This course has a teaching assistant (TA) for five hours every week. They will be helping your instructor grade assignments. They will also be available to answer questions you may have. Reach out early and often to your TA and let them help you with questions you have about the course.

Major Assignments

Portfolio Papers

The purpose of the portfolio is to give you a place to record your exploration of the course material. It will be evaluated on how well you document your exploration and on the depth and breadth of your exploration.

• Each week, you will choose from a list of options that will be provided. It will typically consist of watching a film or reading an article that has to do with the topic of the week.
• You will turn in a one-page paper discussing what you learned and how it relates to anthropology.
  • Don’t spend the whole paper just summarizing the material. The main idea of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of the material.
  • A good hint is to include key terms and citations, like in the applying anthropology assignments.

Applying Anthropology Activity and Papers

These assignments will give you an opportunity to apply what we have been covering for the week. They will often entail you getting out and "doing" anthropology. Be sure to completely answer the questions and to give them some thought. The idea is not to just answer the questions but to use your answers as a format to demonstrate your understanding of the course materials.

Note: When citing key terms, don't just throw them in, but give an example of them so that the instructor can assess your understanding of them.

For example, if a key term is "internet," you could say the following: "The internet (Leinket p. 56), or the computer-based web that connects us to an almost limitless supply of information, is useful in finding out more information for our discussions. If I don’t know about some historical event, I can Google it and read about it." This is a more complete and proper answer than simply writing, "I use the internet to find out information."

Cultural Analysis Final Paper

Working from your observations and analysis, you will write an anthropological analysis of LDS culture.

• Each week, there will be a brief lecture about how the topic of that week applies to this analysis.
• The Zoom meeting each week will give you the opportunity to discuss the paper topic for the week.
  • Your group discussion is a place for you to share ideas and explore the topics further as you work on the analysis paper.
  • You may even share data and information, but the final paper needs to be your own work.
    • You will need to include a section of your paper discussing specific ways that the group discussions were helpful to you.
  • You are expected to do the following to further explore issues that you are interested in:
    • Gather data
    • Make observations
    • Interview people
    • And so on
  • You will need to work on this weekly, but the final paper will not be due until the end of the semester.
    • It should be no more than 10 pages long.
    • You should reference back to the LDS lecture for Week 03 (fieldwork) as necessary.

Here is some further information in the podcast:

(11:00 mins, "Intro to LDS Research" Transcript)

Weekly Patterns

The following table represents the recurring weekly pattern of assignments. Each week you will:

Due Date*	Learning Model	Activity Title	Description
Midweek	Prepare	WXX Reading Quiz	Take a 5-point quiz with a 10-minute time limit on the reading from the textbook.
Midweek	Prepare	WXX Get Thinking Response	Use these assignments to get you thinking about the topic of the week.
Midweek	Teach One Another	WXX ANTH 101 Discussion	Make an initial post.
Midweek		WXX Sign-Up: Zoom Meeting Times	Organize yourselves into small groups and meet at least once a week in Zoom.
Midweek	Prepare	WXX Zoom Meeting: LDS Research Video	Watch this video before your Zoom meeting.
End of Week	Teach One Another	WXX Zoom Meeting: LDS Cultural Analysis	Meet and discuss a topic relating to LDS culture and the final paper.
End of Week	Prove	WXX Report: Zoom Meeting Participation	Complete a weekly self-assessment of your participation in your Zoom meeting.
End of Week	Teach One Another	WXX ANTH 101 Discussion	Make your subsequent posts.
End of Week	Ponder	WXX Applying Anthropology	Apply and get out to "do" what you have been covering for the week.
End of Week	Prove	WXX Portfolio Paper	Record your exploration of the course material.

NOTE: See Calendar for due date and time specifics.

*Set your time zone within user preferences so the dates and times for course activities will display correctly for your time zone.

Portfolios and Applying Anthropology assignments are due at the end of the week, but both are bigger assignments and should be started early.

Remember: The final research paper is due at the end of the semester, but you should be working on it every week.

Expectations

Late Work Policy

You can make up only the portfolio and the Applying Anthropology assignments (with certain conditions). Late work will have a 10% deduction applied as well as an additional 10% deduction per week that it is late. Please be in contact with your instructor. As a sign of professionalism and respect, you should complete your work on time. However, your instructor has the discretion to accept late work or extend due dates as appropriate. Monday morning, he or she will mark all the unsubmitted assignments with a zero and then begin grading everything from last week.

Retries

Retries are not allowed in this course.

Extra Credit

Extra credit is not offered in this class.

Grading Scale

Grade	Percentage Range
A	93%–100%
A-	90%–92%
B+	87%–89%
B	83%–86%
B-	80%–82%
C+	77%–79%
C	73%–76%
C-	70%–72%
D+	67%–69%
D	63%–66%
D-	60%–62%
F	Less than 60%

Plagiarism and Cheating Policy

Plagiarism and cheating are not tolerated in this class. Any evidence of plagiarism or cheating will be grounds for an automatic F in the course. Plagiarism is copying someone else’s work. This includes your peers, any written sources, and the internet.  Any information that is not your own original thoughts should be properly documented. 

For example, if you write about the relationship between religion and people, and include complete sentences or ideas from another author you need to acknowledge them. It is ok to include something that Thomas Jefferson wrote, just make sure that it is clear that you are not presenting it as your own work. It is appropriate to write: Thomas Jefferson said, “yada yada yada.” It is inappropriate to say that religion is the opium of the people without acknowledging that Marx said this, not you.

University Policies

Students with Disabilities

Brigham Young University-Idaho is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere that accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have a disability and require accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Office at (208) 496-9210 or visit their website and follow the Steps for Receiving Accommodations. Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with students and instructors by the Disability Services Office.

This course requires synchronous meetings. If you are currently registered with the Disability Services Office and need an interpreter or transcriber for these meetings, please contact the deaf and hard of hearing coordinator at (208) 496-9219.

Other University Policies

Student Honor and Other Policies

Please read through the document called University Policies. It gives important information about the following topics:

• Student Honor
  • Academic Honesty
  • Student Conduct
    • Sexual Harassment
• Student with Disabilities
• Complaints and Grievances
• Copyright Notice

Go to the Student Resources module to review further resources and information.

Support

If you need assistance, visit the I-learn help tab located on the left-hand side of your screen to contact the appropriate support center.

Final Thoughts

Some thoughts from and about our university's namesake:

"Brigham Young’s sanguine discourses on education were meant to stir his people up and shame them out of their intellectual lethargy. No one knew better than he the weaknesses of human nature ('Mankind are weak and feeble, poor and needy; how destitute they are of true knowledge, how little they have when they have any at all!'); the hebetude of minds used to having others think for them ('The great masses of the people neither think nor act for themselves … I see too much of this gross ignorance among this chosen people of God'); the hesitancy of the uprooted, tending either 'to hide ourselves up from the world' or 'to pattern after the people t hey had left'—both wrong; the smugness of the chosen people, who 'imagine that they must begin and unlearn the whole of their former education,' and who expect God to give them everything on a platter: 'Have I any good reason to say to my Father in heaven, "Fight my battles," when He has given me the sword to wield, the arm and the brain that I can fight for myself?' The Saints were much too easily satisfied with themselves: 'How vain and trifling have been our spirits, our conferences, our councils, our meetings, our private as well as public conversations—too low, too mean, too vulgar, too condescending for the dignified characters of the called and chosen of God,' wrote the Prophet Joseph from Liberty Jail. 'Condescending' means settling for inferior goods to avoid effort and tension. Brigham hated that: 'That diffidence or timidity we must dispense with. When it becomes our duty to talk, we ought to be willing to talk … Interchanging our ideas and exhibiting that which we believe and understand affords an opportunity for detecting and correcting errors'—the expanding mind must be openly and frankly critical, come hell or high council; without that we get 'too much of a sameness in this community'—'I am not a stereotyped Latter-day Saint, and do not believe in the doctrine … Are we going to stand still? Away with stereotyped 'Mormons.'"

"Brigham was right after all. As administrative problems have accumulated in a growing Church, the authorities have tended to delegate the business of learning to others, and those others have been only too glad to settle for the outward show, the easy and flattering forms, trappings, and ceremonies of education. Worse still, they have chosen business-oriented, career-minded, degree-seeking programs in preference to the strenuous, critical, liberal, mind-stretching exercises that Brigham Young recommended. We have chosen the services of the hired image-maker in preference to unsparing self-criticism, and the first question the student is taught to ask today is John Dewey’s golden question: 'What is there in it for me?'"

–Hugh Nibley, Brother Brigham Challenges the Saints, edited by Don E. Norton and Shirley S. Ricks [Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1994], 329–330, 338.