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Welcome to Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Online

next online offering: Spring 2006

             This is your opportunity to learn about cultures all around the world and the many different ways people live together. We will study about all aspects of human life: how people govern themselves, teach themselves about the world around them, provide for life’s necessities of food and shelter, find spouses and raise children, how they treat their neighbors, their spiritual beliefs, and how they look after each other in sickness and health. Cultural anthropology is a subject that includes a little bit of everything from political science and economics to religion and medicine.

            One increasingly important aspect of cultural anthropology is the documentation of cultures which may soon disappear because their environment is changing. We will investigate the problems faced by the numerous peoples around the world whose cultures are endangered for political or economic reasons. Like animal species and landscapes, human societies can also become endangered and completely lost. When a culture is lost, its knowledge is lost to everyone. How important is that loss? That is a serious but difficult question. If you apply yourself to the work in this course, the world will never look quite the same to you again.

            Studying a subject online puts a great deal of responsibility on you, the student. You need to be able to learn from what you read. At the same time, I want you to interact with the other students in the course and with me as much as possible. For this purpose, we will have our own electronic listserv so that we can post messages among ourselves and hold discussions about the topics we are reading each week. Participating on the listserv will be required as part of your grade, but it will be an excellent way for you to feel yourself part of a virtual classroom.

            Also, I will want you to be able to think analytically and write about what you have learned. Writing will be an important aspect of this course. The remainder of your grade will be determined by objective testing.

Please check with the Bookstore for information on purchasing your textbooks.

Contact the instructor: deborah.shepherd@anokaramsey.edu

on the web at http://webs.anokaramsey.edu/shepherd/