Course Syllabus

Department of Political Science and Sociology

Introduction to Anthropology (ANT 101)
Spring-2024

Course Instructor Office Hours Contacts

Nur Newaz Khan (NN) ST 12:00-2:30 pm Room-NAC909
MW 12:00 –2:30 pm nur.khan@northsouth.edu

Course schedule:
Course ID Course title Section Day Time Room
ANT 101 Introduction to Anthropology 5 MW 3:05 – 4:20 pm NAC311
ANT 101 Introduction to Anthropology 6 MW 3:05 – 4:20 pm NAC311

Description of the Course

Anthropology is a comparative study of human societies and cultures. It examines all societies,
ancient and modern, simple and complex. Anthropology is a uniquely holistic science that studies the
whole of the human condition: past, present and future; biology, society, language and culture
(Kottak, 2011). It seeks to understand the human species from its ancestral beginnings to the present
(Nanda, 2007). That is why Anthropology is also known as the study of what makes us human.
Anthropology developed specialized knowledge of sociocultural, archaeological, biological and
linguistic anthropology to understand the complexity of cultures across human history. This course
provides students with an introduction to and understanding of primary phenomena, concepts, issues
and practices associated with human evolution, culture and society. Concepts of fundamental
phenomena and issues such as human evolution and genetics, culture and its changes, the influence of
culture on human activities, structures of human relationships, economic and political systems, social
change and development, processes of identity formation in different social contexts, religious
ideologies, gender ideologies and the like have been included in this course to help students to have
an overview of various social contexts. Students will also be introduced to basic anthropological
research methods (i.e. the distinctive feature of Anthropology), which will help them to develop the
primary skills to study human society, culture and its diversity in Bangladesh and the global context.
This course will also acquaint students with critical thinking approaches to understand contemporary
anthropological perspectives on various sociocultural issues of Bangladesh and beyond.
Instructional Learning Outcomes:
The learning goals of the course are:
 To develop knowledge and critical understanding of the concept of culture as an organizing idea
of anthropology, as well as an integral, adaptive, and infinitely variable characteristic of human
society;
 To be familiar with the key theories and issues of anthropology and to be engaged with various
contemporary sociocultural debates by examining the cross-cultural perspective;
 To be able to critically analyze and explain cultural context by understanding its components and
to understand how various cultural contexts shape human interactions;
 To develop knowledge to analyze the portrayal of social difference in society and the ways in
which different political, economic and religious organizations shapes human behaviours and
actions differently in various cultural contexts;
 To be able to identify and employ basic research skills of Anthropology and their appropriate
application to the study of human society.
 To be able to apply a better understanding of the cultural phenomena while engaged in their
respective personal and professional lives.
Lecture Plan
Lecture Topic Key Areas
s
1&2 Class Orientation and Course Orientation; explaining the course guide and class
Introduction to maintenance.
Anthropology Introduction to anthropology; what is Anthropology, relation
with other disciplines; what we will cover in this course in
getting introductory knowledge about anthropology
3&4 Emergence of Precursors of anthropology, travellers and colonizers;
Anthropology: anthropology and colonialism; short chronological history of
Discovering Other the development of anthropology; Victorian and armchair
Cultures and Colonialism anthropologists [the other Culture by John Beattie]
5-7 Foundation of British Early Theorists and theoretical paradigms in British
Anthropology and Early Anthropology; Magic and other culture, formation of
theoretical trends institutional Anthropology; brief on Evolutionism,
Functionalism and Structural Functionalism (introducing
Tylor & Frazer, Malinowski, A Redcliff Brown)
TEST: After 7th Lecture (1 to 7)
8&9 Foundation of American Anthropological works before Franz Boas; establishment of
Anthropology and Early academic anthropology and AAA; Four Filed Approach
theoretical trends Evolutionary theories about cultural development, historical
[Quiz1 on this day] particularism and diffusionism
10 Continental difference in Difference between British and American Anthropology:
the establishment of social vs cultural anthropology
Anthropology
11 & 12 Research Methods: Ethnography as distinctive methods in anthropological
Ethnography and fieldwork and study.
Participant Observation Participant Observation: Malinowski’s work in Trobriand
islands, Field notes, Rapport building,
Understanding ethnocentrism; cultural universal and
relativism; Enculturation and Acculturation; emic an etic
approach to the study of culture; Ethical issues in filed.
What is fieldwork; Types and techniques of ethnography
13, 14 Research Methods: Data Developing research questions; Research Proposal writing;
& 15 Analysis and Writing in and data collection tools (e. g. guidelines for interview),
Anthropology consent form
Data compilation, Thematic and content analysis and
interpretation, literature searching (online) and review for
manuscripts, structuring findings and report, referencing and
plagiarism, Ethical issues in research and data management;
16 is Midterm Exam: After 15th Lecture (8 to 15)
th

17 Ethnicity and Race Definition of race and ethnicity; Ethnicity and ethnic
[Quiz2 on this day] relations
18 Cultural/Social Introduction to cultural anthropology; Area of study;
Anthropology Defining culture with characteristics; Elements of Culture
19 Biological/physical Basic concepts of Human Evolution, Theory of Natural
 anthropology and Human Selection, survival of the fittest and relevance with study of
Evolution culture, Contemporary Debate on Human Evolution
20 Culture and pre-history Prehistory of human culture and Archaeology, short history
(Archaeology) of relationship between Archaeology and Anthropology
21 Culture and languages what is linguistic anthropology and how it relates to study of
culture and society; introducing early anthropological works
in linguistic anthropology and key arguments
22 Gender, Society and The idea of gender among Foragers, horticulturalists and
Culture Agriculturalists; Patriarchy and Gender issues in
contemporary society: Case of Bangladesh; Understanding
the concept of Gender
23 & 24 Family, Kinship and Marriage, Family, Kinship and Descent: Types and Rules of
Marriage Descent
Origin and Development of Family,
Types of Marriage and Family, Incest taboo, economic and
social aspects of marriage
25 Applied Anthropology and Concept of Practical anthropology by Malinowski and
development trends formation of Applied Anthropology; AAA and Boas on
applied anthropologists; subfields where anthropologist can
apply their knowledge or work; development anthropology
and anthropologists.
26-28 Group/Individual Students’ presentation of their group or individual
Presentation fieldwork/assignment
29 Review Class
FINAL EXAM: Lecture 17-26

Course Requirement:
 Reading of suggested course material is essential for a better understanding on the course. In
addition, you will have to follow the Lecture and class discussion;
 Participation in all exams, quizzes and submission of essays (reports) is mandatory.
 The best quiz out of two will be considered;
 In case of extreme difficulties or medical conditions, please discuss this with the course
teacher with relevant evidence;
 Attendance and participation in class is very important to better understand the subject.
Therefore, 10% is kept on for both attendance and participation. Class participation and
discussion will help you to develop a clear understanding of the subject. Thus, it will be
helpful to prepare for exams. Students must attend at least 90% of scheduled classes to
achieve full marks on attendance. Students must participate in discussion/Lecture in any form
(e.g. question, opinion, and reference from text or examples) and are encouraged to ask
relevant and appropriate questions on the board as a good question can lead to gaining the
necessary knowledge and enrich students’ scholarly.
 Switching off mobile phones or putting them in vibration is a basic etiquette before entering
the classroom; therefore, it is expected that all students should strictly follow it to ensure a
better environment for lectures.

Course Assessment:
Assessment 1: Class test 10%
Assessment 2: Quizzes (Best one will be counted from 2) 10%
Assessment 3: Midterm Exam 20%
Assessment 4: Report on Research Project/Movie or Book review 10%
Assessment 5: Multimedia Presentation of research project/book or movie
10%
review
Assessment 6: Attendance and class participation (5%+5%) 10%
Assessment 7: Final Exam 30%
Total 100%

Course materials/ texts:

The key Textbooks/handbook will be made available at the NSU Photocopy Centre. Electronic copies
will be made available. The course instructor will provide supplementary reading materials if needed
and will make them available to students during and/or after respective lectures.
Key Texts and materials:
The instructor will provide a compiled handbook as the primary text to follow Lecture. However, a
key textbook is encouraged to collect for better understanding. Additional texts are optional. The
instructor might provide some additional materials as per need throughout the semester, which will be
made available to the students beforehand. Referred texts are as follows:

Anthropology textbook:
Kottak, C. P. (2021) Anthropology: Appreciating Human Diversity, 19th edition, McGraw-Hill Inc.
Nanda, Serena and Warms, L. Richard, (2018), Culture counts: a concise introduction to cultural
anthropology, Cengage Learning

Additional texts:
Beattie, J., 2005. Other cultures: Aims, methods and achievements in social anthropology. Routledge.
Tylor, E. B. (1889). Anthropology: An introduction to the study of man and civilization (Vol. 62).
Macmillan.
Barnard, A., (2004). History and theory in anthropology, Cambridge University Press.

Referencing requirements:
Students are required to reference all words, ideas, and opinions of others using Harvard in-text
referencing style as preferable. For full details on how it works, see:
http://ilp.anu.edu.au/citations/harvard/ Students are free to use any other recognized referencing style
popular in social science; however, that should be consistent in all parts of any document.

Policy on Academic Honesty, Extension and late submission:

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work as your own, intentionally or unintentionally. It
includes copying or paraphrasing someone else’s work (published or unpublished) without any
reference or acknowledgment to the original author. Plagiarism is an academic cheating act; therefore,
I expect all students to avoid this while they write. To avoid plagiarism, please follow these
instructions:
 Do not copy from others;
 Always acknowledge and use references if you get any information from other authors;
 Even if you copy materials from a website, please use the reference. I will explain the process of
referencing in the next section;
  Do not use a long quotation; use a short quotation with justification. When referring to an author
in a longer sentence, paraphrase the content in your way of understanding using reference with
the page number.
 Zero tolerance for cheating or copying in exams will be the rule for this course.

Students should also take note that there is no backup or extra date for assignments, even in cases of
extraordinary exceptions such as natural or political disasters, as they can submit online. However,
students could avail of an extension for their written works/midterm exam with a valid and verified
certification of medical urgency or illness; otherwise, a penalty will be applied as reducing marks on a
daily basis for late submission.
Let’s have an educational but entertaining and wonderful semester!