The Anthropology of Globalization and Multiculturalism | Madison College Outline of Instruction

20809286 The Anthropology of Globalization and Multiculturalism

Course Information

Description

This is a course designed to explore religion, myth, and rituals as social and cultural phenomena. We will apply the insights of archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, as well as scholars in other fields like philosophy and sociology, to understand the place of religion in the ways that various groups of people have made sense of a complex world.

Total Credits

Course Competencies (Course Outcomes)

Examine social, cultural and ideological aspects of language use in the United States

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you examine relevant sociolinguistic, ethnolinguistic and anthropological linguistic concepts

you examine the social and ideological aspects of American English dialects and varieties, including the conditions that produce and maintain them

you examine bilingualism as a social and cultural phenomenon including the effects of bilingualism on the educational process

you cite specific examples of the linkage between culture, society and language
Explore various cultural systems by which people make sense of and organize knowledge of the world

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you examine how the concept of culture is to be understood as a processual, historical, active and on-going social activity with which people seek to make sense of their worlds

you examine the concepts of "cultural relativism" in relation to the phenomena of ethnocentrism and xenophobia

you apply the concepts of "cultural construction" and "social production" to a critical examination of the way that all humans use categories to understand their worlds

you examine the production, maintenance and abandonment of stereotypes as cultural and social phenomena
Explore the differences and similarities between "oral cultures" and "literate cultures"

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you examine the concept of "oral culture" including the place of oral narrative (oral history, story-telling, etc...) in the production, maintenance and legitimation of knowledge

you examine the concept of "literate culture" including the place of written narrative (recorded history, story-telling, etc...) in the production, maintenance and legitimation of knowledge

you examine the impact of the introduction of literacy into a hitherto oral cultural society

you examine the experience of illiteracy in a literate cultural context
Examine the history of "race" and "ethnicity" in the West

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you discuss the main points of the history of the concepts of "race" and "ethnicity" as they have developed in Western thought and in U.S. policy (particularly in light of a critical examination of the concept of "whiteness")

you examine the culturally constructed nature of "race" and "ethnicity", including how neither concept has any legitimate basis in biology

you compare and contrast the ways that the ideological consequences of the concepts of the concepts of "race" and "ethnicity" have been used in the U.S context and another national context in the Americas
Explore various cultural systems for organizing and channeling differential access to power, wealth and prestige

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you use the idea of "hierarchy" as it applies to society and culture

you distinguish among the various forms that power, wealth and prestige may take including how each of these is linked to other socio-cultural processes

you compare and contrasts an anthropological perspective on how access to power, prestige, and wealth is organized in society
Examine the history and social/cultural significance of global patterns of migration (legal & illegal immigration, refugee status, diasporic identity)

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you examine how the patterns of racial categories that currently exist in the U.S. are linked to historical patterns of immigration, enslavement and conquest

you distinguish between refugee status and that of immigrant including the consequences of that difference on identity formation

you examine how understandings of race, ethnic identity and nationality have been and are changing as a consequence of new technologies such as high-speed travel, telecommunications, and the internet

you examine the consequences to education of differing patterns of identity formation across generational and gender lines within the context of transnational migration
Examine the diversities within defined racial and ethnic groups (e.g., gender, generation, region, etc...)

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you examine intra-societal differences such as gender, class, caste, dialect, region, age, etc...that create diversity within human societies;

you examine the diversity within racial and ethnic groups (e.g., West Indian Blacks v. American-born Blacks; the differences among various Hispanic populations such as Cubans, Puerto Ricans & Mexicans in the U.S., etc...)

you examine the inadequacy and limitations of using racial and ethnic labels in seeking to understand the experience of members of various immigrant, minority and refugee populations
Explore the process of sub-culture and oppositional culture in modern urban society

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations;

you differentiate between the concepts of "sub-culture", "oppositional culture" and "counter-culture", including the processes of identity formation that produce and maintain them in modern urban society

you apply the concept of "cultural resistance" in exploring the consequences of participating in an oppositional culture on the educational process
Examine the importance and value of anthropological theory in analyzing the trans-cultural educational process

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you distinguish between the various and relevant anthropological theories such as "culture and political economy", "practice", "performance" and "cultural reproductions theory"

you demonstrate how a person-centered ethnographic approach can reveal cultural motivations and concerns

you demonstrate that local cultural motivations and concerns can be understood only when placed in the appropriate political and economic context

you examine cognitive and cultural dissonances that arise from moving from one cultural context to another, including how they may disrupt the educational process
Examine anthropological theory to discern the linkages between local cultural patterns and global structures of inequality and power

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you examine the role of European expansion and colonialism starting in the late 15th century in shaping the world as we know it today

you examine the on-going pattern of political and economic inequalities that continue to enrich some and impoverish other regions of the world

you examine the social, political and economic forces that drive people to uproot themselves and their families to migrate from various parts of the "third world" to places such as Western Europe, the U.S. and Japan

you analyze the concept of globalization and how this process shapes the experiences of people today
Apply anthropological knowledge in understanding different cultural perspectives

Assessment Strategies

through well-written, thorough, and critically thoughtful essays on the appropriate examinations

through correct responses on objective questions on the appropriate examinations

through the submission of a critically thoughtful paper based on first-hand interviews of individuals raised in a non-U.S. cultural context

Criteria

you use terms and concepts that were introduced in lectures, texts, class discussions or video presentations

you apply anthropological and social-scientific knowledge gained in this course in understanding the experience of a culturally-different individual

you examine the experience of trans-national migration, and the motivations behind that migration

you examine the differences and similarities between the educational process in the U.S. and that of a culturally-different individual

you distinguish between "cultural relativism", "moral relativism" and "epistemological relativism"

you apply these distinctions between "cultural relativism", "moral relativism" and "epistemological relativism" to their practical application of anthropological knowledge