Anthropology
1)Culture from an anthropological perspective and from different subfields.
a.Characteristics/properties of human culture
b.Ethnocentrism; cultural relativism
c.Agency and constraints
2)Methodologies of anthropologists and differences across subfields.
a. Participant observation, Malinowski, ethnography, excavation, dating techniques
b.What are some ethical concerns that anthropologists consider?
3)Human evolution; understanding basic differences between major groups of hominins
a.Earliest hominins, Australopithecus, genus Homo
b.What factors drove important human adaptations? (bipedalism, brain growth)
c.What role did nutrition and food play in human evolution?
4)Development of agriculture and urbanization.
a.Agriculture, foraging, food surplus, power and hierarchy
i.Domestication of plants and animals
ii. How did agriculture affect human health and political organization?
b.What characterizes the first cities/states? How did they develop?