Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Anth201: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Fall 2023), James Tolleson

Open Educational Resources

Cultural anthropology emerged to study the differences among human beings (and between human and non-human beings). This course will cover the foundations of the discipline, including a critical perspective on anthropology’s ties to European colonialism and the rise of global capitalism. Students will come away with an understanding of how cultural anthropologists study culture, defined as “a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways” (Brown, McIlwraith & Tubelle de González 2020, 6). We will also pay close attention to …

Ant 211: Cultural Anthropology Summer -Asynchronous Online Syllabus, Antonia M. Santangelo

Open Educational Resources

Syllabus for ANT 211: Cultural Anthropology using Open Educational Resources. This is designed for a summer session, asynchronous online course.

The Ring Quarry Mining Complex: A Preliminary Archaeological Investigation Into Ancient Native American Sites In Northwestern New Jersey, Joseph D. Cusack

Theses and Dissertations

The Ring Quarry Mining Complex (RQMC) in northwestern New Jersey is an archaeological, Pre-Contact Native American mining and habitation complex. The RQMC was a primary source of tool stone in the Vernon Valley of New Jersey for thousands of years. Evidence of human occupation within the study area extends from the Paleoindian through the Contact Period. This study focuses on the ancient chert quarry and surrounding sites across a landscape making up a habitational complex.

Witchcraft, Magic, Religion: Anth 1102 Oer Syllabus, Lisa Pope Fischer

Open Educational Resources

People rely on religion and various belief systems to bring meaning and understanding to everyday life. This course will show how anthropologists unravel and interpret cultural belief systems to gain insight into the cultural environment. Cross-cultural ethnographic examples will illustrate the various ways in which Anthropologists analyze belief systems as a way to understand a culture. Topics include religion, worldview, symbolism, taboo, myth, ritual, witchcraft, shamanism, religious practitioners, magic, healing, and spirits. Students must be prepared to look at both literate and pre-literate ritual systems. Non-Western belief systems are contrasted with religions of the Western world.

Global Perspectives, Cecilia Salvi

Open Educational Resources

A syllabus for an introductory course in global studies.

Ant-3700 - Introduction To Anthropology, Igor Pashkovskiy

Open Educational Resources

Movement away from the textbook model has potential to foster equitable access to course materials as well as reduce textbook costs for students. As such, transition to a zero cost/OER classroom included the curation of open access scholarly literature to cover the four-field approach presently taught in introductory anthropology courses.

Relationship Of Posterior Intracranial Venous Structures In Homo Sapiens And Handedness, Brianne Finley

Theses and Dissertations

The transverse sinus spans the endocranial surface of the occipital bone and ultimately transmits deoxygenated blood to the sigmoid sinus and jugular vein en route to the heart. This paired sinus tends to be more defined on either the left or right side in human crania. Left and right dominance, or the use of one side of the body more than the other, leaves traces on the human skeleton. Methods to determine handedness upon examination of various elements of the human skeleton mostly focus on the use of the extremities, while little research exists examining the skull for evidence of …

Anthropology 240 Essentials Of Archaeology, Timothy Pugh

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Art And Food: An Examination Of Three Case Studies Using Anthropology And Diaspora As Key., Viridiana S. Mayagoitia

Dissertations and Theses

Food-related artworks are as crucial to understanding culture as other mediums in art like painting, installation, sculpture, and drawings. From Greek and Roman mosaics, Egyptian banquet scenes, to Renaissance frescoes and Flemish still-life paintings, the depiction of food and meals has had multiple meanings. Food as a medium in Western contemporary art was introduced in the 1930s by the Italian Futurists’ banquets, which celebrated modernity and technology underlying social and political commentary. It continued throughout the 1960s with performance art, conceptual art, and happenings, and in the 1970s with the Fluxus movement’s exploration of the boundaries between art and life. …

Ethnography Made Easy, Mary Gatta, Alia R. Tyner-Mullings, Ryan Coughlan

Open Educational Resources

This is an Open Educational Resource for the teaching of an Ethnography class. It was specifically designed for Ethnographies of Work taught at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College.

This currently represents a draft. We are working on ensuring that references and attributions are correct and that images, case studies and examples are representative. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please email us: alia.tyner-mullings@guttman.cuny.edu

A Bite Of The Big Apple: The Anthropology Of Pesticide Use In New York City, Faye O'Brien

Theses and Dissertations

Pesticide exposure in the developing world is well described in anthropology. How pesticide use and exposure is ordered and experienced socially, economically and culturally in Western urban communities is less well studied. The long-term consequences of synergistic pesticide exposure is not easily measurable, which this research addresses through social inquiry.

Do Osteon Morphotypes Identified In The Mid-Diaphysis Of Human Femurs Indicate The Same Torsional Load History As Chimpanzees?, Bailey A G Colohan

Theses and Dissertations

Skedros’s (2009) osteon morphotype scoring (MTS) scheme is employed to identify if humans have the same torsional load-bearing history as chimpanzees at the femoral mid-diaphysis. Humans show to have no significant difference between quadrants of this area’s MTS, congruent with what is expected in a torsional load-bearing area of bone.

Worldwide Distribution Of The Human Apolipoprotein E Gene - The Association Between Apoe, Subsistence, And Latitude, Tiffany S. Ho

Theses and Dissertations

The human apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) plays an important role in metabolizing lipids, regulating plasma cholesterol, and maintaining biological function. Structural differences in APOE variants impact cholesterol absorption and health risk, so that alleles serve as biomarkers for numerous cardiovascular and neurological diseases (Lai 2015). Variant differences are determined by changes in two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), rs429358 and rs7412. Distribution of alleles varies across populations. Allele frequencies in populations have been shown to be associated with cultural and environmental factors, including subsistence strategy and latitude (Eisenberg 2010).

This study aims to provide a cross-population, genetic association study …

From Invisibility To Liminality: The Imposition Of Identity Among Non-Federally Recognized Tribes Within The Federal Acknowledgment Process, Christopher M. Drake

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis discusses the imposition of a “liminal” identity among non-federally recognized American Indian tribes pursuing federal recognition through the Federal Acknowledgment Process. By requiring a tribe to simultaneously appear as both intelligible/similar to and distinctive/different from American society, the “liminal” identity fails to be maintained, barring a tribe’s recognition.

E-Waste In Relation To Geopolitical Forces: A Case Study Of The United States - Mexico Border Region, Michael A. Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

Analysis deconstructs the electronic waste industry and its interconnectedness to geopolitical forces and economic development in the border region between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. A symbiotic business relationship exists between informal e-waste collectors, non-profit collection sites, and for-profit recyclers. Fieldwork data is analyzed from a slow/structural violence perspective.

Policing: A Sociologist’S Response To An Anthropological Account, Peter Moskos

Publications and Research

Social science writing should not ape quantitative science in format, structure, or style. If we can’t explain ourselves to others in a style both illuminating and interesting, we won’t and don’t deserve to be taken seriously. Too many in the Ivory Tower cling to the belief that research and academic writing must conform to a “scientific” format. Quality writing is more art than science. To be relevant, writing need not be – indeed should not be – rooted in a limited model of “hypothesis, replicable experiment, findings, discussion.” The more jargon and sociobabble we anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers spew out, …

Picturing A Colonial Past: The African Photographs Of Isaac Schapera [Book Review], Nancy Howell, David Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Claiming Equality: Puerto Rican Farmworkers In Western New York, Ismael Garcia-Colon

Publications and Research

n July of 1966, a group of Puerto Rican migrant workers protested against police brutality and discrimination in North Collins, a small farm community of western NewYork. Puerto Rican farmworkers made up a substantial part of the population, and had transformed the ethnic, racial, and gender landscape of the town. Local officials and residents produced and reproduced images of Puerto Ricans as inferior subjects within US racial and ethnic hierarchies. Those negative images of Puerto Ricans shaped the way in which local authorities elaborated policies of social control against these farmworkers in North Collins. At the same time, Puerto Rican …

Devil, Not-Quite-White, Rootless Cosmopolitan: Tsuris In Latin America, The Bronx, And The Ussr, Marc Edelman

Publications and Research

This autobiographical essay reflects on experiences with antisemitism in New York City, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Soviet Union. It analyzes this material in relation to ethnographers' emotional life and subjectivity and the larger historical and political contexts of fieldwork.

The Perils Of Laura Watson Benedict: A Forgotten Pioneer In Anthropology, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.