THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT ASHEVILLE FACULTY SENATE Senate Document Number 1495S Date of Senate Approval 2/9/95 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Statement of Faculty Senate Action: APC Document #14: Catalog Changes in Sociology Course Titles Effective Date: Fall 1995 Delete: On pages 194-199 of the 1994-95 Catalog delete the following course titles and their course descriptions: Soc 215 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Soc 242 Comparative Cultures Soc 327 Anthropological Perspectives on Modern Europe Soc 353 Culture and Personality Add: The heading of Anthropology (Anth) to catalog listing. Participating Faculty: Kelley (Sociology) Anth 2xx Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (3) An introduction to the study of culture and the cultural differences found among various types of human societies. Particular attention will be given to the nature of culture and its importance in understanding human behavior, values and beliefs. The anthropological perspective will be used to analyze ethnographic examples from both non-Western and Western societies. Course offered every semester. Anth 2xx Ethnography and Culture (3) A close examination of selected cultures through ethnographic books and films. This course, through intensive focus on specific cultures, teaches ethnographic analysis, how to use an anthropological lens to understand other cultures. It also teaches critical thinking about the nature of ethnography, examining both the methods used by anthropologists to understand other cultures and the ways in which anthropologists have described and interpreted these cultures via the written word and visual media. Anth 3xx Anthropology of Modern Europe (3) Ethnographic studies of communities are used to examine selected issues in modern European society and culture. The course offers an overview of all of Europe as a culture area, but focuses most closely on the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions. Themes covered include family, gender, community, religion, and regional identity. Please see the department chair for course offering. Anth 3xx Culture and the Individual (3) The relationship between culture and the individual is considered using both studies from the field of psychological anthropology and narrative accounts focusing on the lives of individuals. Examples from a variety of cultures are used. Methodological and theoretical issues implicated in the anthropological study of the individual are examined. Please see the Department Chair for course offering. Anth 3xx Anthropology of Gender (3) A consideration of how culture affects our understanding and experience of gender. The course examines the culturally diverse nature of the construction of gender and addresses key methodological and theoretical issues in the anthropological study of gender. Please see the Department Chair for course offering. Anth 4x1-6 Topical Research (1-6) Students may work with faculty in ongoing research or may design and carry out their own work under faculty supervision. May be taken once or repeated for a total of six hours. Course offered every semester. Anth 4x1-6 Senior Readings Course (1-6) Directed, advanced, independent studies in a specific anthropological or with application to a particular anthropological issue. May be taken once or repeated with variable content for a total of six hours. Course offered every semester. Anth 1x1-6, 2x1-6, 3x1-6, 2x1-6 Special Topics in Anthropology (1-6) Courses not otherwise included in the catalog listing but for which there may be special needs. May be repeated for credit as often as permitted and as subject matter changes. Courses offered every semester. Impact Statement: Separate designation of Anthropology courses and slight changes of existing course titles and content should not affect the Department of Sociology or other departments. Presently, all of these courses are being taught by Professor Kelley or adjunct faculty. 1) The Cultural Anthropology course remains pretty much the same 2) Ethnography and Culture is a title change and slight change to the course, but basically the same as the Comparative Cultures course. In a similar fashion title changes and variation in course content to more adequately reflect the class have occurred for the Modern Europe and the Culture and Personality course 3) The Anthropology of Gender course is presently being taught as a special topics course, supporting the Women's Studies Program. 4) The research, readings and special topics courses have all been taught in the past by Dr. Kelley with anthropological content, with Sociology designation. Rationale: Separate designation of Anthropology is based on two issues. First, it will aid both students and advisors. Anthropology can be more easily located in the schedules and catalogue with a separate designation. Additionally, the distinct designation will allow for simplified transcript evaluation for students transferring in or out of UNCA. An extension of this is the evaluation of transcripts by graduate departments of Anthropology. Second, Anthropology is a separate and distinct discipline from Sociology. While both fields originated at about the same time, they had unique origins. They are distinct in scholarly interests and maintain different theoretical paradigms. Research methods may overlap, yet most frequently anthropologists pursue different data collection techniques. The disciplines have separate professional societies and graduate education occurs in distinct departments. Sometimes for administrative purposes Sociology and Anthropology are in combined departments but they maintain different class designations (e.g. Bowdoin, Kenyon, Mary Washington, Mount Holyoke). The proposed changes in course titles and descriptions reflect Dr. Kelley's experience garnered in 4 years of teaching at UNCA as to how the anthropology courses offered at UNCA might best meet the needs of the sociology curriculum in particular and the liberal arts mission of the university in general. Here is how she sees the courses fitting these needs: 1. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. This course offers an introduction to the field and meets the general education social science distribution requirement. It uses cross-cultural data to examine basic facets of human social life, e.g., subsistence, economics, politics and law, the family, religion. The course thus both introduces basic anthropological concepts and is inherently interdisciplinary, showing how cross-cultural data may lead us to reexamine assumptions about human nature made by other disciplines. It is also an excellent course for sociology majors who would like to add a cross-cultural and comparative perspective to their study of social institutions. 2. Ethnograpy and Culture. This is a revision of the course previously titled "Comparative Cultures," a course that was assigned to me to teach when I came to UNCA. Usually a "Comparative Cultures" course is offered in departments that have a four-field introductory course (covering physical anthro, archeology, linguistics and cultural anthropology) to give students a more thorough introduction to cultural anthropology. Since we offer an introduction to cultural anthropology, I found this course to be somewhat redundant. I have remedied this by changing the focus of the course; the proposed change in name and description reflects this change in focus. While the introductory course examines various aspects of human social life, this course, through an intensive examination of ethnograhies and ethnographic films, looks at how those aspects are integrated in specific cultures. A key goal of the course is also to teach students to think critically about how ethnographies are constructed, i.e., how our knowledge about other cultures is constructed. The course, in addition to expanding student knowledge of world cultures by intensive focus on a select number of cases, will also teach students to read books and view films critically. For students taking several anthropology courses, this introduction to how to read ethnographies and use ethnographic data will serve them well in upper-level courses. Similarly, students from other majors (e.g., sociology, political science, history, literature) who are interested in a cross-cultural focus, will find this course useful in honing their comparative perspective. 3. Anthropology of Modern Europe. This course teaches students how to apply an anthropological perspective to the study of a specific region of the world. The only proposed change is a shortening of the title and a revision of the themes covered to more accurately reflect what is now covered. 4. Culture and the Individual. This course teaches students how to apply an anthropological perspective to the study of a particular topic. The original title of this course, "Culture and Personality," was confusing because "culture and personality" refers to a specific (and outdated) school in the field of psychological anthropology. The new title allows the course to have a broader focus, a focus that not only encompasses the entire field of psychological anthropology, but also goes beyond it to include the more recent focus on the individual in symbolic and interpretive anthropology. I think that this broader focus better meets interdisciplinary needs. 5. Anthropology of Gender. This is another topical course offered the first time this semester (enrollment of 23) as a special topics course. It can also serve as a women's studies elective.