Instructor: Matthew Kennedy
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30 to 11 am
Arts Annex 268, CCSF Main Campus, CRN 78754, 3 units

Anthropology 2 satisfies CCSF Area D General Education, Area 4 IGETC, Area D1 CSU General Education, and UC Historical or Social/Behavioral Science Requirements

Office and Contact Information: Batmale Hall 340, phone 415/452-7107.
Email: matthewkennedy@earthlink.net / Website: www.ccsf.edu/mkennedy/
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:10 to noon, and by appointment.

Textbooks and Reading: Discovering Our Past: A Brief Introduction to Archaeology by Robert J. Sharer and Wendy Ashmore, fifth edition and Exploring Prehistory by Pam J. Crabtree and Douglas V. Campana, second edition. Additional short articles will be distributed in class on recent finds in archaeology.

Both books are on sale at the campus bookstore and on two hour reserve in the library. The reading is designed to compliment the lectures, slides, and films. Reading should be completed the week it is listed. There will be topics in the books we will not cover in class, so keep current.

Exams and Grading: There will be two tests each worth 50 points, two short essays, and a final for Anthropology 2. Course grade will be based on the following percentages:

Test #1 Th, September 17 15%
Essay #1 Th, October 15 15%
Test #2 Th, November 12 15%
Essay #2 Tu, November 24 15%
Extra Credit Th, December 10 (replaces lowest test or essay)
Final Tu, December 15, 8 to 10 am 40%

Tests will include multiple-choice, true/false and matching questions. There are no incompletes given and no make up exams. No late essays will be accepted, however, early essays are always welcome. In borderline cases, attendance and in-class participation will make the difference in boosting a grade. Written assignments are three numbered pages, typed, double-space essays covering relevant topics in class. The course grade will be taken from these assignments that are a combination of point-system for the tests and letter grading for the essays.

A Few Rules: I expect students to attend every class and to be on time, prepared, and attentive. If you have an emergency that prevents you from coming to class, you must contact me by phone, email, or in person or you will be dropped from the roster after two weeks of unexcused absences. You are responsible for all assignments whether you attend class or not. If you are absent, you should get missed assignments, notes, and handouts from a study partner or acquaintance in class, rather than asking me my least favorite question: “Did I miss anything important?” Keep in mind that in borderline cases, attendance, punctuality, and participation make a difference in the course grade.

To state the obvious, cell phones, iPods, etc., must be put away and silent during class. Repeat violations of this rule will result in disciplinary action though the Office of Student Services.

Personal integrity means, among other things, being clear about the origin and ownership of ideas. Taking credit for ideas and words that you did not generate is academic dishonesty. All plagiarized assignments are automatic, irreplaceable zeros. In addition, the instructor has the right to issue an automatic F to anyone found plagiarizing and/or cheating on a test. Typically, a student caught plagiarizing an essay or cheating on a test earns a failing grade in this course.

Slides and Films: On many Thursday meetings, we will meet in Rosenberg Audiovisual Room 305 to see films and/or slides, or to examine reproductions of prehistoric tool kits. This material is as important as class discussion/lectures and will be on the tests. The films come from a variety of topics and the slides come from the instructor's travel-research collection and feature a Buddhist temple in Java, complex prehistoric settlements in Ecuador, and privies (!) in Oakland. There will be repeated “visits” to Chaco Canyon, an important archaeological site in New Mexico, to see how multiple interpretations may be applied to one site.

Extra Credit: There may be a special event or guest speaker that would involve a field trip off campus. An extra credit paper is also an option for students wishing to boost their grades. We will review the options in class.

Course Outline:

Archaeology is a stimulating intellectual journey spanning the history and prehistory of our biological family, the hominid. Human beings have long had a fascination with the past - where did we come from? How did we survive thousands or millions of years ago? What values and beliefs did we hold?
How do we modern Homo sapiens sapiens unravel the mysteries of those who lived before written records? Simply put, we look at what they left behind, archaeology being the study of cultural remains. Anywhere humans once or currently live, at any time, is a site of possible discovery for the archaeologist.
In this course we will initially focus on the business of doing archaeology - how archaeologists locate possible sites, what theories and methods are employed on the job, and how found artifacts are used to answer questions about the past. Later, we will focus on human prehistory, our earliest ancestors, and what we know about them.
The field of archaeology has recently been overwhelmed by new discoveries and insights on our shared past. A Bronze Age man was recovered in the Swiss Alps and casts new understanding on technology and ritual. High-resolution x-rays allow us to see inside the casing of a 2,000 year old Egyptian mummy. In 1995, complex stone tools were recovered in Zaire. Dated at approximately 100,000 years old, they rewrite the story of early human technology. Now is an unusually rewarding time to study archaeology.

Course Schedule:

Tu-Th, August 18 / 20 - Introduction and Syllabus Review

Tu-Th, August 25 / 27 - Introduction, continued
What is anthropology? What is archaeology? The subdisciplines of anthropology
reading: Ashmore and Sharer, chapter 1
8/27 slides: Borobudur and West Oakland, R305

Tu-Th, September 1 / 3 - Background to Archaeology
The concept of culture, human adaptation, basic terms, mock excavation
reading: Ashmore and Sharer, chapter 2
9/3 film: Secrets Underground: Archaeologist Patty Jo Watson (1995), R305

Tu-Th, September 8 / 10 - Time and Space
Relative and absolute dating, matrix, provenience, stratigraphy, tree rings
reading: Ashmore and Sharer, chapter 7
9/10 slides: Pambamarca Project, Ecuador (2002), R305

Sat, September 12 - Fieldtrip to the Northwest Information Center and the Anthropological Studies Center of Sonoma State University

Tu-Th, September 15 / 17 - Preservation, Survey, and Excavation
Reconnaissance, remote sensing, and the grid
reading: Ashmore and Sharer, chapters 4 and 5
9/17: Test #1

Tu-Th, September 22 / 24 - Interpretation and Analysis
The environment, assemblages, typologies, the kitchen utensil exercise
9/24 slides: American Southwest (1994), R305

Tu-Th, September 29 / October 1 - Interpretation and Analysis - continued
Industries, artifacts, ecofacts, and features
reading: Ashmore and Sharer, chapter 6
10/1 film: The Anasazi: Cannibals of the Canyon (2000), R305

Tu-Th, October 6 / 8 - Trade and Social Organization
Central place theory and catchment areas
reading: Ashmore and Sharer, chapter 8
10/8 guest speaker: Angela Locke, BA, archaeology, University of California, Berkeley and former City College student. Fieldwork methods, research, and excavation in Mayan sites of Central America, R305.

Tu-Th, October 13 / 15 - The Natural World, Evolution, Primates, and Hominids
Lower Paleolithic tool kit
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapters 2 and 3, pages 28-63
10/15: Essay #1 due

Tu-Th, October 20 / 22 - Homo erectus and the Old World / The Lower Paleolithic
Leaving Africa, the Acheulean tool kit
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapters 4 and 5, pages 64-92

Tu-Th, October 27 / 29 - Neanderthalensis / The Middle Paleolithic
What we know and don’t know
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapters 6 and 7, pages 93-121
10/29 film: Before We Ruled the Earth: Hunt or be Hunted (2003), R305

Tu-Th, November 3 / 5 - Homo sapiens / The Upper Paleolithic
The flourishing of stone technology
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapters 8, 9 and 10, pages 122-160
11/5 film/slides: Neanderthals on Trial (2002), Homo sapiens cave paintings, R305

Tu-Th, November 10 / 12 - The Mesolithic
Climate change and cultural invention, the toxic plant test
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapter 13, pages 188-201 and chapter 15, pages 215-223
11/12: Test #2

Tu-Th, November 17 / 19 - The Neolithic
Early agricultural cities Çatal Hüyük and Jericho
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapters 16 and 18, pages 224-238 and 249-265
11/19 film: How Art Made the World, Part I (2005)

Tu, November 24 - The Americas
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapter 12, pages 170-183
11/24: Essay #2 due

Tu-Th, December 1 / 3 - The Americas - continued
Migrations, weaponry, and pottery
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapter 17, pages 239-248
12/3 film: Mystery of the First Americans (2000)

Tu-Th, December 8 / 10 - The Americas - continued
Unfinished business
reading: Crabtree and Campana, chapter 19, pages 270-291 and chapter 27, pages 404-412
12/10 film: Digging for Slaves: The Excavation of American Slave Sites (1989)
12/10: Extra Credit Due

Tu, December 15, 8 to 10 am - FINAL

Note: changes made in class may not be reflected on this version of the syllabus.