Fall 2011 / Instructor: Matthew Kennedy
Tuesdays and Thursdays 11 am to 12:30 pm
Arts Annex 268, CCSF Main Campus, CRN 72731, 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, 415/452-7107, mkennedy@ccsf.edu
Department website: ccsf.edu/Departments/Behavioral_Sciences/index.html/
Faculty website: www.ccsf.edu/mkennedy/
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:40 to 1:30, and by appointment.

Textbooks and Reading: Ancient Lives: An Introduction to Archaeology and Prehistory by Brian M. Fagan, fourth edition. Additional short articles will be distributed in class on recent finds in archaeology.

The book is on sale at the campus bookstore, online, and is 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 29 15%
Essay #1 Th, October 13 15%
Test #2 Th, November 10 15%
Essay #2 Tu, November 22 15%
Extra Credit Th, December 8 (replaces lowest test or essay)
Final Th, December 15, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm (100 points) 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: For many Thursday meetings, we will meet in Rosenberg Audiovisual Room 304 (noted on the syllabus as R304) 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. Homo Florensienses in Indonesia, also known as “the Hobbit,” completely upends our assumptions of early tool use. Homo erectus at the Dmanisi site in Georgia near the Caucus Mountains forces a new consideration of human evolution. Now is an unusually rewarding time to study archaeology.

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of the course the student should be able to:
Define archaeology and its subfields
Explain the goals of archaeology and the present crisis in site destruction
Describe contemporary methods in archaeology and the stages of archaeological research
Describe and evaluate the major theories of cultural change as they apply to archaeology
Compare and contrast cultural changes and adaptations in the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic eras with accompanying hominid evolution
Understand the major trends, theories, and challenges in New World archaeology

Course Schedule:

Note: Many class meetings will take place in Rosenberg Hall 304 screening room. They are noted in the syllabus as R304.

Th, August 18 - Introduction and Syllabus Review

Tu-Th, August 23 / 25 - Introduction, continued
What is anthropology? What is archaeology? The subdisciplines of anthropology
Reading: Chapter 1
Aug 25 slides: Borobudur and West Oakland, R304

Tu-Th, August 30 / September 1 - Background to Archaeology
The concept of culture, human adaptation, basic terms, mock excavation
Reading: Chapter 2
Sep 1 film: Secrets Underground: Archaeologist Patty Jo Watson (1995), R304

Tu-Th, September 6 / 8 - Time and Space
Relative and absolute (chronometric) dating, matrix, provenience, stratigraphy, tree rings
Reading: Chapter 3
Sep 8 slides: Pambamarca Project, Ecuador (2002), R304

Tu-Th, September 13 / 15 - Preservation, Survey, and Excavation
Reconnaissance, remote sensing, and the grid
Sep 15 slides: Southwestern United States (1994), R304

Tu-Th, September 20 / 22 - Interpretation and Analysis
The environment, assemblages, and typologies
Reading: Chapter 4
Sep 22 film: The Anasazi: Cannibals of the Canyon (2000), R304

Sat, September 24 - Fieldtrip to the Anthropological Studies Center at Sonoma State University and the Northwest Information Center

Tu-Th, September 27 / 29 - Interpretation and Analysis - continued
Industries, artifacts, ecofacts, features, and the kitchen utensil exercise
Reading: Chapter 5
Sep 29: Test #1

Tu-Th, October 4 / 6 - Trade and Social Organization
Central place theory and catchment areas
Reading: Chapters 6 and 7
Oct 6 film: The Mystery of Chaco Canyon (2003), R304

Tu-Th, October 11 / 13 - The Natural World, Evolution, Primates, and Hominins
Lower Paleolithic tool kit
Oct 13: Essay #1 due
Oct 13 film: Becoming Human: First Steps (2009), R304

Tu-Th, October 18 / 20 - Homo erectus and the Old World / The Lower Paleolithic
Leaving Africa, the Acheulean tool kit
Reading: Chapter 8
Oct 20 film: Becoming Human: Birth of Humanity (2009), R304

Tu-Th, October 25 / 27 - Neanderthalensis / The Middle Paleolithic
What we know and don’t know
Reading: Chapter 9
Oct 27 film: Becoming Human: Last Human Standing (2009), R304

Tu-Th, November 1 / 3 - Homo sapiens and the The Upper Paleolithic
The flourishing of stone technology
Reading: Chapter 10

Tu-Th, November 8 / 10 - The Mesolithic
Climate change and cultural invention, the toxic plant test
Nov 10: Test #2

Tu-Th, November 15 / 17 - The Neolithic
Early agricultural cities Çatalhöyük and Jericho
Reading: Chapter 11
Nov 17 film: How Art Made the World, Part I (2005), R304

Tu, November 22 - The Americas
The First Americans
Nov 22: Essay #2 due

Tu-Th, November 29 / December 1 - The Americas - continued
Migrations, weaponry, and pottery
Reading: Chapter 14
Dec 1 film: Mystery of the First Americans (2000), R304

Tu-Th, December 6 / 8 - The Americas - continued
Unfinished business
Reading: Chapter 17
Dec 8 film: Digging for Slaves: The Excavation of American Slave Sites (1989), R304
Dec 8: Extra Credit Due

Mon, December 12 - last day of instruction

Thursday, December 15, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm - FINAL

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