The Forest People. Colin M. Turnbull. Many of you will only have a vague idea of what anthropology is or know only a few famous names in the field such as Margaret Mead or Louis Leakey. This class is a general introduction to the field and the broad range of what anthropology is and can be. It is designed to pique your interest and reveal to you the broad diversity of human behavior and lifestyles across the world and through out time.
Anthropology is a relatively new discipline.
In recent years a new subfield, applied anthropology, has emerged that speaks to the modern world. Although we will discuss all the subfields, we will focus primarily on sociocultural anthropology, the study of living peoples and their lifeways. To learn, understand and apply the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism to improve your own life and to increase tolerance for alternative lifestyles. To understand that modern Western sociocultural patterns are not the only way of life that can be good and satisfying, nor are they necessarily our future. To gain a broad cross-cultural background against which to view our own culture as well as contemporary social problems and to realize that many social patterns are NOT innate and unchangeable.