Anthropology 109: Human Universals
(Spring 2008)

E-mail:mkundu@es.ucsb.edu

TA: Mariam Dahdul

TA’s office hours:
Mondays and Wednesdays at 10-11am in HSSB 2042

TA’s E-mail: mdahdul@umail.ucsb.edu

Course Outline:
This course takes up the issues related to the human universals: patterns of behavior, psyche, society, or culture that are found among all or nearly all peoples. The course will examine the problems of defining universals, constructing a list of universals, and determining the causes, consequences, meaning, and significances of universals in understanding human society, culture and behavior. By studying the human universals, or at least the near universals the course attempts to understand the constants of human nature, if there is any. The topic is highly controversial and it raises not only serious, but also heated debates among anthropologists and other scholars of human behavior.

Texts and Reader:
First of the following two texts will be used as required text for the course. The second one is an optional text suggested for more enthusiastic students. The optional text will assist the students to follow some important topics of the class lectures. It will be available at the Reserve Book Services of UCSB library and that can be checked out for two hours.

1. the blank slate: Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker, Penguin Books, 2002.
2. Human Universals by Donald E. Brown. McGraw Hill, 1991

In addition, the students are required to buy a compiled reader from Grafikart at Isla Vista.

Lecture Topics:

1. How did the anthropological theories perceive human universals in the past?
   • The concepts of pre-Darwinian period
   • Theories of Tylor, Boas, Kroeber, Benedict, Mead, Radcliffe-Brown, Malinowski, Durkheim, Levi-Strauss, and a few others
     
2. The role of contemporary Biological Sciences and Evolutionary Psychology in understanding human universals
   
3. Random variation of culture: Is this a reality or a myth? Some interesting studies:
   • Derek Freeman against Margaret Mead on Samoan adolescence
   • Deborah Gewertz against M. Mead on gender role among the Tchambuli
   • Universal pattern of color classification
   • Paul Ekman’s findings on universal pattern of facial expression
   • Lexical universals
• a. The problems of defining human universals
• b. Types of universals
• c. Methodology of studying the universals
• d. G.P. Murdock and Human Relations Area Files
  
5. Marriage, family, incest avoidance, Oedipus complex, male dominance, subordination of women, rites of passage: Are these universals?
   
6. Donald Brown’s list of universals. How to explain so many universals? Are we endowed with a common human nature? Aren’t we born with a blank slate? Is culture a product of biology? A HOT DEBATE!

Exams:
There will be one midterm and one final. Reading and lecture materials of the midterm are cumulative to the final. Midterm and final will carry 1/3rd and 2/3rd of the final grade respectively. The tests will contain only multiple choice and True/False questions. Please bring a pink/red scantron (approximate size 8 ‡ X 11inches) and a #2 pencil for each test. There is no system of getting extra credit in the course. Make-up exams are against my policy unless you face an unforeseen medical emergency. You must have to prove the real emergency with a letter from your physician. Otherwise you will be penalized one full grade for not taking the tests with other students in the class. Grading will be relative.

Films:
A few documentary films relevant to the course will be shown in this course. Each exam will include a few questions on the films.

Schedule of Exams and assigned readings:

Midterm: Friday, May, 2008
(Part I, II, & III of Pinker; Section I of the Reader)
Study Guide

Weekly Reading Assignments:

Week 1 - From Blank Slate: Introduction to Part I, Chapters I, II & III

Week II - From Blank Slate: Chapters IV, V, & VI

Reading assignments of the of the following weeks will be announced after publication of the Reader.