This course examines the dynamic interrelations among physical and behavioral traits of humans, environment, and culture to provide an integrated framework for studying human biological evolution and modern diversity. Topics include issues in morphological evolution and adaptation; fossil and cultural evidence for human evolution from earliest times through the Pleistocene; evolution of tool use and social behavior; modern human variation and concepts of race. The class also studies stone artifacts and fossil specimens.

This class introduces the multidisciplinary nature of archaeology, both in theory and practice. Lectures provide a comparative examination of the origins of agriculture and the rise of early civilizations in the ancient Near East and Mesoamerica. The laboratory sessions provide practical experience in aspects of archaeological field methods and analytical techniques including the examination of stone, ceramic, and metal artifacts and bone materials. Lab sessions have occasional problem sets which are completed outside of class.

Word Count: 6872

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This course explores how identities, whether of individuals or groups, are produced, maintained, and transformed. Students will be introduced to various theoretical perspectives that deal with identity formation, including constructions of “the normal.” We will explore the utility of these perspectives for understanding identity components such as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, language, social class, and bodily difference. By semester’s end students will understand better how an individual can be at once cause and consequence of society, a unique agent of social action as well as a social product.

Short Description:
A new, 21st century verse translation of Homer's epic work, translated by Michael Heumann.

Long Description:
There is no greater introduction to world literature than Homer’s Iliad. The great epic poem tells the story of the Bronze Age war between the Achaeans (Greeks) and Trojans, the great warriors who did the fighting, the woman they were fighting for (and fighting over), and the gods who egged them on.

This is a new, 21st century verse translation by Michael Heumann. It seeks to retain the spirit and language of Homer’s original Greek while making it readable and enjoyable for a modern audience.

Michael Heumann is a Professor of English at Imperial Valley College in California. He holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Riverside. This is his first translation.

Word Count: 149411

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Short Description:
This textbook supports the Impact of Materials on Society course and teaching materials, developed with the Materials Research Society. The textbook offers an exploration into materials (including ceramics, clay, concrete, glass, metals, and polymers) and the relationship with technologies and social structures. The textbook was developed by an interdisciplinary team from Engineering and Liberal Arts and Sciences, including anthropologists, sociologists, historians, media studies experts, Classicists, and more.

Long Description:
This textbook supports the Impact of Materials on Society course and teaching materials, developed with the Materials Research Society. The textbook, which is freely available online (https://ufl.pb.unizin.org/imos/) and for purchase in print-on-demand format, offers an exploration into materials and the relationship with technologies and social structures. The textbook was developed by an interdisciplinary team from Engineering and Liberal Arts and Sciences, including anthropologists, sociologists, historians, media studies experts, Classicists, and more. Chapters include coverage of clay, ceramics, concrete, copper and bronze, gold and silver, steel, aluminum, polymers, and writing materials. Supplemental materials, including lecture slides, assignments, and exams, may be accessed in a companion volume: https://ufl.pb.unizin.org/imosinstructorguide/.

Word Count: 69304

ISBN: 978-1-944455-24-8

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

The Open Educational Resource Reader and Workbook for Interpreters

Short Description:
This Open Educational Resource (OER) on interpreting offers authors and readers free and open access to current, relevant, easy-to-access, and free materials. The editors have created a space where emerging scholars in the field of signed language interpreting make contributions with the ability to revise as the interpreting studies discipline and the scholars, themselves, develop and change. This OER provides faculty and students readings and practical application experiences that connect program specific coursework and concepts across the interpreter education curriculum emphasizing the holistic nature of the field of interpreting.

Long Description:
The purpose of this OER project is to develop current materials targeting newer scholars as authors who have conducted current research, but have not had an opportunity to publish. In this project, each of the five editors will develop and/or compile a collection of reading and ancillary materials on a specific content area. Contributions will be made in written English or digitally recorded American Sign Language (ASL). All contributors retain rights to their own work and may reuse in traditional and transformative ways as OER approaches continue to advance. As authors continue to grow, they are encouraged to remix (create new content over time) and redistribute materials they have developed.

The goal of this OER is to offer faculty and students readings and practical application experiences that connect program specific coursework and concepts across the interpreter education curriculum emphasizing the holistic nature of the field of interpreting.

Additionally, there are different needs for those students who are native English speakers and those who are native/primary users of ASL. We also envision other interpreter educators using the materials. Thus, we expect that the readings and activities will be revised (adapted) as needed.

Courses and topics for this project include interpreter mindset, pre-interpreting skills and knowledge, technical skills, reflective practice, linguistics, cultural intelligence, multicultural competencies, meaning transfer, and coaching.

Word Count: 38589

ISBN: 978-1-63635-025-7

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Designed to meet the scope and sequence of your course, OpenStax Introduction to Anthropology is a four-field text integrating diverse voices, engaging field activities, and meaningful themes like Indigenous experiences and social inequality to engage students and enrich learning. The text showcases the historical context of the discipline, with a strong focus on anthropology as a living and evolving field. There is significant discussion of recent efforts to make the field more diverse—in its practitioners, in the questions it asks, and in the applications of anthropological research to address contemporary challenges. In addressing social inequality, the text drives readers to consider the rise and impact of social inequalities based on forms of identity and difference (such as gender, ethnicity, race, and class) as well as oppression and discrimination. The contributors to and dangers of socioeconomic inequality are fully addressed, and the role of inequality in social dysfunction, disruption, and change is noted.

Through the comparative study of different cultures, anthropology explores fundamental questions about what it means to be human. It seeks to understand how culture shapes societies, from the smallest island in the South Pacific to the largest Asian metropolis, and affects the way institutions work, from scientific laboratories to Christian megachurches. This course will provide a framework for analyzing diverse facets of human experience, such as gender, ethnicity, language, politics, economics, and art.

Through the comparative study of different cultures, anthropology explores fundamental questions about what it means to be human. It seeks to understand how culture both shapes societies, from the smallest island in the South Pacific to the largest Asian metropolis, and affects the way institutions work, from scientific laboratories to Christian mega-churches. This course will provide a framework for analyzing diverse facets of human experience such as gender, ethnicity, language, politics, economics, and art.

This Open Educational Resource was designed to provide a four-field introduction to anthropology for undergraduate courses. This course was created through the cumulative efforts of the Department of Anthropology at IUP as a reflection of their teaching and experiences as a collective.

As instructors of both undergraduate and graduate students alike, the professors in the Anthropology Department hope that students use this book to further their knowledge and understanding of anthropology and apply it in their everyday lives and the world around them.

IUP's Introduction to Anthropology: A Holistic and Applied Approach to Being Human is a 4-field text designed to provide students and instructors with a quality, peer-reviewed free resource that depicts a diversity of perspectives, approaches, and topics related to sociocultural anthropology, biological anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology.

Consisting of a robust series of 20 modules, the IUP OER covers topics from the history of North American anthropology, cultural and archaeological methods, the origins of humans and our earliest ancestors, the development of agriculture, race and ancestry, sex and gender, kinship, religion, climate change, and human rights and social issues—providing faculty flexibility with topics covered in a typical 15-week semester.

Designed to help students engage more meaningfully with each topic and develop as critical thinkers, the OER includes:

review and assessment questions
discussion prompts
class activities
relevant videos
glossaries
suggested readings
allowing students to dive further into topics no matter their preferred method of learning.

We are proud to host an interactive, digital version of the OER, created through the Articulate platform. We are also rolling out a physical version of the text, published through Amazon's KDP (stay tuned for the link).

Authored by the faculty in IUP's Department of Anthropology, this OER arose from a commitment to provide high-quality resources to all students. We combined the best aspects of our introductory course and teaching to create a robust resource that can be used in any introductory, 4-field anthropology course. Our own applied experiences are integrated into the course materials, as well as those from a range of professional anthropologists (isotopes and kinship studies, indigenous archaeology, forensic anthropology and the race problem, medical anthropology, and a linguistic anthropological analysis of food and power relationships in the prison system, among others!). The result is a resource that provides multiple lenses to tackle common introductory topics while showing students the myriad possibilities of what it looks like to be an anthropologist. Contact us for a LMS package to integrate the course into a Learning Management System.

Senior Authors:
Andrea Palmiotto
Lara Homsey-Messer
Benjamin Ford
Amanda Poole
Abigail Adams
Francis Allard
William Chadwick

Other Contributors
Allysha Winburn, University of West Florida
Alexander Martín, Center for Comparative Archaeology, University of Pittsburgh
Desireé Reneé Martinez, Cogstone Resource Management
Jelmer Davis, University of California, Davis
Anastasia Hudgins, Ethnologica
Sandhyak Narayanan, University of Nevada, Reno
Rachel Horowitz, Washington State University
Lori Labotka, Knoxville, TN
Bridget Roddy, IUP
Ashley Nagle, IUP
Sonja Rossi-Williams, IUP

This OER was made possible through grants from PA GOAL and the IUP Center for Teaching Excellence.

This book was created as a means to provide an Open Educational Resource (OER) for University of Nebraska-Lincoln students enrolled in ANTH 110: Introduction to Anthropology. The book was inspired by the OERs Perspectives: An Open Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, 2nd edition, created by the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges. Inspiration also comes from Dr. Michael Wesch and his OER text, The Art of Being Human: An Invitation to Anthropology. This book combines the authors’ respective specializations in forensic, archaeological, and cultural/medical anthropology, as well as uses examples from our research and lives. Funding for this work was provided by the Open Educational Resource Seed Grant from the Center for Transformative Teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Short Description:
Introduction to Archaeology: A Workbook, is designed to assist students in the Intro to Archaeology course by giving them questions and assignments to reinforce what is learned in the classroom lectures.

Long Description:
Introduction to Archaeology: A Workbook, is designed to assist students in the Introduction to Archaeology course in the Anthropology department at the University of Texas Arlington. The course is part of the core curriculum. This workbook is designed to challenge the student and reinforce what is learned in the classroom lectures. The workbook is set up by weeks and it includes questions, activities, and readings that reflect on the course work.

Word Count: 5742

ISBN: 978-1-64816-988-5

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This course provides an overview of Asian American history and its relevance for contemporary issues. It covers the first wave of Asian immigration in the 19th century, the rise of anti-Asian movements, the experiences of Asian Americans during WWII, the emergence of the Asian American movement in the 1960s, and the new wave of post–1965 Asian immigration. The class examines the role these experiences played in the formation of Asian American ethnicity. The course addresses key societal issues such as racial stereotyping, media racism, affirmative action, the glass ceiling, the “model minority” syndrome, and anti-Asian harassment or violence. The course is taught in English.

An Anthropological and Comparative Approach

Word Count: 49859

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This course examines major social and political trends, events, debates and personalities which help place aspects of contemporary French culture in their historical perspective through fiction, films, essays, newspaper articles, and television. Topics include the heritage of the French Revolution, the growth and consequences of colonialism, the role of intellectuals in public debates, the impact of the Occupation, the modernization of the economy and of social structures. The sources and meanings of national symbols, monuments, myths and manifestoes are also studied. Recommended for students planning to study abroad. Taught in French.

Interdisciplinary introduction to contemporary Latin America, drawing on films, literature, popular press accounts, and scholarly research. Topics include economic development, ethnic and racial identity, religion, revolution, democracy, transitional justice, and the rule of law. Examples draw on a range of countries in the region, especially Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. Includes a heavy oral participation component, with regular breakout groups, formal class presentations on pressing social issues (such as criminal justice and land tenure), and a structured class debate.

This class provides some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. Throughout the course, we examine a number of ways in which human language is a complex but law-governed mental system. Much of the class is devoted to studying some core aspects of this system in detail; we also spend individual classes discussing a number of other issues, including how language is acquired, how languages change over time, language endangerment, and others.

This course studies what is language and what does knowledge of a language consist of. It asks how do children learn languages and is language unique to humans; why are there many languages; how do languages change; is any language or dialect superior to another; and how are speech and writing related. Context for these and similar questions is provided by basic examination of internal organization of sentences, words, and sound systems. No prior training in linguistics is assumed.

Introduction to Media Studies is designed for students who have grown up in a rapidly changing global multimedia environment and want to become more literate and critical consumers and producers of culture. Through an interdisciplinary comparative and historical lens, the course defines “media” broadly as including oral, print, theatrical, photographic, broadcast, cinematic, and digital cultural forms and practices. The course looks at the nature of mediated communication, the functions of media, the history of transformations in media and the institutions that help define media’s place in society.
Over the course of the semester we explore different theoretical perspectives on the role and power of media in society in influencing our social values, political beliefs, identities and behaviors. Students also have the opportunity to analyze specific media texts (such as films and television shows) and explore the meaning of the changes that occur when a particular narrative is adapted into different media forms. We look at the ways in which the politics of class, gender and race influence both the production and reception of media. To represent different perspectives on media, several guest speakers also present lectures. Through the readings, lectures, and discussions as well as their own writing and oral presentations, students have multiple opportunities to engage with critical debates in the field as well as explore the role of media in their own lives.