Syllabus Template - CSUF Anthropology

Class #14346 1 

ANTH311.01: Culture and Communication 

Instructor: Robey Callahan 

Office: MH-426G 

Office hours: MW 8-9.30am 

Email: rcallahan@fullerton.edu 

Phone: 657.278.8578 

Class days: MW 

Class hours: 10-11.15am 

Classroom: MH-554 

Final exam: Monday, May 20th, noon-1.50pm 

COURSE DESCRIPTION FROM THE CATALOG 

“How culture meaning and manipulation are constituted in both traditional and modern cultures 

through language, mythology, ritual, architecture, religion, and other communication systems.” 

Course Prerequisite: completion of General Education Category C.2. 

ANTH 311 satisfies the learning goals for GE Category C3, "Explorations in the Arts and Humanities", by 

helping students to: 

• Understand broad, unifying themes in the arts and/or humanities from cross-disciplinary 

perspectives 

• Solve complex problems that require artistic or humanistic reasoning 

• Relate the arts and/or humanities to significant social problems or to other related disciplines 

It also satisfies the learning goals for GE Area Z, "Cultural Diversity", by helping students to: 

• Understand that culture is socially constructed and fundamental to social interaction 

• Appreciate the complex relationships that gender, ethnicity and class bring to a discussion of 

society and culture 

• Understand that because we live in an interconnected world, we need to understand the 

diversity and relationships within and among cultures 

• Recognize and evaluate how one's cultural history affects one's sense of self and relationship 

to others 

Further, it includes a focus on writing skills as specified by UPS 411.201. (A detailed description of how 

this course meets the learning goals for these categories is posted on the Titanium site for this course.) 

COURSE OBJECTIVES & STUDENT LEARNING GOALS 

Semiotics, the study of signs, casts its net wider than spoken and written language, to take in the many 

systematic and idiosyncratic ways human beings communicate. Communication is, of course, a part of 

culture. But what is the nature of the relationship between the two? What are the building blocks of 

communication? How do we use various forms of communication to get things done and to tell others 

about ourselves? What are the political and social aspects of these many forms of communication? 

In this course we shall be endeavoring to answer these and many more important questions by 

analyzing culture and communication from a range of theoretical viewpoints and with regard to casestudies 

from cultures around the world. Key areas of focus will include rituals, pollution, and taboo; 

fashion, art, photography, and advertising; and tourism, ethnicity, and nationalism. 

The written code papers will assist students in developing an analytical eye for the ways different 

aspects of culture communicate, often systematically. 

PLANNED ASSIGNMENTS 

See below.

Class #14346 2 

GRADING POLICY FOR THE COURSE 

There is no extra credit offered in this course. 

This course consists of lectures and group projects. Attendance and participation are mandatory. 

• Every unexcused absence will harm your final grade by 3 full points, and this is not negotiable. 

• Every missed group project due to an unexcused absence will harm your final grade by a further 3 

points, and this is not negotiable either. 

Except under extraordinary circumstances, an absence counts as unexcused if a compelling excuse has 

not been provided to me within one week of that absence. This is not negotiable either. 

Paper (25 points): This paper is to be 1500-1600 words (not shorter and not longer). Although a general 

description of the paper is near the end of this syllabus, full details will be provided in class. Under no 

circumstances will this paper be accepted later than Wednesday, May 15th, in class. This is not negotiable 

either. 

Mid-term exam (35 points): This is a multiple-choice exam based on readings and lectures prior to it. 

Final exam (40 points): This is a multiple-choice exam based on all readings and lectures prior to it, but 

after the mid-term. It will include map questions from throughout the whole course (see About Maps 

below). 

This course is graded on a +/- scale: 

A = 94-100 points 

A- = 90-93 points 

B+ = 88-89 points 

B = 84-87 points 

B- = 80-83 points 

C+ = 78-79 points 

C = 74-77 points 

C- = 70-73 points 

D+ = 68-69 points 

D = 64-67 points 

D- = 60-63 points 

F = fewer than 60 points 

If an emergency prevents your attending a scheduled exam, you should contact me as soon as possible to 

discuss the possibility of a make-up exam. 

EXAMINATIONS 

Mid-term exam: Wednesday, March 27th, regular class period 

Final exam: Monday, May 20th, noon-1.50pm 

ABOUT MAPS 

Anthropology in general involves studying peoples from many different parts of the world. Having an 

idea of where on the map the various cultures we shall be discussing are (or were), will be of immense 

help to all students. Therefore, students will be asked to keep track, using a world map, of key 

locations. The final exam will have map questions from throughout the course (I shall tell you which 

places to remember!). 

REQUIRED TEXT 

This book should be available in the Titan Bookshop. A copy should also be on reserve in the library. 

Chandler, Daniel 

2007 Semiotics: The Basics. 2nd edition. London: Routledge.

Class #14346 3 

OTHER INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL/ACTIVITIES 

Readings available on Titanium (these are noted in the Course Schedule with an asterisk *): 

Anderson, Benedict 

1991 Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: 

Verso. 

Douglas, Mary 

1966 Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge. 

Geertz, Clifford 

2005[1972] Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. Daedalus 134(4):56-86. 

Goffman, Erving 

1963 Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York: Touchstone. 

Hebdige, Dick 

1979 Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Mehuen & Co. Ltd. 

Leach, Edmund 

1964 Anthropological Aspects of Language: Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse. In New 

Directions in the Study of Language. Eric H. Lenneberg, ed. Pp 23-63. Cambridge, MA: MIT 

Press. 

Lutz, Catherine A. and Jane L. Collins 

1993 Reading National Geographic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 

Turner, Victor 

1969 The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

COURSE SCHEDULE 

Note: With the exception of the first class (obviously), all readings must be done prior to coming to class. 

Week 1: Monday, January 28th, and Wednesday, January 30th 

Introduction 

Chandler, xiii-xvi, 1-10 

Week 2: Monday, February 4th, and Wednesday, February 6th 

Saussure 

Chandler, 13-28 

Core Cultural Symbols: Anthropology as Semiotics 

* Geertz, Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, 56-86 


Peirce 


Week 4: Wednesday, February 20th 

Ambiguity I: Ritual Pollution and In-Between Spaces 

* Douglas, Secular Defilement, 29-40 

* Turner, Liminality and Communitas, 94-111 


More Models of the Sign 


Week 6: Monday, March 4th, and Wednesday, March 6th 

Ambiguity II: Stigma 

* Goffman, Stigma and Social Identity, 1-40 

Signs and Things I 

Chandler, 59-68

Class #14346 4 


Signs and Things II 


Ambiguity III: Animals... 

* Leach, Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse, 23-63 


"Truth" in Advertising (A lecture with no assigned reading) 

Tropes 


Codes 



Review for mid-term on Monday, March 25th 

Mid-term on Wednesday, March 27th 

Week 10: Monday, April 8th, and Wednesday, April 10th 

Fashion/Music 

* Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style, 100-127 

Paper explained and discussed 

Week 11: Monday, April 15th, and Wednesday, April 17th 

Textual Interactions I 


Week 12: Monday, April 22nd, and Wednesday, April, 24th 

Textual Interactions II 


Week 13: Monday, April 29th, and Wednesday, May 1st 

The "Other" I: Cannibal Tours (A film with no assigned reading) 

The "Other" II: National Geographic 

* Lutz and Collins, The Readers' Imagined Geographic: An Evolutionary Tale, 217-258 

Week 14: Monday, May 6th, and Wednesday, May 8th 

The "Other" III: Tourism and Ethnicity in Shetland (A lecture with no assigned reading) 

The "Other" IV: Census, Map, Museum... and Nation 

* Benedict, Census, Map, Museum, 163-185 

Week 15: Monday, May 13th, and Wednesday, May 15th 

Review for final 

Paper due on Wednesday, May 15th 

Finals week: Monday, May 20th, noon-1.50pm, is the final exam

Class #14346 5 

ANTH 311 - Culture and Communication 

CODE PAPER 

(25% of each student's grade) 

As noted in the Syllabus, this paper is to be 1500-1600 words (not shorter and not 

longer). This word-count range does not include the References Cited section. It only 

includes the Body Text itself. 

I. THEME 

You will be asked to analyze a code or codes that are of interest to you. 

We shall shortly be discussing various codes (music, typography, dancing, gestures, 

speaking, dress, etc) involved in late-1970s UK punk style. This should give you a place 

from which to start to think about the code(s) you would like to examine. 

There are hosts of other examples of codes from which students can choose. Some 

possibilities would include formal styles of greeting (eg, among the Wolof or among 

some other group), cars (eg, among American teenagers), buses (eg, among Pakistani 

or Guatemalan bus-owners), clothing styles (eg, among Christian or Buddhist monks), 

art styles (eg, in Renaissance Europe or in Islam), etc. 

Once a student has chosen his or her code(s), the task can be performed in one of two 

ways: 

1. A cross-cultural comparison of of apparently similar codes: the student can elect to 

work on a code present in American society (or some part of American society) and in 

some other part of the world. For example, a student can choose to look at how 

tattoos are used among Americans in the armed services versus how they are used 

among, say, the Maori of New Zealand. Or a student can instead choose to compare a 

code across two non-American cultures. For example, a student can examine the 

"code"-aspects of a cockfight, say, in Bali and in Brazil. 

2. A cross-code analysis: the student can take one code or sub-code as his/her central 

focus and then analyze how it relates to other codes (think here of the analysis of 

punk style done by Hebdige: here we see codes of music, clothing, writing and art 

forms, and dancing are all informed by each other). Although youth styles are rather 

easy to analyze in this way, the truth is that one can do a cross-code analysis in any 

culture and among any age group. The trick is here that certain core elements of 

meaning are expressed through a number of codes and form a sort of "signifying 

package" that stands out as recognizable from other such "packages". 

II. ORGANIZATION 

First off, the entire CODE PAPER should be double-spaced and in a standard 12-point

Class #14346 6 

font (such as Times Roman). 

Section 1: The Title Page 

Section 2: The Text Itself 

The Title Page is one page. It goes at the front of the paper. It contains 

the following information: Title of Paper (underlined), Name, Date, and 

Course Number. 

This section, following the Title Page, will contain no fewer than 1500 

words and no more than 1600 words. 

This section must be organized thus: an Introduction lets the 

reader know what is to come; Body Text provides the detail and 

the data; and a Conclusion tells the reader where he or she has 

been and what the meaning of it all is. 

All citations, as discussed below, must be noted in keeping with AAA 

Style (the AAA Style Guide is available as a PDF from Titanium). 

Having trouble with your writing? Seriously, the best place to get 

help is the Tutoring Center: 

http://www.fullerton.edu/ulc/TutoringCenter.asp 

Location: POLLAK LIBRARY NORTH, 2ND FLOOR 

Phone: 657.278.2738 

You have been advised of this! 

All citations, as discussed below, must be noted in keeping with AAA 

Style (the AAA Style Guide is available as a PDF from Titanium). If you 

have problems, you should ask at the Library, as they can help. You 

can also ask me, but it is best to start with the Librarians. 

Section 3: References Cited 

III. REFERENCES 

This section, following the Text Itself, will be formatted exactly 

according to the guidelines noted in the AAA Style Guide (which is 

available as a PDF from Titanium). 

The paper must cite a minimum of THREE ACADEMIC SOURCES. One of these three 

can be a reading from the course itself; the other two (or more) must be from outside 

the course. The paper can also have any number of POPULAR PRESS SOURCES, but it 

is essential that you know the difference here. For our purposes, an "academic" 

source is a peer-reviewed journal or book. A "popular press" source is anything that is

Class #14346 7 

not from a peer-reviewed journal or book. 

When looking for academic sources for your paper, the first place you may want to look 

is the "Going Further" section of Chandler (pp 235-241). It contains citations for 

academic sources organized in terms of themes. The bibliographic information for the 

sources can be found in Chandler's Bibliography. 

If you are in any doubt about either sort of source, please take this sheet along with 

the source in question to one of the Librarians at the CSUF Library. The Librarians can 

help. 

CRITERIA FOR GRADING 

Your grade for this assignment will be based on four main criteria. They are noted as 

follows: 

1. Grammar and Spelling (5 points maximum out of 25): Proper grammar and spelling 

are essential parts of any well-written paper. The categories for assessing grammar 

and spelling are as follows: 

Low: Serious and multiple errors in grammar and/or spelling make the paper 

difficult to comprehend. Little or no proof-reading is evident. 

Medium: Some errors in grammar and/or spelling weaken the paper but do not 

make it difficult to comprehend. This paper may have been proof-read, but not 

with as careful an attention to detail as is possible. 

High: Few or no errors in grammar and spelling allow the reader to focus more 

squarely upon the paper's content. 

2. Citation (5 points maximum out of 25): Students are expected to cite their sources 

properly. The citation format for this paper is that of the American Anthropological 

Association. The AAA Style Guide is available in PDF form on Titanium. 

Low: Proper citations are clearly missing or are not in AAA format. 

Medium: AAA format is used, but there are more than two errors in the use of 

that format. 

High: AAA format is used with two or fewer errors in the use of that format. 

3. Organization (5 points maximum out of 25): Students are expected to organize the 

paper as noted in the section on ORGANIZATION above. 

Low: The paper is difficult to follow. Perhaps it has no Introduction. Perhaps it 

is missing a Conclusion. Perhaps it is rambling.

Class #14346 8 

Medium: The paper has a recognizable Introduction, Body, and Conclusion, but 

one or more points mentioned in either the Introduction or Conclusion is not 

adequately dealt with in the Body; or perhaps there are serious continuity 

problems, with ideas expressed in one part failing to link clearly to ideas 

expressed in the following part. 

High: The paper is well organized. The Introduction leads us in nicely; the Body 

provides the evidence we need; and the Conclusion sums things up 

satisfactorily. Every sentence flows clearly into the next. 

4. Content (10 points maximum out of 25): Students are expected to approach this 

writing assignment intelligently and creatively and to link it to ideas expressed in the 

course. 

Low: There is little or no evidence the student put much thought into the 

project. The ideas expressed show little or no attention to the issues dealt with 

in class or the course readings. 

Medium: There are good ideas here, but the materials are not linked well to 

issues dealt with in class or the course readings; or the materials are in fact 

linked well to issues dealt with in class or the course readings, but the ideas 

behind the paper itself do not suggest much thought on the student's part. 

High: The student clearly thought a great deal about the project and linked it to 

issues dealt with in class or the course readings. 

If you have any questions about any aspect of the writing assignment, please ask me 

in class (as others may have the same question), before or after class, during my office 

hours, or via email or phone. 

Please note: THE PAPER IS DUE NO LATER THAN WEDNESDAY, MAY 15th, IN 

CLASS. No late papers will be accepted. This is not negotiable. Students can 

actually turn this in early—there is no reason to leave it until the last minute.

Class #14346 9 

Academic Misconduct/Integrity: 

Students who violate university standards of academic integrity are subject to disciplinary sanctions, 

including failure in the course and suspension from the university. Familiarize yourself with the 

academic dishonesty policy in the current student handbook or at 

http://fullerton.edu/senate/PDF/300/UPS300-021.pdf 

Violations of the University’s Academic Misconduct policies will not be tolerated. Studying and working 

together is encouraged, but all written assignments MUST BE YOUR OWN WORK. Fabrication of 

research data and/or plagiarism will result in a grade of “0” for the assignment. 

Disability Statement: 

DISABILITY STATEMENT: If you have a disability or special need for which you are or may be requesting 

an accommodation, please inform the instructor and contact the Disabled Student Services office, 

located in University Hall 101, as early as possible in the term. 

For more information contact Disabled Student Services Office: 657-278-3117 

www.fullerton.edu/disabledservices/ 

On the Irvine Campus: Student Affairs 949-936-1650 

Emergency: 

Students should refer to http://www.fullerton.edu/emergencypreparedness/ep_students.html to 

familiarize themselves with actions they should take in the event of an emergency.

Class #14346 10 

Statement acknowledging the contents of the syllabus—your copy to retain 

By signing below, I, ___________________________________, acknowledge that I understand the contents 

(please print your name above) 

of the syllabus for this course (Class #14346, Spring 2013), including but not limited to: 

• The grading policy 

• The attendance policy 

• The participation policy 

• The deadlines for assignments 

Further, I understand that there is no extra credit offered in this course, and I will not request extra 

credit. 

Further, I understand that any form of special treatment as regards one student is unfair to all other 

students, and so I will not request any form of special treatment. 

Further, I understand that, if I have a question about the mechanics of the course, I am to check the 

syllabus first for an answer. If I cannot find the answer there, I am encouraged to ask the instructor 

before, during, or after class, or via email or phone, or during his office hours. 

Signature of student: __________________________________________ 

Date: _________________________________________________________ 

(This is your copy of the statement. Please retain it along with your syllabus. Once you have signed and 

dated the statement on the following page, please hand that page in to me.)

Class #14346 11 

Statement acknowledging the contents of the syllabus—the copy to turn in to the instructor 

By signing below, I, ___________________________________, acknowledge that I understand the contents 

(please print your name above) 

of the syllabus for this course (Class #14346, Spring 2013), including but not limited to: 

• The grading policy 

• The attendance policy 

• The participation policy 

• The deadlines for assignments 

Further, I understand that there is no extra credit offered in this course, and I will not request extra 

credit. 

Further, I understand that any form of special treatment as regards one student is unfair to all other 

students, and so I will not request any form of special treatment. 

Further, I understand that, if I have a question about the mechanics of the course, I am to check the 

syllabus first for an answer. If I cannot find the answer there, I am encouraged to ask the instructor 

before, during, or after class, or via email or phone, or during his office hours. 

Signature of student: __________________________________________ 

Date: _________________________________________________________ 

(Once you have signed and dated this statement, please hand it in to me.)

Syllabus Template - CSUF Anthropology

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