Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
ANTH111: Introduction to Anthropology
Section 06
Fall, 2007
Instructor: Gregory Vogel
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E-mail Responses to Readings
This class requires you to send me e-mail responses (questions or comments) concerning each week's readings. These are due no later than midnight on the Sunday, the day before Monday's class. This assignment has two purposes: 1) to encourage you to read and think about the material before we discuss it in class; and 2) to help me lecture and lead discussions in ways that are interesting to you.
Each week I will give direction and guidance for next week's questions or comments on Wednesday – be sure to come to class to find out what these are!
The responses may be specific or broad-ranging, but must demonstrate that you have read the material. Think of your e-mail responses as an opportunity for you to help direct class lectures – what do you want to hear more about? What are you sick of hearing about? Feel free to "go out on a limb" and disagree with the readings – as long as you've read the matieral!
When you send me the e-mail responses, be sure to include your name in the text of the e-mail! (It can be difficult to figure out who you are from your e-mail username alone.)
Questions or comments that are simple are just fine. Elaborate, thoughtful questions or comments that demonstrate you have read the material thoroughly and thought about it critically are worth extra credit.
Below are a few examples of responses from the readings for Week 3.
The first two examples are perhaps a little too short and simple, but will do in a pinch (you should try to write about the readings a little more elaborately, and address all of the assigned readings):
- How is microevolution not the same concept of Darwinism?
- Can isotopic methods really be that specific to determine the date of an artifact?
-Why have people placed so much importance on race which is not even evident in biological categories?
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- Can you explain more what uniformitarianism is and why it is important.
- Why was Charles Darwin's theory so important and most of all believable?
- What was Darwin theory based on?
- After reading Chapter 2 I learned a little more about how genes work, what DNA means and what it does.
- Do human beings contribute to niche construction?
The next example is perfectly acceptable – very good questions/comments:
Conformity# 23: I would have to agree that race should not be about skin color or where the person is from.
Applying #29: I thought it was interesting how the author brought up having different ways of judging race, such as race by genes or race by fingerprints. And also where certain people would belong in these groups.
Applying #30: I thought it was interesting that there are greater differences among people within large geographic populations than the average differences between them. I also like the concept that no human group is pure.
Applying #31: I agree with the author that in certain places in this world a persons skin color can be an advantage or a disadvantage. I think some of the authors conditions such as #19 were also interesting.
Module #2: I really thought the talk about stratigraphic superposition was interesting. I have learned about it in my pollution ecology class, only this went into more detail.
Anthropology Ch3: I found this chapter interesting because it had a lot to say about genetics which I am concerned with since I am a biology major. Particularly in genetic drift in respect to new diseases and how they could affect smaller populations.
The final two examples are very thoughtful and well-presented responses – they demonstrate that the students have read the material in detail and thought about it enough to have developed in-depth comments and questions. Extra Credit!
Ch. 3 Anthropology: This particular chapter was very easy to read because it had a lot to do with genetics and part of evolution. The two biologists that are discussed are very popular and well known in the biological world. Mendel and Darwin are known for shaping biology and genetics into the way it has become. The most interesting part of this reading to me was the discussion of adaptation and how organisms can adapt to their surroundings. Another interesting part of this reading was the section on skin color. The author explains how skin color intensity is determined. The map included in the book shows how skin color is measured in the world. In Table 3.3 many models are described in the study of human biological and cultural evolution. These are interesting because it shows different views on the before mentioned topics. One comment that I must add about this table is that I like the niche construction idea the best because it offers a valid argument to go along with my own knowledge.
Module 2: This short reading was mainly about the various methods of dating and how things are found. A comment I have about this is that it is really interesting how scientists or anthropologists can use all of the tools mentioned in order to find the date of a particular item. The techniques seem very advanced and they seem to work very well.
Conformity #23: The reading about mixed blood and race was quite interesting and educational. It seemed as though the author was very bitter on the subject of racial classification in the U.S. The author discusses the idea of skin color and how Americans see this feature as part of race. He makes it clear that race does not really exist, it's just a classification of people. He compares it to that of an avocado and how that in one country it's a vegetable and in another country it's a fruit. I felt that this reading was educational because I did not know how Brazil classified people and I also did not realize the tremendous difference between 2 countries. It is important to remember after reading this, that race does not represent the biological reality of life.
Applying #29 "Race Without Color": This particular reading was much like the reading in the conformity book, it dealt with the classification of race and how it is not useful for understanding human biological diversity. There was a lot of valuable information on different cultures. There were good examples of other species such as birds and how they relate to variation in geographical human traits. This article and the previous made many of the same points in supporting that race shouldn't exist.
Applying #30 "Official Statement on Race": This certain reading had a lot of educational history about how the phrase "race" came about. It is once again explained that there are many myths that fuse biology and culture to genetics. No person is born with culture traits or even language. This reading had many biological information examples, which made it easier to understand how people view race and how society is wrong in the way it is viewed.
Applying #31 "White Privilege": This reading is basically about unconscious privileges that whites have and that most don't realize. After reading this article I found that there were a lot of examples of privileges that I had no idea were even considered. I found that a lot of these examples that were given were a bit dated. Some of these examples have been worked out and wouldn't or maybe wouldn't be considered. It's almost like you have to step out of your own skin to realize the privilege that you have. This author did a great job of explaining how she felt. The one thing that I get out of this reading is that even though you can't see privilege in your life sometimes you have to see it through someone else's life.
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While reading this chapter one of the concepts that stuck out to me was the definition of adaptation used. When I think of adaptation I think of an organism being shaped by their environment. The definition that I was thinking of is correct, there is a more in depth definition described in this chapter. The second definition refers to phenotypic traits that are the outcome of adaptive processes. This allows anthropologists to distinguish three levels of phenotypic adaptation: genetic adaptations, short-term adaptations, and developmental adaptations.
Applying #29: From what I got out of this article, the author thinks that race is an inadequate idea to explaining and understanding human biological diversity. He uses many different examples of defining race and even goes to the extreme to use digestion to define race. He selects groups based on whether or not they drink milk. The two groups are the lactase-negative race and the lactase- positive race. It is very obvious that the author is trying to make a point, but he might have gone a little far.
Applying #30: Even though this passage was the shortest, it was the straight to the point. I agreed with almost every comment that was made. I believe cultural traits are ingrained in everyone all throughout childhood, and in those beginning years of our lives we first learn about race and start stereotyping from what we have learned from our parents.
Applying #31: Reading articles like this makes me realize just how lucky I truly am. After reading all 26 conditions I came to the conclusion that I could count on almost all 26 to be in my favor if needed to be. Although the situation is sad that all races can not be treated equally, the discrimination for non-white races is strong and has been prevalent for so long, I do not know if things will ever change.
Conformity #23: In this article the author points out that there are two questions that stem from the larger question of “what is race?” The first question is “How can we understand the variation in physical appearance among human beings?” The second question is “How can we understand the kinds of racial classifications applied to differences in physical appearance among human beings?” The whole basis of the author’s article is that race is just a myth and that it doesn’t exist.
