Social & Cultural Anthropology

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ks5 social & cultural anthropology

Topics / Units

  • Introduction to SCA

Core Declarative Knowledge
What should students know?

  • The structure of the IB course
  • The 6 big questions and 9 big concepts
  • What is anthropology?
  • How culture is defined
  • What constitutes culture?
  • What feminist anthropological theory is
  • How is personhood defined?
  • How a range of other cultures see personhood
  • The definition of a society
  • The importance of the Industrial Revolution in defining Western societies
  • The importance of norms and values
  • Differences between humans and animals
  • The importance of anthropology in understanding others and the world around us
  • The meaning of epistemology
  • The main research methods in anthropology, their use, strengths and weaknesses
  • The ethical guidelines followed in the study of Anthropology
  • The important theories used in Anthropology

Core Procedural Knowledge
What should students be able to do?

  • How to apply concepts of culture to a people
  • How to apply an anthropological theory to a people
  • How to compare two different cultures and their ideas of personhood
  • How to research and compare a different society
  • How to explain the cause of differences between societies
  • Applying ideas of similarity and difference to a specific group
  • How to analyse a different society’s concept of truth
  • To analyse an ethnographic extract on a people using the 6 big anthropological questions
  • How to apply research methods
  • How to apply the ethical guidelines to an ethnographic extract

Links to TOK

  • How can we know other people?
  • How do beliefs and interests of human scientists influence their research?
  • Is the role of the anthropologist to observe or also to make judgements?

Links to Assessment

  • Using the extracts and your own knowlege, discuss the defining principles of Anthropological ethics.
  • What does it mean to live in a society? Discuss with reference to the ethnographic material

Topics / Units

  • Introduction to SCA/ Area of Study One – Conflict

Core Declarative Knowledge
What should students know?

  • Revisiting the big nine concepts
  • The inquiry specific concepts that relate to conflict
  • Definitions of the state, indigenous issues, systems of inequality
  • Describe systems of inequality in South Africa
  • Identify key features of Puerto Rican migration to the USA
  • Describe a range of indigenous issues
  • Identify key features of colonialism
  • Describe the effect of the Gulf War on those who fought
  • Define Cultural Capital

Core Procedural Knowledge
What should students be able to do?

  • Apply ideas of functionalism to an ethnography
  • Apply ethical guidelines to an ethnography
  • Compare inequality in South Africa and the USA
  • Applying ideas of Marxism and Ecological Anthropology to an ethnography
  • Compare issues of violence and suffering in two ethnographies
  • Apply the ideas of cultural capital to characters in an ethnography

Links to TOK

  • To what extent are the methods used in the human sciences limited by ethical considerations?
  • Is it possible to eliminate the effect of the observer?

Links to Assessment

  • With reference to the concepts, theories and ethnographic material, explain how the concept of conflict is evident in In Search of Respect.
  • Describe how identity is constructed In Search of Respect

Topics / Units

  • Area of Inquiry One – Conflict

Core Declarative Knowledge
What should students know?

  • Identify and explain the role of the state in people’s lives
  • Define human rights and ethnic cleansing
  • Define identity and how it is formed
  • Describe barriers to education in El Barrio
  • Explore attitudes to sexual violence in In Search of Respect
  • Identify and describe rites of passage
  • Describe womens rights movements in a range of countries
  • Describe attitudes to childhood in In Search of Respect
  • Identify and explain the concept of Hegemony in In Search of Respect
  • Describe the ‘crisis of masculinity’

Core Procedural Knowledge
What should students be able to do?

  • Apply ideas of human rights and ethnic cleansing to the Rohinga people of Burma
  • Compare conflict in the Bosnian-Serbian war to In Search of Respect
  • Compare breaches of human rights in In Search of Respect and Fresh Fruit
  • Broken Bodies
  • Explain changing gender roles and perceptions in In Search of Respect
  • Compare attitudes to women in Wayward Women and In Search of Respect
  • Explain the differences in beliefs and knowledge of different social groups
  • Analyse domestic violence from a range of theoretical viewpoints

Links to TOK

  • Are ideas of human rights universal?
  • Can research in anthropology ever be neutral when the observer is emotionally involved?

Links to Assessment

  • Compare and contrast the way in which the concept of conflict is evident in the extract with how it is evident in In Search of Respect.

Topics / Units

  • Area of Inquiry Two – The Body

Core Declarative Knowledge
What should students know?

  • Identify and define key and inquiry-specific concepts related to The Body
  • Define the meaning of the Commodified Body
  • Explain the concept of habitus
  • Define and describe Mehcanised Bodies and the Lived Body
  • Explain the link between consumerism and The Body

Core Procedural Knowledge
What should students be able to do?

  • Analyse how the concept of identity is linked to The Body
  • Compare identity in Pretty Modern to identity in In Search of Respect
  • Compare representations of Commodified Bodies in Pretty Modern to Wayward Women
  • Analyse the ethics involved in anthropological research into commodified bodies

Links to TOK

  • Why does it matter how other countries are represented?

Topics / Units

  • Area of Inquiry Two – The Body

Core Declarative Knowledge
What should students know?

  • Describe changes in Brazilian racial politics
  • Discuss ideas of personhood
  • Define the Modified Body
  • Describe changes in Brazilian ideas of beauty
  • Describe the embodiment of racial pride through hair
  • Define the Ritualised Body with examples
  • Define Marginalised Bodies with examples
  • Describe aesthetic medicine and how it links to motherhood
  • Define the Politicised Body
  • Describe the Brazilian idea of vanity

Core Procedural Knowledge
What should students be able to do?

  • Compare modification in Pretty Modern to Yakuza Tattoo
  • Apply subject-specific concepts to Women and their Hair
  • Apply anthropological theory to the concept of commodification
  • Analyse ethical considerations in Pretty Modern
  • Make comparisons between marginalised bodies in Pretty Modern and In Search of Respect
  • Compare Rites of Passage in Pretty Modern to In Search of Respect
  • Compare Politicised Bodies in Pretty Modern and Fresh Fruit Broken Bodies
  • Apply anthropological theory to the Politicised Body

Links to TOK

  • How does the way we organise or classify knowledge affect what we know (link to anthro theories)?

Links to Assessment

  • Mock Examination