What will I learn?
Through studying this course, you will develop the following:
- An understanding of contemporary real-world issues such as war and conflict, the environment,
- Poverty, injustice, and human rights;
- An ability to engage with anthropological approaches and develop critical, reflexive knowledge;
- An ability to explore the characteristics and complexities of social and cultural life and develop new ways of thinking about the world that demonstrate the interconnectedness of local, regional and global processes and issues;
- The capacity to foster an awareness of how cultural and social contexts inform the production of anthropological knowledge.
What is the structure of the course?
Higher Level
Standard Level
Part 1: Engaging with Anthropology
As SL with extensions
- The language of anthropology
- The practice of anthropology
- Anthropological thinking
Part 2: Engaging with Ethnography
- HL – One from each of the below three groups plus one additional
- SL – One from each of the below three groups
Group 1
- Classifying the world
- Health, illness and healing
- The body
Group 2
- Belonging
- Communication, expression and technology
- Movement, time and space
Group 3
- Conflict
- Development
- Production, exchange and consumption
Part 3: Coursework
Fieldwork
Limited fieldwork (observation, second data collection and critical reflection)
How will I be assessed?
Assessment
Higher Level
Standard Level
Fieldwork
- Proposal form;
- Critical reflection;
- Research report and reflection (25%)
- Observation Report;
- Extension of initial fieldwork
- Second fieldwork data collection and analysis;
- Critical reflection (20%)
Final
Examination
Paper 1 – 2 hours (30%)
Paper 2 – 2.5 hours (45%)
Paper 1 – 1.5 hours (40%)
Paper 2 – 1.5 hours (40%)
Frequently Asked Questions
Which CAS opportunities are available?
Journalism Club; MOOC Courses; Debating Club.
Which opportunities for further study are available?
The World Anthropology IB prepares you for any university course that requires students to consider belonging; classifying the world; communication, expression and technology; conflict; development; health, illness and healing; movement, time and space; production, exchange and consumption; and the body. At the heart of the course is the practice of anthropologists, and the insights they produce in the form of ethnographic material.
Through authentic anthropological practice, you will engage with anthropological approaches and develop critical, reflexive knowledge.
Is there anything else I need to know?
The course will engage you with the concepts, methods, language and theories of the discipline. At the heart is the practice of anthropologists, and the insights they produce in the form of ethnographic material. Through authentic anthropological practice, you will engage with anthropological approaches and develop critical, reflexive knowledge.
The course contributes a distinctive approach to intercultural awareness and understanding, which embodies the essence of an IB education, and will make you a globally aware, internationally minded, and ethically sensitive citizen.
Curriculum map
Module 1
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
Module 2
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
Module 3
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.