ANTH 142 Home Page

ANTH 142 is an introduction to an important subject in cultural anthropology—how local cultures respond to increasing global pressures. Using a wide array of examples from different cultures around the world, this course will encourage you to think critically about the current world order.

Required Textbooks and Magazine

Course materials can be obtained from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center either by ordering online or by printing and mailing the book order form.

Textbooks

Magazine

Electronic Reserve (E-reserve) Articles

You will also be required to read a selection of articles available (at no cost) through electronic reserve on UNC-Chapel Hill's library Web site.

Assignments and Exams

This online class requires more initiative on your part than a traditional course. You need to read the readings closely and be certain that you understand the concepts covered in the readings and mentioned in my notes. You should ask questions in the Discussion Forum about anything you do not understand. I expect you to spend an average of seven to ten hours a week on the course, excluding assignments. When you have a paper to write or an exam to study for, you can expect to devote more time to the course.

Writing Assignment 1: This assignment is 20 percent of your final grade and is due by 11:55 pm on Sunday. Comments and your paper grade will be returned to you. See Writing Assignments for further details.

Midterm: The midterm exam is 15 percent of your final grade. It will be available on Blackboard from Friday at 9 am through Monday at 11:55 pm. You may choose your own start time within the given window, but you will have a maximum of two hours to complete the exam. You may not restart or retake the exam once you begin, except in a sincere and documented emergency.

Writing Assignment 2: This assignment is 20 percent of your final grade and is due by 11:55 pm on Sunday. Comments and your paper grade will be returned to you. See Writing Assignments for further details.

Final Exam: The final exam is 25 percent of final grade. You may take the final exam at your convenience. You will have three hours to complete the exam. As with the midterm, you may not restart or retake the exam once you begin.

Discussion Forum: 10 percent of your final grade will be based on your participation in the Discussion Forum. You are expected to make at least two posts to the Discussion Forum per lesson, and at least one post should address the assigned discussion topic for that lesson. Your other post could be a question or comment about something that struck you about the lesson and the readings that invites comments from your classmates and the instructor. I expect your comments to be extensive—at least a paragraph or two for each post. If your posts are less than a paragraph, you should try to compensate by making more than two posts per lesson. Towards the end of the course, you will be asked to complete a participation self-evaluation. I will e-mail you your discussion grade on the last day of class.

Mini-Quizzes: 10 percent of your final grade will be based on short quizzes covering the reading material. There will be a total of six mini-quizzes, offered roughly every two weeks throughout the course. These quizzes will administered through Blackboard and should take no longer than five or ten minutes each to complete.

Note about Late Assignments

I will accept late assignments, but not without penalty. A letter grade will be deducted for each week the assignment is late. If you anticipate a problem with a particular deadline because of travel or some other commitment, discuss your situation with me well in advance of the deadline. Exams and quizzes may not be completed after the deadlines indicated, except in the case of sincere and documented emergencies.

Evaluation and Grading

Below are the criteria I use in grading written assignments. An occasional spelling or grammatical error will not impact your grade, but I expect you to pay careful attention to clarity and the coherence of your essays.

Grading Scale

Honor Code

Students will abide by the University’s established Honor Code. Any cheating or plagiarism will be punished according to the sanctions outlined in the Honor Code.

Course Mechanics

Blackboard

Some of your class components (discussion forums, exams, and announcements) are accessed through a software package called Blackboard, and you will need to log in to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only Name You'll Ever Need) and Onyen password.

There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the "ANTH 142" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left side of the screen labeled Announcements, Discussion Forum, and so on.

Library Services and E-reserves

Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves.

If you are using an off-campus computer, you will need to enter your ONYEN and password to access the e-reserve system. The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources. If you encounter difficulties, please report your problem by visiting this Web page for reporting a problem.

Using E-mail

All communication from me will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum). Off-campus users can access their UNC e-mail account using Webmail. You can have your Onyen e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward email” on the Onyen Web site.

If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses "blind carbon copy" to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than Hotmail for this course.

Submitting Assignments

It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.

Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to me, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to me and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.

ANTH 142: Local Cultures, Global Forces

Course Overview