Physical/Biological Anthropology/The Significance of Bipedalism

One of the most meaningful ways to teach anthropology in the classroom is to involve students in all aspects of learning/including their minds, bodies, personalities and spirit. Bell hooks has discussed this approach as the /embodiment of teaching,/ and I have found Physical/Biological Anthropology to be a class in which students connect to the materials at a kinesthetic level. In this example I used a technique from Strategies in Teaching Anthropology to stress the complexity of bipedalism as it relates to the evolution of the primates and human variation. The activity asks that students write an instruction manual for bipedalism/specifically for moving from a seated position in a chair to ten feet forward. Initially students believe that writing such a manual will be an easy task, but as the manual writing and the second phase/in which a student attempts to act out what is presented in the manual/illustrate, the motor and mental aspects of bipedalism are incredibly complex. Click here for a video demonstration.

Cultural Anthropology/Class Ethnographies

In all of my anthropology courses I stress the value of research in the discipline. It is my feeling that intensive research projects will better prepare students for transfer as anthropology majors at the four-year college or university level. One way that I have facilitated such learning is through the use of class ethnographies in Cultural Anthropology. Students are required to utilize the methods of participant-observation in developing an ethnography of a local service industry or work-related culture. The project involves all levels of research, including design, fieldwork, and write-up. During the write-up stage we read anonymous portions of all class members/ ethnographic vignettes to allow for effective and constructive critique. In the pictured example to the right, a student conducted her ethnographic research in a community rooted in political awareness and earth-based music.