TTC Video - Anthropology and the Study of Humanity [720p]

Because anthropology is such an interdisciplinary field, many Great Courses have touched on it from different angles. Now for the first time, we are pleased to offer a comprehensive survey of this fascinating topic. Anthropology and the Study of Humanity is your chance to gain a complete understanding of one of the world’s most engaging — and human — sciences. Taught by acclaimed professor and field researcher Scott M. Lacy of Fairfield University, these 24 wide-ranging lectures are the ideal guide through the world of anthropology.

“Put simply, anthropology is the study of humankind over time and space,” Professor Lacy says in the course introduction. “And I promise, if I were to get any more specific than that, we’d be chopping off specialized branches of our disciplinary tree.”

As a field of study, anthropology covers a lot of ground, from the language of primates to bones found in a desert to modern-day war zones. A survey of the field encompasses elements of history, biology, archaeology, linguistics, sociology, and cultural studies. It also involves data analyses, population modeling, urban development, economics, medicine, forensics, sexuality, art, and much, much more. Anything and everything that relates to humanity, anthropology approaches, demonstrating the common threads across world cultures and revealing the underlying connections that unite us all.

In Anthropology and the Study of Humanity, Professor Lacy gives you an elegant blend of theory and application to help you understand this extraordinarily interdisciplinary field as a whole. You will examine how humans evolved and built civilizations, review humanity’s changing attitudes about our relationship to the cosmos, and consider the many ways we express ourselves. In the end, what you’ll discover is that while our species is rich with diversity, we are much more similar than we are different.

Explore the 7-Million-Year History of Walking Apes

To anchor this course, Professor Lacy gives you a historical overview of Homo sapiens, starting at the very root of our family tree, when proto-humans split away from other primates in the animal kingdom. As he wends his way across time and around the world, he grounds you in an array of theories and models, making them accessible and relevant to the world around us. He also introduces the field’s four major academic sub-disciplines:

Biological Anthropology: Uncover the physical makeup of humans, our evolutionary history, and biological variations from one individual to another. Start with the research of primatologists and trace the evolution of Homo sapiens and find out how they might have spread around the world. See how scientists have shifted from a Social Darwinist model to Cultural Relativity.

Archaeological Anthropology: Take on the role of a historical detective and dive into the reality of fieldwork. You’ll learn what the archaeological record shows about the development of tools, the transition to agriculture, and the development of ancient cities. And, you’ll be surprised to discover ways that archaeology reveals counterintuitive truths about our history, such as the origins of money and debt.

Linguistic Anthropology: Language has changed human evolution by increasing our capacity for information exchange, thus speeding up the development of new technologies. Survey this fascinating sub-discipline and consider how language shapes how we observe and perceive daily life. Revisit primatology to see what talking chimpanzees can teach us about humanity.

Cultural Anthropology: One of the biggest lessons from this course is that our behavior is relative to cultural context. Western thinkers used to classify humans as savages or civilized, but as you will discover in this course, such classification is not only wrong-headed, it also shuts down discovery about the richness of our world’s cultures. Examine humanity through the lens of art, religion, cultural constructs, and more.

Cultural Diversity, A Common Humanity

One of the joys of this course is that it is truly global in the way Professor Lacy introduces you to the boots-on-the-ground practice of anthropology. As a hard science, anthropology relies on evidence, and researchers take a test-and-correct approach toward advancing their field. As you review the history of this research, you’ll see how scientists’ thinking has evolved as new evidence is discovered and new insights are gained. For instance, you will:

• Travel the world to see how our behavior is relative to cultural context — and how the dichotomy of the “savages” versus the civilized represents foggy thinking.
• Meet field researchers such as Bronislaw Malinowski and Franz Boas, who debunked the older notions of cultural evolutionism in favor of cultural relativism.
• Find out how Zora Neale Hurston and other anthropologists took Boas’ field work to the next level.
• Unpack enduring ambiguities around race, skin color, and biology to discover how we are all one united race.
• Consider how gender and even biological sex itself are socially constructed.

A field researcher himself, Professor Lacy has spent much time in Mali, and he brings real-world examples to bear on the theories and frameworks he discusses. From the Pacific Islands to the Americas and from Zambia to Tibet, this journey takes you around the world to encounter different cultures with different ideas.

When it comes to the question of who is “more civilized”— Western cultures or Eastern, industrial or agrarian—the answer, for anthropologists, is neither. While Professor Lacy offers unique insights into topics ranging from the family to sexuality to art to war and peace, this course is ultimately a grand examination of what it means to be human, and modern anthropology shows how, despite our diversity around the world, we all share a common humanity.

Anthropologists in the World Today

The exciting thing about this field is that it is no mere academic discipline. It also has real-world implications beyond the textbooks. The course closes with a six-lecture unit on applied anthropology and shows you how its research methods and insights can help us shape the future. Among other topics, you will:

• Reflect on the nature of war and how anthropologists serve as peacemakers.
• Follow a forensics exam from the discovery of bones to creating a profile.
• Consider the difference between the subjective experience of illness and the biological phenomenon of disease.
• Review the recent history of international development and uncover an approach to alleviating poverty.
• Discover the “big kahuna” — the ultimate key to happiness.

When you complete this course, you will have a new appreciation for our world and its many cultures, but you will also have a new appreciation for the cultural connections and similarities we share as one race of Homo sapiens. With a passionate and knowledgeable professor as your guide, Anthropology and the Study of Humanity is a must-have course for asking the big questions about human beings. Not only will you gain a broad understanding of academic anthropology, you’ll also get a deeper appreciation for humanity as a whole.