History of Anthropological Thought

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  ANTH 3600  History of Anthropological Thought
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in an anthropology course for undergraduate or graduate students by Arianna Huhn at CSU San Bernardino. The open textbook provides a thorough introduction to the history of the discipline, up through the present, written in accessible language. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was the financial savings for students, but also finding ways to keep course content current (readers are typically a decade or so behind anthropological theory), and include more BIPOC authors. Most student access the open textbook electronically, via Pfau Library, Taylor & Francis e-books. 

History of Anthropological Thought 
(ANTH 3600)
Brief Description of course highlights:  Examination of major theoretical trends and debates that have shaped the discipline of anthropology. Course is required for all third year Anthropology majors. Prerequisite: ANTH 1002. Additional information available through the course bulletin.

Student population:  All students are third year Anthropology majors who have completed introductory courses in biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, and archaeology / world history, and some upper-division coursework in the major, but have not previously concentrated their learning on theory, explicitly.
Learning or student outcomes:  Learning or student outcomes: 
1) List theoretical questions that have preoccupied anthropologists; 
2) Explain the theoretical positions of anthropologists recognized for their important achievements and lasting or emergent contributions to the field; 
3) Compare and differentiate theoretical trends in anthropology; 
4) Assess the value and significance of theory and the broader discipline of anthropology for today’s world

Key challenges faced and how resolved: The biggest challenge faced was making pdfs accessible (particularly where original content was located online).  Key challenges included finding the original source for assigned readings (rather than relying on a textbook that also serves as a reader, or a separate reader) and helping students to navigate the readings (whereas a reader would provide annotations to provide some guidance). To resolve these challenges I allowed extra time to request original sources through CSU+ where needed, and structured the class to lean into the struggles students found themselves facing in deciphering the readings (through guided, group discussions, activities, and lectures).

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: 

Brief Description:  Engaging anthropological theory : a social and political history.
455 pages and 15 chapters arranged in chronological fashion but with more attention to the cumulative building of theory over time, rather than just a march through time. Particularly strong attention to Marxist inspirations. Bookended with introductory and concluding chapters that consider the relevance of this material for the present era.

Authors:  Mark Moberg
Student access:   Students access the book through Pfau Library, which has an unlimited license through Taylor & Francis e-books. Students are able to download the full text, if they desire.

Cost Savings:  The textbook costs $36 per student, reduced to $0 through e-access. Additional savings include eliminating a course reader ($80).
License:  Material is copyrighted 

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. Saving students money and diversifying course content.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? Through review of five possible textbooks, and discussing with the library options for adopting a textbook that could be made available to students for free with unlimited access.

Sharing Best Practices:  A few times, in a bid to identify free access to a published, chapter or article, I found a copy on the web (by searching the name of the article or chapter within quotation marks, along with “pdf.” Without reading these documents through thoroughly, I did not realize (until the time came to prepare for class) that some of these pdf had faulty OCR (optical character recognition) that changed i's to t’s, for example. This rendered the documents difficult to read, if not totally unreadable, and left me scrambling to find a new copy in time for students to read the material for class. I would suggest fully reviewing anything that you find on the web before determining that it is fit for distribution to students. With book chapters, I also found more luck searching the book title than a chapter title, finding a pdf of the whole book, and then downloading it and extracting the chapter needed. For finding full anthropology theory books, I had a lot of luck with the site https://monoskop.org/Monoskop

Arianna Huhn, Associate Professor
California State University, San Bernardino 
https://www.csusb.edu/profile/arianna.huhn

Teaching Philosophy: My teaching first and foremost concentrates on encouraging and modeling critical thinking as a method for engaging academic material and the world around us in a way that starts conversations and pushes boundaries more than it provides answers. I make every effort to meet students where they are at, to foster the love of learning, and to encourage students to relate what they are learning to their experiences outside of the classroom. 

Courses Taught: Anthropology of Film; Anthropology of Health and Healing; Anthropology of Africa; Anthropological Theory; Museum Exhibition Development and Design