Unit Guide

General Information

Unit convenor and teaching staff	Unit convenor and teaching staff Chris Vasantkumar chris.vasantkumar@mq.edu.au Social Sciences General Information Contact Persons socialsciences@mq.edu.au Payel Ray payel.ray@mq.edu.au
Credit points	Credit points 10
Prerequisites	Prerequisites
Corequisites	Corequisites
Co-badged status	Co-badged status
Unit description	Unit description This unit introduces students to the field of sociocultural anthropology, which seeks to explore and understand human diversity from a holistic and relativistic perspective. Highlighting important contributions anthropologists past and present have made to the understanding of human cultures and societies, emphasis will be placed on how to study and represent cultural diversity in the contemporary world. Topics to be examined include: the history and development of the culture concept; race and ethnicity; sexuality and gender; magic, religion and secularism; kinship and the family; economic systems; key controversies in the field; and tourism, mobility and globalization. We will also pay special attention to anthropological fieldwork methods and ethics, closely examining how anthropologists both conduct long term field research and write about their findings in anthropology's characteristic written output, the ethnography. The unit will demonstrate the relevance of applying anthropological thinking to your career and personal lives.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

ULO1: Describe the central concepts and themes in cultural anthropology, particularly, the characteristics of culture, the techniques involved in ethnographic research, the processes and consequences of globalisation, and the importance of culturally relativistic thinking.
ULO2: Establish a framework for describing and understanding the complexities of the world through the concepts of culture, power, and identity and their various manifestations.
ULO3: Develop the ability to provide a holistic and relativistic description of ‘familiar’ and ‘distant’ cultural practices.
ULO4: Evaluate assumptions (whether personal or from the media) about other cultures and cultural differences.
ULO5: Apply ethnographic and anthropological perspectives and knowledge to issues in your own academic, professional, and personal lives.
ULO6: Question commonly held and taken for granted assumptions about what is ‘natural’ or ‘normal’ human experience.

General Assessment Information

Late Assessment Submission Penalty

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of ‘0’ (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11.55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical issue.

This late penalty will apply to non-timed sensitive assessment (incl essays, reports, posters, portfolios, journals, recordings etc). Late submission of time sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs etc) will only be addressed by the unitconvenor in a Special consideration application. Special Consideration outcome may result in a new question or topic.

Assessment Tasks

Name	Weighting	Hurdle	Due
Weekly Reading Quizzes	15%	No	Weekly
Mini Essay	20%	No	2024-10-07
Participation in Tutorial Discussions (for internal students)	15%	No	Weekly
'Take-Home Examination' -- Final	25%	No	2024-11-03
'Take-Home Examination' -- Midterm	25%	No	2024-09-11