ANTHRO 3
Culture and Society
Description: (Formerly numbered 9.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; fieldwork. Required as preparation for both bachelor's degrees. Introduction to study of culture and society in comparative perspective. Examples from societies around world to illustrate basic principles of formation, structure, and distribution of human institutions. Of special concern is contribution and knowledge that cultural diversity makes toward understanding problems of modern world. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 5.0
Units: 5.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - I really liked Professor Aciksoz. He had engaging lectures with powerpoint slides and the material isn't hard to grasp at all, while also being interesting at the same time. However, your grade in this class is very dependent on your TA, and I got stuck with a TA that graded my midterm and paper (called a "mini-ethnography") extremely harshly where friends in other sections got graded very easily. The midterm was not difficult if you pay attention in class, but it is entirely up to your TA as to how nitpicky they want to grade. Overall, this class was interesting and I would take a class again with Aciksoz but just make sure I get a reasonable TA!
Winter 2020 - I really liked Professor Aciksoz. He had engaging lectures with powerpoint slides and the material isn't hard to grasp at all, while also being interesting at the same time. However, your grade in this class is very dependent on your TA, and I got stuck with a TA that graded my midterm and paper (called a "mini-ethnography") extremely harshly where friends in other sections got graded very easily. The midterm was not difficult if you pay attention in class, but it is entirely up to your TA as to how nitpicky they want to grade. Overall, this class was interesting and I would take a class again with Aciksoz but just make sure I get a reasonable TA!
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Prof. Cattelino is an amazing professor! I took this class because it was a pre-req for my major but afterwards, I enjoyed it so much that I decided to pick up an anthropology minor! She is extremely understanding of these "unprecedented times" and allowed students who missed quizzes (for whatever reasons) to make them up often, and she even gave everyone a 5% grade boost at the end of the quarter because she knows this was a rough few months for everyone. The readings are a lot of work and very time-consuming, so if you don't want to dedicate a lot of time to this class, maybe don't take it- but I found the readings super interesting. The essays may seem very daunting and vague at first, but my TA was extremely helpful and broke down the prompt/how to write an anthropology paper in section. I think the grade breakdown was 25% for both midterm and final papers, 30% for weekly quizzes (lowest dropped), and 20% for participation during section. Highly recommend this class!
Fall 2020 - Prof. Cattelino is an amazing professor! I took this class because it was a pre-req for my major but afterwards, I enjoyed it so much that I decided to pick up an anthropology minor! She is extremely understanding of these "unprecedented times" and allowed students who missed quizzes (for whatever reasons) to make them up often, and she even gave everyone a 5% grade boost at the end of the quarter because she knows this was a rough few months for everyone. The readings are a lot of work and very time-consuming, so if you don't want to dedicate a lot of time to this class, maybe don't take it- but I found the readings super interesting. The essays may seem very daunting and vague at first, but my TA was extremely helpful and broke down the prompt/how to write an anthropology paper in section. I think the grade breakdown was 25% for both midterm and final papers, 30% for weekly quizzes (lowest dropped), and 20% for participation during section. Highly recommend this class!
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - It was entirely asynchronous when I took it in Fall 2021. The lectures were clear but not very engaging. The contents we discussed in the class and the readings were interesting and I liked them. There were only 2 papers, one midterm, and one final. There was no discussion post required during the week, so this class was relatively light in terms of workload. She made the final optional (which I was so thankful for that). The papers were not so hard, but the second one you need to conduct ethnographic feildwork which was cool and I learned a lot from it. However, I feel like I had good experiences in this class not because of the lecture but because I got a very good and caring TA. She is the best TA I had in that quarter. The discussion session was awesome mainly because of my TA. Therefore, I would recommend this class. It is an easy GE, and hope you get a good TA like what I had.
Fall 2021 - It was entirely asynchronous when I took it in Fall 2021. The lectures were clear but not very engaging. The contents we discussed in the class and the readings were interesting and I liked them. There were only 2 papers, one midterm, and one final. There was no discussion post required during the week, so this class was relatively light in terms of workload. She made the final optional (which I was so thankful for that). The papers were not so hard, but the second one you need to conduct ethnographic feildwork which was cool and I learned a lot from it. However, I feel like I had good experiences in this class not because of the lecture but because I got a very good and caring TA. She is the best TA I had in that quarter. The discussion session was awesome mainly because of my TA. Therefore, I would recommend this class. It is an easy GE, and hope you get a good TA like what I had.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Professor Yan is a nice man, but his lectures are very boring and consist of him going off on tangents. He spends a lot of time talking about each slide, so much that he was behind schedule since he continued his lectures going into the following week. There were reading responses due for weeks 2-6, which I found pretty pointless. The midterm and final weren't bad, they consisted of multiple choice and a few short-response questions. Most of the content on the exams came from lecture and the readings from the textbook; the supplementary articles are practically worthless. There was also a 5 page ethnographic observation paper that required us to go do fieldwork at either Wooden, Trader Joe's, or the farmer's market. Overall, this class was okay and definitely requires some effort to do well.
Winter 2019 - Professor Yan is a nice man, but his lectures are very boring and consist of him going off on tangents. He spends a lot of time talking about each slide, so much that he was behind schedule since he continued his lectures going into the following week. There were reading responses due for weeks 2-6, which I found pretty pointless. The midterm and final weren't bad, they consisted of multiple choice and a few short-response questions. Most of the content on the exams came from lecture and the readings from the textbook; the supplementary articles are practically worthless. There was also a 5 page ethnographic observation paper that required us to go do fieldwork at either Wooden, Trader Joe's, or the farmer's market. Overall, this class was okay and definitely requires some effort to do well.
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