Hey. Professor Throop is really awesome and extremely friendly. He is definitely one of my favorite anthropology professors. He combines his research with his lectures and if you read his book he gives extre credit questions on exams based on book. Also, he gives great study guides for both the midterm and final exam. For anyone interested in cultural anthropology and attemoting to raise their gpa, take Anthro 9 with him. I enjoyed his lectures and kept up with readings and it wasn't hard and stiff like some other anthro courses I have taken.

A very knowledgeable professor in his field but quite rude to students that he doesn't regard as intelligent or that he doesn't have a liking for.

I can't really make up my mind if I liked this class or not. The lectures were pretty interesting, especially for a random GE class. He assigns a bunch of reading, and definitely pulls the questions on the midterm and final from all the reading. We had one 8 page research paper, which was kind of a bitch. The midterm and final were both multiple choice. I ended up getting a B in the class, and I put in a lot of effort doing the readings and going to all of the classes. I would recommend the class though, just don't slack off on the paper and get to know your TA.

Best. Professor. Ever.

He is really popular during office hours so I didn't really get to talk to him much but his lectures are interesting and he is very nice and helpful. I spoke to him all of two times and he was very warm to me after the final. I don't know what the other review is talking about!

This class was very interesting for the first couple of weeks. Then, I began to feel that the class was way too impersonal with 400 students all in one classroom. Although that was an unfavorable characteristic of the class I still enjoyed it.
The class is easy, but I highly recommend students go to office hours. Please try not to get Devaka Gunawardena as a T.A. He was so horrible. He never explained any of the assignments and did not like to explain the material in simpler wording. He struck me as very pompous.
Do not expect to fly by this class. It is challenging for a G.E.

I took Anthropology 9 with him. Worst class I've ever taken at UCLA. Everyone told me the class would be easy...until they found out I had Throop. If your ready to deal with ill-informed TA's with being helpful the last thing on their mind, no lecture slides for his 85minute lecture,incredibly long and dense journal readings, and the vaguest multiple choice you have ever taken then take this class.

You might be asking. How can multiple choice be vague? Take this class and You will find out. I worked my ass off and got a B. I'm satisfied but I guess anthro really isn't for me.

It didn't help that my TA was just not helpful. Same with all of my friends TA's. I had a lot of friends in this class, 1 or 2 to each TA pretty much. Same story they all sucked.

Throop seems like a nice guy but don't expect him to throw you a bone. Lecture is incredibly boring, I've never seen so many people sleeping in 1 class. He also fell behind by 2-3 lectures because he spent so much time talking about his work with pacific islanders. This resulted in him rushing the last lectures which didn't help much for the final.

The final was curved pretty heavily. The class average was a 72%. My friend got a D- and still got a B in the class. out of 360 people 10 of them got 90 or better.

Basically if Anthro is your kinda subject you will probably like this class. For the rest of you out there wanting to just take this for a G.E. Don't take this with Throop. You will have way less reading and easier test with another professor. Just talking to my friends who are anthro majors and took this class with other professors made me mad lol. I had to do about 2-3x the reading they did and had a test full of bs.

Great professor, interesting lectures and very knowledgeable. I took this class to test if I would enjoy an Anthro minor and he definitely helped to peak my interest in the subject. The assignments are well spread out, the reading can be a bit lengthy but most of them are interesting. Good professor and interesting easy class.

Professor Throop was an interesting lecturer, though at times anecdotal and monotone, the content of his lectures were interesting and often spurred discussion outside of the classroom! His class was enjoyable, the workload is do-able though the readings were a tad long. He is a great professor but that doesn't take away the fact that my TA had no idea how to teach nor did she care much to help. Great lecture but hopefully you will have a better discussion.

Professor Throop is extremely passionate about anthropology. He always talked about his research in Yap, which made him fall behind 2-3 lectures. This forced him to do 2 lectures worth of material on the last day. He is a good lecturer and I wish I could have gotten to know him better over the quarter. His lectures do start exactly on time and finish with 0 minutes to spare, which I found kinda funny.

The breakdown for this class is:
20% Midterm
10% Annotated Bibliography
5% Key Themes/ Thesis Assignment
20% 8 page paper
25% Final Exam
20% Participation/Attendance in Discussion

Midterm: The midterm was 45 questions based on the readings and lecture material. There were a couple vague questions, but this is expected, since this is an anthropology course. Overall, it wasn’t too bad.

Annotated Bibliography + Key Themes/Thesis: Both of these assignments are components of the 8 page paper you will have to write at the end of the quarter. The annotated bibliography takes time since you have to find 5 anthropological articles that are similar. The key themes assignment is where you generate a thesis and essentially outline how you are going to connect the 5 articles into a cohesive paper. Even if you lose a couple points, it doesn’t matter, since they are not worth a lot in the end.

8 page Paper: This isn’t as bad as it seems. Give yourself 2 days to write it and you will be fine. Throop gives you an outline of what to include in the paper, so it’s not hard to reach the limit. In fact, you will probably go over and have to cut it down, since the paper has to be 8 pages. Most people did well on it.

Final: The final was 75 questions and frankly, it was pretty hard. There were a bunch of vague questions, but in the end, you can make educated guesses and come away with a decent score. Don’t fret too much. He gives you study guides for both the midterm and final, so if you know that well, you should be fine. I think there was a big curve too.

Discussion Section: Section is helpful since we go over the readings, which can be dense. But the TAs in this class were not good. They were really vague and didn’t answer your questions directly. Anyways, you had to show up for discussion and send in 2 discussion questions about the readings a couple of days in advance. Easy way to get points so don’t miss out.

Bottomline: Most people thought the readings in this class were really hard. I NEVER READ A SINGLE READING. They key is to find one good sentence in each reading and write a discussion question about it. If you are able to do this, then you will spend less than 5 min every week on this class. Overall, including all the assignments, I probably only spent 20 hours the entire quarter on this class because I avoided a lot of the unnecessary trouble. Why read something that you won’t understand and that Throop is going to go over in lecture anyways?

Take this class for a GE if you can scan read as I did. I got an A in the class. The worst part were the sometimes boring lectures, though Throop does a great job trying to bring life to a boring subject (in my opinion). The fact that it was at 9:30am wasn’t good either.

OVERALL: Dr. Throop’s class on society and culture (ANTHRO 9) was engaging and interesting. To get an A, you have to attend every lecture, have good study habits, and write well. There are a good amount of readings but it is not too demanding.

STRUCTURE: Dr. Throop is very professional but down to earth. When you walk into class early, he’ll have some rock music playing in the background. His slides are organized and aesthetically pleasing, but he doesn’t share them with the class. His class is not podcasted either, so you have to take good notes. I didn’t find it too difficult, especially because Dr. Throop is very mindful of how fast he is speaking and how clear he is making himself.
The class goes over some anthropological theory, how we orient ourselves to the world, how societies are organized, and what is meant by culture. There’s more, too. There is some focus on the journal articles we read and the novels. I took the class two quarters ago and I still find myself thinking about the information we studied.
Some of the reviewers here say he talks about his research too much, but that is exaggerated from my experience. Also, I did’t find him disrespectful to anyone. Quite the opposite, Dr. Throop is really courteous and respects us as students. (He even refers to classmates as colleagues.) Dr. Throop is brilliant, and he places value on intellectualism.

GRADES: Midterm, essay, discussion, and final.
- The exams are all multiple choice. The average for our midterm was an A. The questions are straightforward if you have done the work.
- Don't let the above catch you off guard for the final. The average for that was actually a D, which I find really surprising.
- There are two essays that are worth a nice chunk of your grade. Compare and contrast two anthropological articles. Six pages.
- Discussion sections were fine. We mostly reviewed the assigned journal articles and the two novels in the class. You turn a weekly assignment on the readings. My TA, Miss Courtney Cecale, was great.

ADVICE:
- There are no materials in the test bank, but you won’t need it.
- Finish the essay well in advance and get feedback from your instructor.
- Know how to write before you take this class, or your essay scores will suffer.
- Be prepared to do a fair amount of reading. It isn’t too bad, honestly.
- Consider taking this class your freshman year. Getting the A is not difficult. I took it as a freshman in Fall of 2013 and it definitely helped me transition into college. If you approach it correctly, this class will give you the discipline you need to be a good student. Dr. Throop doesn’t tolerate talking during his lectures. The rooms are always full, so you’ll have the motivation to attend. The class will push you to read, write, and take good notes. And the discussions are a good opportunity to become comfortable participating in section.