Active Outline

General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
ANTHD016.
Course Title (CB02)
Anthropology of Art
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2024
Course Description
The debunking of myths regarding race, gender, and human aggression frame investigations of past and current issues that are made visible in painting, sculpture, and graphic design of African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicano/a, and Native American artists who wish their messages to reach both their ethnic communities and mainstream society. The class will focus on social contexts of the American Experience where power, class, ethnicity, colonialization, ethnocentrism, liberation, self-determination, resistance, and agency intersect in varying ways.
Faculty Requirements
Discipline 1
[Anthropology]
FSA
[FHDA FSA - ANTHROPOLOGY]
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course is on the AA-T in Anthropology degree. This course meets a GE requirement for °®¶¹´«Ã½, CSU GE, and IGETC. This course addresses power, social justice, colonialism, racism, inequality, and multicultural responses in past US history presented through visual imagery. This course allows space for student discussion and comparison with their own experiences.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Course Philosophy
Visual imagery is a form of communication among human beings that often crosses linguistic boundaries with great immediacy and enters the domain of semiotics or the science of symbols. Therefore symbolic content and social context are integrated with cultural knowledge and often become expressions of local experience about interactions, negotiations, and intersectionality of individuals within groups or outside of groups. Because the expression is visual there is an opportunity for ethnic topics such as race, class, gender, inequalities, structural violence, hegemony, resistance, and self-determination to be discussed by a thoughtful assembly of students.

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
°®¶¹´«Ã½ GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GDX°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
2GES°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE - Environment Sustainability and Global CitizenshipApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Homework and extended projects

Fieldwork/Journal problems 

Breakout room discussions with 2 or 3 other student

Lecture and multimedia aids

Quizzes, midterms and final exam

Field trips to museums

Assignments

  1. Verbal
    1. Individual or small group presentations of selected topics of course material.
    2. In class debates or break-out room discussions on topical issues and controversies.
  2. ¸é±ð²¹»å¾±²Ô²µÌý
    1. Assigned readings of primary and secondary sources including publications, journals, spoken narratives or formal interviews with artists of color
    2. Supplementary readings from internet - artists' websites, museum websites
    3. Theoretical readings for research and visual analysis.
  3. Written assignments
    1. Visual analysis papers ("problems") requiring viewing, analyzing original works of art in gallery/musuem settings
    2. Research paper requiring analysis of primary and secondary sources
    3. Substantive response reflections on documentaries 
  4. Collaborative group work
    1. Researching heritage to present to class
    2. Group collaboration researching a topic of heritage.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Midterm objective and essay examinations, comprehensive final , all of which are composed of concept based questions requiring student to demonstrate the ability to integrate and summarize facts and transform them into fundamental units of knowledge.
  2. Issue-oriented research paper and working outline for such project, including summary, synthesis, and critical analysis of facts.
  3. Participation in and contribution toward classroom discussions and in-class collaboration of group written analytical work involving comparative source materials.
  4. In class oral presentations (individual or group) that demonstrate ability to present facts and analysis in a logical, engaging oral and visual format.
  5. Reading responses that demonstrate basic compprhension, critique and synthesis of course/

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials:
  • None
Essential College Facilities:
  • None

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Jennifer Gonzales, C, Ondine Chavoya, Chon Noriega, and Terezita Romo, editorsChicano and Chicana Art: A Critical AnthologyDuke University Press2019
Powell, Richard JBlack Art: A Cultural HistoryThames and Hudson2021
Shin, Ryan, Maria Lim, Oksun Lee, Sandrine Han, editorsCounternarratives from Asian American Art EducatorsRoutledge2022
Mithlo, Nancy Marie, editorMaking History, Institute of American Indian ArtInstitute of American Indian Art Museum and University of New Mexico Press2022
Fuentes, AugustinRace, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You: Busting Myths About Human NatureUniversity of California Press2016

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

None.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Recognize anthropology as a multifaceted discipline and recognize the interrelationships between its subdisciplines including biological, cultural, archaeology, linguistics and semiotics, and applied anthropology.
  • Evaluate historical processes in cultural anthropology that incorporated semiotics, the science of symbols and communication
  • Examine conceptual frameworks of social interaction
  • Describe and appraise efforts by ethnic artists to realize their American experiences; results of interaction
  • Differentiate between ethnic creators and issues, stigmas, and transformations leading to greater equality, self determination and agency.
  • Use the conceptual perspective of cultural anthropology to evaluate on-going change for social justice in ethnic views

CSLOs

  • Develop an appreciation for the range and diversity of ethnic issues intersectioned with gender, class, power, and agency.

  • Demonstrate and ability to investigate relationships between socially constructed concepts of race, gender, and aggression with visual literacy of social issues presented by ethnic artists

  • Apply cultural sensitivity and empathy to theoretical positions and/or heritage imagery advanced by ethnic artists in visual form.

Outline

  1. Recognize anthropology as a multifaceted discipline and recognize  the interrelationships between its subdisciplines including biological, cultural, archaeology, linguistics and semiotics, and applied anthropology.
    1. Demonstrate anthropology as a science and a humanistic discipline; emphasize its breadth, especially the interest in global diversity and social justice.
    2. Identify cultural anthropology as the field defined for living people and methods of communication.
    3. Apply anthropological concerns for equity and social justice in interfacing relationships between ethnic entities and organizations today.
    4. Acquire an understanding of Ethnic Studies as a logical outcome of self determination within America's plural population to establish respect and equality        in American life.
  2. Evaluate historical processes in cultural anthropology that incorporated semiotics, the science of symbols and communication
    1. Examine historical development in study of cultural symbols used by people as a science.
    2. Explore the diversity of images vs meanings; cultural differences change meanings.
    3. Understand the interesting contributions made by semioticians to grasp layers of meaning based on social context.
  3. Examine conceptual frameworks of social interaction
    1. Investigate social constructions of concepts of race and sources of the myth in colonialism, imperialism, white supremacy, ethnocentrism.
    2. Explore social constructions of genders, sources of misconceptions, roles played by media
    3. Examine human phenomenon of aggression, structural violence, and the role they play when intersected with race and gender.
    4. Observe responses to above elements via resistance, liberation, and  self determination.
  4. Describe and appraise efforts by ethnic artists to realize their American experiences; results of interaction
    1. Examine the semiotic role of imagery in African American social life, past and present
    2. Examine the semiotic role of imagery in  Asian American social life, past and present
    3. Examine the semiotic role of imagery in Chicano/a and Latino/a social life, past and present.
    4. Examine the semiotic role of imagery in Native American social lives, past and present.
    5. Evaluate potential outcomes with intersecting historical events relevant to each group.
  5. Differentiate between ethnic creators and issues, stigmas, and transformations leading to greater equality, self determination and agency.
    1. Art as a tool for social and political awareness
    2. Imagery used as a tool for resistance to hegemony, liberating communities' self determination
    3. Issues of identity, safe space, and re-telling histories, migration stories
    4. Compare outside (etic) representations of ethnic groups with inside (emic) cultural representations in past and present forms, public stereotypes
    5. Investigate gender role issues, cultural gender scripts and indigenous humor supporting self determination, debunking myths.
    6. Museum and exhibit issues of display and interpretation; who "owns" the past? Who has authority to speak?
  6. Use the conceptual perspective of cultural anthropology to evaluate on-going change for social justice in ethnic views
    1. Expressive anthropology - Geertz and Turner meet Faith Ringgold, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Cattlett, 
    2. A universe of symbols (semiiotics)  - - explore "native" bodies performance in museum exhibits as "artifacts" satirizing mainstream stereotypes.
    3. Investigate prison tatoos - Chcano/a and Latino/a - symbols of resistance
    4. Re-purposing samruai art in exhibits recalling Japanese-American internment camps - Roger Shimomura
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