IDS -3313 World Thought And Culture to 500CE

IDS -3313 World Thought And Culture to 500CE

Syllabus
(Spring 2009)

Prof. Ingrid Shafer    (204c Davis)   (o)574-1312    (h)224-3988 e-mail: ihs@ionet.net
Prof. Robert Edmondson (310 TH)   (o)574-1321      e-mail: redmondson@usao.edu
10:10 to 11:10 MWF        Davis 224

Turnitin.com course name: IDS3313-Sp09 (Shafer/Edmondson)
ID #: 2534314 Password: ancient
Course syllabus: http://www.usao.edu/~facshaferi/usao-ids3313/www/ids/home.html
File library: http://www.goat-roast.com/WTC-SP-09/ ID: student Password: ancient

The World Thought and Culture Course Sequence
These are designed to integrate religious, philosophical, artistic, and scientific thought of representative cultures throughout the world. The three courses, IDS 3313, WORLD THOUGHT AND CULTURE TO 500 C.E., IDS 3323, WORLD THOUGHT AND CULTURE FROM 500 C.E. TO 1650 C.E., and IDS 4333, IDS 4333 WORLD THOUGHT AND CULTURE FROM 1650 C.E. TO PRESENT, are junior-senior level courses that should be taken in order.

Course Description and Philosophy
IDS 3313 examines representative thought and expression of a number of ancient cultures and world civilizations. We will examine the effects of geography and ecology (i.e., ice ages, migration, plant domestication), genetics and physiology (i.e., capacity for language, dreaming, diseases), subsistence patterns (i.e., hunter-gatherers, horticulture, agriculture), and social structure (i.e., tribes, cults, city-states) on the human experience. Although we are working in an historical time frame, this is not a history class; the central focus will be on the interplay of ideas and cultural patterns, the varieties of mythic/ religious/ philosophical concepts that have shaped and been shaped by various cultures and civilizations over time and space. Although we will be discussing the rise of the world’s first complex societies and major religions, this is not a course on World Civilization; we will also be exploring lesser-know cultures whose ideas are no less important to gaining a thorough understanding of what it means to be human.

Hopefully, you will find this class intellectually stimulating and full of new perspectives on the world around us. However, it is possible that we will move beyond your comfort zone in some of our discussions, but that is where durable learning and self discovery take place. Gaining the ability to examine your own assumptions, received knowledge and beliefs with an informed, disciplined, and critical mind is the most challenging and rewarding aspect of the college experience. You will be asked to expand your horizons and imagine your own cultural experiences as a few familiar notes in the full symphonic history of human thought and culture.

Assessment:

5 Essays 25%
Exam 1 (Mesopotamia/Egypt) 25%
Exam 2 (Maya/India) 25%
Exam 3 (China/Greco-Roman) 25%

Exam structure: 50% multiple choice and 50% short-answer essay

Attendance policy:

We take attendance every day, though missed classes do not directly impact your grade.

Late Papers:

In situations other than extreme hardship, late penalties may be applied to the grade. Late papers will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Make-up Exam Policy:

Only in situations of extreme hardship will we allow make-up exams. These will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Cells/iPhones/Blackberries/iPods/pagers/Blueteeth:

As a collegial courtesy to your fellow students and instructors, please put your various communications devices away, out of sight, out of mind and out of sound during class time. I know it is hard to resist the temptation to read and send text messages, update your Facebook status, and so forth, but consider it a form of meditation, and exercise in personal discipline, a challenge: can you actually let an hour of your waking life pass without using technology?

Important Dates:

First Day of Classes	January 2
Fees for Late Registration Begin	January 5
Last Day to Add or Drop Course	January 12
Last Day to Withdraw with an Automatic "W"	February 6
Spring Break	March 16-20
Last Day to Withdraw from a Course	April 3
Last Day of Classes	MWF = April 13

Course Schedule

Sequence Summary:

On Becoming Human: The Nature of Culture 4 lectures, 1 essay (R)

Mesopotamia and Egypt 9 lectures, 1 essay (I)

Collapse and the Maya 3 lectures

The religions of India 8 lectures, 1 essay (I)

Chinese Thought and Culture 5 lectures, 1 essay (R)

The Greco-Roman World 9 lectures, 1 essay (I)

On Becoming Human: The Nature of Culture

We will discuss a range of topics, including the origins and defining characteristics of Homo sapiens, cultural universals, the human creative explosion, Venus cults, Neolithic astronomy, origin myths, the rise of agriculture, and other foundational qualities of the early human culture, the foundation to all the world’s history of thought and culture.

Reading : The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race

Reading : Location, Location, Location: The First Farmers

Reading : Comprehension of Human Communicative Signs in Pet Dogs

Reading : Human-like Social Skills in Dogs

Video: Steven Pinker on the Blank Slate (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

http://www.goat-roast.com/wtc-sp-09/Turnitin_essay_1.doc

http://www.goat-roast.com/wtc-sp09/Section_1_Nature_of_Culture_text_from_slides.ppt

Jan. 2 (F)

WEEK 1

Jan. 5 (M)

Jan. 7 (W)

Jan. 9 (F) Turnitin essay assignment 1 (due Tuesday, Jan. 13)

Mesopotamia and Egypt

Originally independent of one another, great civilizations with monumental architecture and writing arose in Ethiopia , India , Egypt , China and Central America . In these lectures we will discuss the ideas the developed during the emergence of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. We will read translations of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Hammurabi’s code of Law, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead, as well as related articles.