Anthropology 4360 Ancient Desert West
Fall Semester 2008
3 credits
Tuesday and Thursday 9:00am – 10:15 am in Geology 302
Professor Steven Simms
Office: Main 245g Phone: 797-1277
s.simms@usu.edu
Student visitation times: M, W 10:00 – 11:00 am; 1:30 – 2:30 pm; T, R 1:30 – 3:00 pm. Please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss something and/or set up a meeting at a time convenient for you.
COURSE CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES
This is a course in the ancient natural history of the deserts and mountains of the western United States with particular focus on the Southwest and the Great Basin. By natural history I refer to three things:
At root this course is about ancient peoples and their once-lived lives. It is not a course on arrowhead hunting, nor a course in the how-tos of archaeological excavation. The course is easy-going, but not necessarily easy. You will find that the past has a lot to say about what happens in the world today. You will find that a larger-scale view than is typical of most academic disciplines allows you to see the causes of human affairs in dimensions far beyond the typical appeals to human motives, passions, and beliefs. Indeed, we begin to see where those things come from. Finally, the study of the past will not likely help you to change the present. It will improve your ability to think critically about it and perhaps gain greater understanding of what is happening in our world.
TEXT AND READINGS
The primary required text is available for purchase at the USU Bookstore or from Amazon.com via the USU Museum of Anthropology portal http://www.usu.edu/anthro/museum/catalog/amafundmus.html
Simms, Steven R.
Walnut Creek, California.
Additional required readings are on Electronic Reserve. The password is sim4360
COURSE OUTLINE
Week 1 Reading
8/26 Prologue. Archaeologists at work. Gatecliff Rockshelter.
8/28 The ancient Desert West: How can we know you? Simms, Preface & Prologue
Week 2
9/2 Peoples of the Basin-Plateau: letting the present serve the past. Simms, C. 1
9/4 From explorers to trappers, pioneers, collectors, archaeologists,
and cultural resource managers: a history of Great Basin archaeology.
Week 3
9/9 Ancient climate and habitats from history through the Little Ice Age.
How do we know about past climate & environments? Simms, C. 2 pp. 65-87
9/11 Ancient climate and habitats from the Medieval Warm Period
into the Pleistocene. Simms, C. 2 pp. 88-103
Week 4
9/16 Walking tour & discussion of paleoecology.
9/18 Some archaeology method and theory.
Week 5
9/23 The first explorers, colonists, and settlers. Simms C. 3
9/25 Student Debate and Essay Assignment 1: Did Humans Kill Off the Pleistocene Megafauna?
Week 6
9/30 Eons of foragers: the early and middle Archaic. Simms C. 4 pp. 141- 167
10/2 The Late Archaic: public and private goods. Simms, C. 4 pp. 167-180
Essay due on-line by 5pm Friday, October 3.
Week 7
10/7 Why would foragers farm? Simms, C. 4 pp. 180-183
10/9 Midterm Exam
Week 8
10/14 Fremont life, Fremont place. Origins of the Fremont Simms, C. 5 pp. 185-195
and the Anasazi. Simms, C. 5 pp. 195-212
10/16 Fall break, follow Friday class schedule.
Week 9
10/21 The rise of the Chaco Anasazi Stuart, C. 4
10/23 The Chaco Meridian, Anasazi migrations & the life of “abandonment.” Lekson C.1 & 5
Week 10
10/28 Fremont life and society Simms, C. 5 pp. 212-228
10/30 Student Debate and Essay Assignment 2: Anasazi Violence and Cannibalism.
Week 11
11/4 Range Creek video and discussion.
11/6 The Great Salt Lake burials: lifestyles, Simms & Stuart, Ancient American
health, genetics. Indian Life in the GSL Wetlands
Essay due on-line by 5pm Friday, November 7.
Week 12
11/11 Anasazi “disappearance” and continuity Lekson, Flight of the Anasazi
11/13 The end of Fremont place. Simms, C. 6 pp. 229-235
Week 13
11/18 Student Debate and Essay Assignment 3: The Numic Spread Simms C. 6
11/20 The Late Prehistoric millennium Simms, C. 6 pp. 235-266
Week 14
11/25 Widowed continent, the relationship of the ancient and
modern tribes. Epilogue. Simms, C. 6 pp. 266-276
Essay due on-line by 5pm Monday, November 25.
11/27 Thanksgiving Holiday. No class.
Week 15
12/2 NAGPRA, cultural patrimony, and burials. Simms & Raymond, No One Owns the Deceased
Watkins, Chapters 1 & 4
12/4 Cultural Resource Management. Becoming an archaeologist.
Final Exam Thursday, December 11 9:30 – 11:20am in our regular classroom.
ASSIGNMENTS, EXAMS, AND GRADES
Student Debate and Essay Assignments
There are three student debates during the semester and three essays submitted about one week after each debate. Days of debate and essay due dates are shown on the Course Outline. Assignment details are found on Blackboard Vista, under Course Tools: Assignments.
Exams. There is midterm exam and a final exam. They will include objective and essay questions. There will also be map questions on each exam. A study guide will be distributed several days before each exam.
The policy for make-up exams is there are none, except under exceptional circumstances and prior arrangement. If it does end up being after-the-fact, be prepared to document, but by all means communicate with me.
Combination Measures. I will assign points and a grade for the following activities:
Policy on extra credit. Please try to avoid putting yourself in a position of asking for extra credit to make up, or improve your grade on class assignments and exams. Put your effort into making those a quality effort.
Points and grades
Midterm Exam 50 points
Final Exam 75 points
Student Debates 3 @ 25 points each 75 points
Essays from Student Debates 3 @ 50 points each 150 points
Combination measures. 50 points
Total 400 points
RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS
1. You will attend all classes and you will do the work. You are responsible for what is said and done in the class whether you are here or not. I appreciate being informed if you cannot make it to class, but please understand this does not constitute permission to be absent.
2. You must read, and read analytically, not just for entertainment, memorization, or impressions. I am interested in what you think, not what you believe. The former arises from analysis, and the latter from mere opinion.
3. You must take responsibility for how much you learn. For instance, if you don’t understand your debate reading, see me before the day of the debate. Please do not turn in assignments and then tell me you did not understand. Take advantage of the online discussion tool. Form study groups with your colleagues.
4. My responsibility is a commitment to each of you, a respect for your contributions, and the maintenance of academic rigor.
MISCELLANEOUS POLICIES
DISABILITIES. Qualified students with disabilities may be eligible for reasonable accommodations. All accommodations are coordinated through the Disability Resource Center (DRC) in Room 101 of the University Inn, 797-2444 voice, 797-0740 TTY, or toll free at 1-800-259-2966. Please contact the DRC as early in the semester as possible. Alternate format materials (Braille, large print or digital) are available with advance notice.
FERPA. The Family Education Right to Privacy Act (FERPA) will be adhered to by returning
assignments and exams directly to the student.
USU EARLY ALERT PROGRAM. This is for students who are having difficulty in their classes. I have agreed to participate in this program and submit the names and A numbers of students who are at risk of earning a D or an F in this course. This is an non-confrontational program that is designed to assist students in being successful semester. For details about how the program works, go to our course web page on Blackboard Vista and find the link under Course Contents: Start Here.
OTHER. Policies on incompletes, and other academic matters can be found in the online General Catalog:
http://www.usu.edu/generalcatalog/2007-2009/online
Policies on cheating, and classroom civility, etc. can be found at:
http://www.usu.edu/studentservices/pdf/StudentCode.pdf
in the USU Undergraduate Catalog and Student Code will be adhered to.
GOALS AND ASSESSMENT
1. Provide a descriptive skeleton of the natural and cultural history for the region during the past 15,000 years, and introduce the literature and primary sources.
Assessment goal: literacy of environmental periods, cultures, climatic trends and major natural and ecological transitions of the American Southwest, Great Basin, and associated deserts. Knowledge of the sources of scientific information about the region’s ancient history - cultural and natural. This material will be found on exams and in the readings. The Student Debate and Essay assignments link class discussion with writing.
2. Add "flesh" to this skeleton in selected cases where the archaeology enables detail, or where specific issues illustrate the problem-solving aspects of archaeology.
Assessment goal: Knowledge of some specific research problems in Desert West archaeology and paleoecology, and how these problems have been approached using data and theoretical perspectives. The course syllabus alternates between providing foundation material and the examination of specific research problems. This material will also be found on exams.
3. Practice scientific communication including the linkage of abstract concepts of method and theory with multiple lines of evidence to produce “working” interpretations/models. This is commonly known as “critical thinking.” Written and oral communication assignments will provide opportunities for student to practice scientific communication.
Assessment goal: Sophistication in communication skills, evidence of analysis and comparison of in-class material, class texts and assigned readings, and the student’s own library research. Scientific communication also entails the ability to formulate issues as questions and problems for inquiry. Ability to conduct interpretation and discussion in probabilistic terms rather than culturally prescribed notions of belief, truths or falsehood, right and wrong.