Anthropology 440
Seminar
in Southeastern Archaeology
Course Description: Southeastern Archaeology is a 400 level
seminar course on the archaeology of the Southeastern
United States. The goals of
such a seminar are group learning and informal discussion on the archaeology of
the region in which we live. To
accomplish these goals, each class will begin
with a 10-20 minute presentation on the topic of the day by
either Dr. Reber or a class member. This
will be followed by discussion, led by
the presenter(s). Topics are outlined below, and sign-up will take place the second day of
class.
Evaluation: There will be
no final exam in this course. Grading
will be based
on presentations to the class (25%), participation in class discussions (40%),
written assignments (15%), and a final paper (20%).
A note on seminars:
That said, a seminar is very different from the
average undergraduate class. It is
essentially democratic, based on
your discussion and input, and does not contain any tests. When we meet, where we meet and exactly what
we discuss will be
decided by the seminar as a
group. Welcome to graduate level
education!
Attendance: In general, you should give a valid or
creative excuse before an absence. Class participation grades will suffer from
repeated absences. If necessary, I will take attendance.
Presentations: Presentations should be 10-20 minutes in length—audiovisual aids may be used, but
are not required. Readings should be
given to Dr. Reber 2 weeks before the presentation date to put on reserve. Each presentation will be
followed by general class discussion
led by the presenter. Since everyone will be
presenting several times, class members
should take pity on the one in the hot seat and take part in discussion. A good way to do this is to come up with a
list of questions for discussion during and after doing your reading
assignment. You can ask these in class,
and we’ll hang the discussion on those.
If people do not come with enough discussion questions, I will formally
assign and grade the question list.
Reading Assignments: The textbook
for this class is The Archaeology of the Southeastern United States, Paleoindian
to World War I, by Judith Bense. Readings outside of the
textbook will generally be quite recent, and from the anthropological
literature. The grade for this class is
heavily weighted towards participation in class discussion, and completing the
reading assignments for each class is crucial for class discussion. It is therefore in your own best interest to do the reading.
Because you will have input on the
subject of the readings, they are
not listed on the course schedule.
Unfortunately, this means that readings cannot be
put on electronic reserve, and since the library no longer has a paper reserve, that means readings
will be kept in my office for
copying. Budget about
$5/week for copying—if it’s less, you’ll have extra cash at the end of the
semester! Also, consider the obvious side effect of this policy—I’ll know if you
copied the readings or not. Given the
usual size of this class, I’ll also know whether you read them or not.
Written Assignments: There will be
three written assignments over the course of the semester. The first is a short paper (at least 3 pages)
to determine everyone’s writing skills.
It will be assigned within
the first two weeks of class, and will be
worth 5% of your grade. The second, an
article or book review, is worth 10%
of your grade, and should be 5-10
pages in length. You may choose the
article or book that you’ll be reviewing—it may be
one of the class assignments. Your
article or book should be chosen by
the end of the fourth week of class, or September
11—you may want to see Dr. Reber for
suggestions. The book/article
review is due by October 2.
The final
paper should be 10-20 pages in
length and is on the topic of your choice.
Topics should be decided in
conjunction with Dr. Reber and
should be chosen by October
19. An outline of your final paper is due by
November 11. The paper is due by the last day of class—December 2.
If anyone
successfully presents a paper or poster at the Southeastern Archaeology
Conference, they will not have to write the term paper. The deadline for submissions to the
conference is August 29.
All written
assignments should be typed, double-spaced, in 10-12 point font, and with 1-inch
margins. Citation should be a standard anthropological style: American
Antiquity, Current Anthropology, or American Anthropological Association. Links to these styles will be found on the web
page, and Dr. Reber will keep hard
copies in her office. Turning in
assignments early is deeply appreciated, and is worth a bonus
to the class participation grades.
Field Trips: We
may or may not schedule field trips to area archaeological sites. We will schedule an optional field trip to
the Southeastern Archaeology Meetings in Charlotte,
NC. The meeting itself is November 12-15, but
our field trip will begin the
morning of November 13, getting back
to Wilmington sometime the afternoon/evening of Saturday, November 15.
Student registration for the meeting costs $50 if made by October
10; we will discuss logistics when we know how many people are interested.
This meeting is one of the major
regional archaeological meetings in the country—it is small enough that you can
meet important archaeologists personally, and large enough that there is a wide
range of research discussed. It should be a particularly good experience for those who are
considering a graduate degree in archaeology.
Makeup Work: Discuss
it with Dr. Reber. If an emergency comes up that will cause a
long absence, please e-mail or phone
Dr. Reber as soon as you know
there’s a problem. This allows more time for makeup, and saves
the embarrassment of having us all
check up on you to make sure you’re OK.
Web Page:
The class web page is linked
to Dr. Reber’s
personal web page, http://www.uncwil.edu/people/rebere. The syllabus, course assignments, related
links, and text of assignments will be posted on this site, as well as a brief
schedule of readings and class topics coming up, and any interesting links that
anyone wants to point out. The finer
points of the class schedule will ALWAYS be posted, and may be viewed as
official; Dr. Reber posts dates and information on the web so that she doesn’t
have to remember them—always check the web first!
Plagiarism: By
this point in your college career, the concept of plagiarism and why it is bad should be
familiar. Anyone caught plagiarizing in
this class will be failed on the
assignment, and has the potential to be
reported to the Dean of Students and Judicial Board.
More notes: Please
turn off all cell phones!!!
Food and drink are not only allowed, but
encouraged, particularly when containing caffeine and sugar.