ANT 476 Section 001: Nutritional Anthropology
Spring, 2008
3 Credit Hours
Primary Instructor: James Bindon
Core Designation: Writing
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides a detailed introduction to the study of human nutrition from an anthropological perspective. Biological, ecological, and social factors influencing diet and nutrition are considered.
The principal aims of the course are as follows:
To review, evaluate, and criticize the literature on human diet and nutrition from an explicitly anthropological perspective.
To consider theoretical and methodological issues in the anthropological study of human nutrition by focusing on case studies in various populations.
To gain experience in preparing and making public presentations.
To practice writing a scientific research paper starting with searching for a topic, finding and critically reviewing source material, outlining the paper, and finally writing and revising the manuscript.
January 14 Introduction to Nutritional Anthropology
DATE |
TOPICS AND |
1. Farb, P. and G. Armelagos. 1980. Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating.
2. Lee RB. 1968. What Hunters Do for a Living, or, How to Make Out on Scarce Resources. In: Lee RB,
3. Assignment 1 (due by Wednesday January 16).
4. Assignment 2 (due by the start of class January 28).
5. FOR 576 ONLY: Harris, M. 1987. Foodways: historical overview and theoretical prolegomenon. In: Harris, M. and E. B. Ross (eds.) Food and Evolution: Toward a Theory of Human Food Habits.
January 21 MLK Holiday—NO CLASS, Finish reading assignment for week 1, work on Assignment 2, and start on reading for next class.
January 28 The Evolutionary Background
1. Assignment 2 (due by the start of class).
2. Eaton SB, Konner M. 1985. Paleolithic nutrition: a consideration of its nature and current implications. The
3. Leonard WR. 2002. Food for thought: dietary change was a driving force in human evolution. Scientific American, 287:106-112.
4. FOR 576 ONLY: Teaford MF, Ungar PS. 2000. Diet and the evolution of the earliest human ancestors. Proceedings of the
February 4 Requirements and Assessment Techniques
1. Assignment 3 (due by the start of class).
2. Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005
3. MyPyramid Plan—(bring your plan to class).
4. FOR 576 ONLY: Dwyer, J. T. 1991. Concept of nutritional status and its measurement. In: J. H. Himes (ed.) Anthropometric assessment of nutritional status.
February 11 Writing a Research Paper
February 18 Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition
1. Assignment 4 (due by the start of class).
2. Capporael L. 1976. Ergotism: The satan loosed in
3. Pelto GH, Goodman AH, Dufour DL. 2000. The biocultural perspective in nutritional anthropology. In: Goodman AH, Dufour DL, Pelto GH. (eds.) Nutritional Anthropology: biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition.
4. FOR 576 ONLY: Hunter JM. 1973. Geophagy in Africa and in the
February 25 Biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition
1. Katz, S. H. 1987. Food and biocultural evolution: a model for the investigation of modern nutritional problems. In: F. E. Johnston (ed.), Nutritional Anthropology.
2. Weiss KM. 2005. The reluctant calf. Evolutionary Anthropology 14:127–131.
3. FOR 576 ONLY: Wilson WM, Dufour DL. 2002. Why "bitter" cassava? Productivity of "bitter" and "sweet" cassava in a Tukanoan Indian settlement in the northwest Amazon. Economic Botany, 56:49-57.
March 3 Explaining Foodways: Materialist Approaches, Ideology, Symbolism, and Social Power
1. Paper Due
2. Harris M 1966. The cultural ecology of
3. FOR 576 ONLY:
March 10 FIRST EXAM
March 17 SPRING BREAK
March 24 Variation in Contemporary Food Habits: Foragers, Farmers, and Agricultural Origins
1. Johnson, A. and M. Baksh. 1987. Ecological and structural influences on the proportions of wild foods in the diets of two Machiguenga communities. In: Harris, M. and E. B. Ross (eds.) Food and Evolution: Toward a Theory of Human Food Habits.
2. Lee RB. 1968. What Hunters Do for a Living, or, How to Make Out on Scarce Resources. In: Lee RB,
March 26 Last Day to Drop
March 31 Variation in Contemporary Food Habits: Industrialization, Globalization
1. Assignment 5 Due
2. Pelto GH. 1987. Social Class and Diet in Contemporary
3. FOR 576 ONLY: Dressler WW, Ribeiro RP, Balieiro MC,
April 7 Obesity
1. Bindon JR, Gilliland MJ, Dressler WW, Crews DE. 2007. A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Obesity and Health in Three Groups of Women: The
2. Brown PJ, Konner M. 1987. An anthropological perspective on obesity. Annals of the
3. FOR 576 ONLY: Lev-Ran A. 2001. Human obesity: an evolutionary approach to understanding our bulging waistline. Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, 17: 347–362.
April 14 Food Habits in
1. REVISED PAPER DUE
2. Bindon, J. R. 1982. Breadfruit, banana, beef, and beer: modernization of the Samoan diet. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 12:49-60.
3. Bindon, J. R. 1984. An evaluation of the diet of three groups of Samoan adults: modernization and dietary adequacy. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 14:105-115.
4. Bindon, J. R. 1988. Taro or rice, plantation or market: dietary choice in
5. Bindon, J.R. 1994. Some implications of the diet of children in
April 21 Student Presentations
1. All presentations due NO LATER THAN 12 noon, April 21.
April 28 Student Presentations
2. All presentations due NO LATER THAN 12 noon, April 21.
May 5 SECOND EXAM: Monday, May 5, 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Paper: Each student will write a research paper based on your topic chosen in consultation with Dr. Bindon. Each student in ANT 476 must use at least eight references (at least four from refereed journals) and each student in ANT 576 must use at least 12 references (8 from journals) for ANT 576. This paper is to be as fully developed as possible, following all of the rules posted at http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/pap_rule.htm. Careful attention must be paid to all of the elements of good writing including spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style. The student will not pass this assignment unless the level of writing proficiency is adequate.
Exam One: Each exam will combine conceptual and factual knowledge, and will involve writing essays to demonstrate familiarity with the concepts covered. The exams will be based on all course materials including lectures, readings, and class discussion. Exam questions will be pre-circulated and submitted by e-mail. When writing the exams please be Concise, Complete, and Correct. Writing skills will be graded as well as the content of the answers.
Revised Paper: In this assignment each student will submit the revision of the original paper. Careful attention must be paid to all of the comments on the previous draft and to the elements of good writing including spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style. The student will not pass this assignment unless the level of writing proficiency is adequate.
Presentation: Each ANT 476/576 student will make a PowerPoint presentation incorporating the research of each student into a synthesized statement about the topical area. Elements to consider include logical organization, clarity of speech, visual aids, and ability to engage the interest of the class. All presentations are due by the start of class on April 26.
I am trying to get some information about the background and experience of people in the course.
Please provide the following information about yourself:
Name
What kind of anthropological experience do you have in terms of classes, field schools, research or other work?
What kind of experience do you have with nutrition (classes--including biology, dieting, health related experience, etc.)?
What were your reasons for signing up for this class?
What society and/or what topic do you think you would be interested in writing about for your research paper and presentation?
In this assignment you are to study your own food quest using techniques like those in Lee RB. 1968. What Hunters Do for a Living, or, How to Make Out on Scarce Resources. In: Lee RB, Devore I. (eds.) Man the Hunter, Chicago: Aldine de Gruyter. Pp. 30–48. Feel free to consult this article during the week you're recording your input/output. Over the course of a week, record the amount of time you spend in your quest for food and the social contexts of your food usage (your foodways). How much time do you spend shopping and preparing and consuming food? What kinds of social purposes do your foodways serve? Keep a record of how much your food costs. Use the current Federal Minimum Wage salary of $5.85 an hour to calculate the amount of time that was required to earn the money to pay for the food (although you may be much better paid). For this assignment, use the word table at this link (right click on the link and use "Save Target As" to download the table to your computer).
Write a short essay using full written paragraphs (observing the principles of good writing, including the grammatical rules included on our writing page at http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/pap_rule.htm) of about three pages describing what you learned by doing this exercise. Send the table and your essay to me as an e-mail attachment at jbindon@tenhoor.as.ua.edu.
Locate six references from refereed journals for your paper. Compose your outline for your research paper along the lines shown in our rules for writing research papers, and critique each of your articles as shown by our graduate students. Include your list of references in the correct format and show where you think you will use these sources in your outline.
Here are some graded examples of papers--You need to look at these to see what I'm looking for:
Here are some instructions for critiquing the articles:
Are the purposes of the research clearly delineated? The purpose can be clearly stated without being in the form of an hypothesis.
Are the techniques used clearly described. Do you think that if you were sufficiently familiar with the subject area you could reconstruct the study from the author’s description of how the research was conducted.
Are the techniques appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the study? Assess this to the best of your familiarity with the subject area.
Are the results clearly presented and do they include all of the information that you need to judge for yourself whether or not the purpose of the research has been fulfilled? Think here especially about confounding factors and variables the author does not discuss that you think could significantly have influenced the outcome.
Are limitations of the research clearly considered and appropriately included in summary statements about the research?
Are the conclusions the author draws from the results the only possible explanation or are there alternative explanations that have not been sufficiently considered by the researcher?
E-mail this to me before class on Monday, February 4.
Using the data you collected in class on February 4, you are to write up a nutritional assessment of two of your classmates.
First, complete the calculation of the anthropometric indices on the back of the measurement form, and write up a brief report for each student of his/her % ideal weight, BMI and BMI status, muscle circumference, percent body fat (both estimates), and Waist/Hip ratio.
Next, enter the dietary data from the 24-hour recall questionnaire for each student into the nutritional analysis program provided by the University of Illinois, NAT 2.0, to give you the nutritional composition of his/her intake. This site won't have all of the foods in the form you have recorded, so you must make a series of judgments about what food from the list to substitute for the food from the questionnaire. That is part of the error involved in nutritional analysis.
After you have completed these analyses, provide a table with the total nutrient intake (copy and paste the table from the web site) for each student, and discuss the meaning of the dietary intake and anthropometric indices for the nutritional status/nutritional health of the student.
E-mail the nutritional assessment to the student you measured and a copy of it to me. Finally, write a brief, one-page essay telling your subjects and me what you learned about nutritional assessment.
Here are the papers for review. They are in Word format. You will need to create a document for each of your reviews and send each review to the author of the paper and to me (e-mail addresses below). The link to the paper to be reviewed is in the left column of the table and the three reviewers for each paper are in the columns labeled Reviewer 1, Reviewer 2, and Reviewer 3.
In reviewing the papers, do not worry about the formatting as it may get scrambled somewhat by my turning it into a pdf and you can assume that I will pick up most typos and grammatical errors. You do not need to catalog these unless they just jump off the page and annoy you (like they do for me). You should concentrate your review on seeing how well the paper accomplishes the purpose stated by the author. You may want to review our paper rules now, so that you can emphasize comments about rules 1 through 5 noting organization, logic and logical flow, use of information from citations, figures, tables, and the like. In commenting on specific elements of the paper you should note the page, paragraph(s), and line(s) wherever appropriate as:
EXAMPLE:
Page 4, paragraph 2, lines 4-10: The point about eating too much taro was not clear. You may want to give an example or find other sources to bolster your point. Also earlier in the paper you said they ate less so you need to resolve this conflict.
General: The organization was confusing. If you labeled your sections and had transitional statements it would be easier to follow.
Figures: It would have been helpful to have a map locating the groups you talked about. Some graphs showing the differences you documented would have helped me see the issues.
You are to provide approximately a two paragraph review (about one page or roughly 300 words) for each presentation. The reviews are to consider both content and style, the latter including graphics and oral components. Send each review to the presenter and to Dr. Bindon using the e-mail links below. The presenters are listed in their order of presentation below.
This course carries "W" designation, therefore writing proficiency is required for a passing grade. Aside from the paper outline each writing assignment, including the two essay exams, requires carefully edited prose and will be graded for intellectual content, originality, comprehension of reading material, coherence, logic, organization, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and prose style. The course grade will be determined by scores on the two exams, the various components of the research paper, the in-class presentation, and participation in class. Writing proficiency is an absolute requirement for passing this course. The course assignments and their contribution to your grade are listed in the table on the next page.
|
Assignment |
Percent of Grade |
|
Paper: Each student will write a research paper based on your topic chosen in consultation with Dr. Bindon. Each student in ANT 476 must use at least eight references (at least four from refereed journals) and each student in ANT 576 must use at least 12 references (8 from journals) for ANT 576. This paper is to be as fully developed as possible, following all of the rules posted at http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/bindon/ant570/pap_rule.htm. Careful attention must be paid to all of the elements of good writing including spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style. The student will not pass this assignment unless the level of writing proficiency is adequate. |
10% |
|
Exam One: Each exam will combine conceptual and factual knowledge, and will involve writing essays to demonstrate familiarity with the concepts covered. The exams will be based on all course materials including lectures, readings, and class discussion. Exam questions will be pre-circulated and submitted by e-mail. When writing the exams please be Concise, Complete, and Correct. Writing skills will be graded as well as the content of the answers. |
20% |
|
Revised Paper: In this assignment each student will submit the revision of the original paper. Careful attention must be paid to all of the comments on the previous draft and to the elements of good writing including spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style. The student will not pass this assignment unless the level of writing proficiency is adequate. |
10% |
|
Presentation: Each ANT 476/576 student will make a PowerPoint presentation incorporating the research of each student into a synthesized statement about the topical area. Elements to consider include logical organization, clarity of speech, visual aids, and ability to engage the interest of the class. All presentations are due by the start of class on April 26. |
10% |
|
Exam Two: Covers the readings and class discussion since Exam One. |
20% |
|
Participation: participation will be established by demonstration of preparedness for class. There will be three general areas in which this will be assessed: 1) Oral participation during class; 2) Participation in online discussions, as indicated; 3) Grades on assignments other than the paper and exams; 4) Grades on pop quizzes based on the readings. |
30% |
Make-ups: All written assignments, the paper, the exams, must be turned in on deadline. There will be no make up for any of these assignments and missing the deadline will be penalized by one letter grade per day late.
|
Participation: participation will be established by demonstration of preparedness for class. There will be three general areas in which this will be assessed: 1) Oral participation during class; 2) Participation in online discussions, as indicated; 3) Grades on assignments other than the paper and exams; 4) Grades on pop quizzes based on the readings. |
30% |
BOOKS on reserve at library:
Farb P, Armelagos G. 1980. Consuming Passions: The Anthropology of Eating.
Harris M, and Ross EB (eds.). 1987. Food and Evolution: Toward a Theory of Human Food Habits.
Himes JH (ed.). 1991. Anthropometric assessment of nutritional status.
Lee RB, and Devore I (eds.) 1968. Man the Hunter, Chicago: Aldine de Gruyter
READINGS available through eLearning:
Eaton SB, Konner M. 1985. Paleolithic nutrition: a consideration of its nature and current implications. The
Leonard WR. 2002. Food for thought: dietary change was a driving force in human evolution. Scientific American, 287:106-112.
Teaford MF, Ungar PS. 2000. Diet and the evolution of the earliest human ancestors. Proceedings of the
Capporael L. 1976. Ergotism: The satan loosed in
Pelto GH, Goodman AH, Dufour DL. 2000. The biocultural perspective in nutritional anthropology. In: Goodman AH, Dufour DL, Pelto GH. (eds.) Nutritional Anthropology: biocultural Perspectives on Food and Nutrition.
Hunter JM. 1973. Geophagy in Africa and in the
Weiss KM. 2005. The reluctant calf. Evolutionary Anthropology 14:127–131.
Wilson WM, Dufour DL. 2002. Why "bitter" cassava? Productivity of "bitter" and "sweet" cassava in a Tukanoan Indian settlement in the northwest Amazon. Economic Botany, 56:49-57.
Harris M 1966. The cultural ecology of
Oths
Dressler WW, Ribeiro RP, Balieiro MC,
Bindon JR, Gilliland MJ, Dressler WW, Crews DE. 2007. A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Obesity and Health in Three Groups of Women: The
Brown PJ, Konner M. 1987. An anthropological perspective on obesity. Annals of the
Lev-Ran A. 2001. Human obesity: an evolutionary approach to understanding our bulging waistline. Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, 17: 347–362.
Bindon, J. R. 1982. Breadfruit, banana, beef, and beer: modernization of the Samoan diet. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 12:49-60.
Bindon, J. R. 1984. An evaluation of the diet of three groups of Samoan adults: modernization and dietary adequacy. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 14:105-115.
Bindon, J. R. 1988. Taro or rice, plantation or market: dietary choice in
Bindon, J.R. 1994. Some implications of the diet of children in
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