A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on integrating theory into introductory social and cultural anthropology courses. Many teachers also had questions about how to integrate more basic, yet important, concepts into their courses. Some of these concepts are linked to theoretical schools and perspectives, others are a little more basic. For those teaching the IB course, the syllabus begins with a list of core terms and ideas – agency, community, comparative, cultural relativism, culture, ethnographic, meaning, process, qualitative, social reproduction and society. Because the subject guide has coupled these terms with explanations that seem to look a lot like definitions or encyclopedia entries, the temptation is for students to attempt to memorize set definitions for each of the core ideas. However, this would be the wrong path to take.
