I.  Critical thinking and moral reasoning objectives:
A.  The course being based on discussion of assigned readings covering the canon of 
    economic anthropology, students will be trained to critically read, assimilate, 
    and analyze the content of published empirical studies and theoretical arguments.
B.  In classroom discussions and organized debates, students will communicate 
    professional concepts, engage opposing points of view, and support a consistent 
    purpose.
C.  Students will learn to apply anthropological theory to explain the diversity and
    universality of human social behavior, thus eradicating societal stereotypes and
    prejudices (this is the main mission of all cultural anthropology).
D.  Crosscutting most of the lecture/discussion material are the themes of fairness,
    social cohesion, social justice, and social welfare, to challenge students to
    consider the role of ethics and justice in decision-making.
E.  Another crosscutting theme is research ethics; students will be challenged to 
    consider the broader social significance of anthropological practice.

II. Written and oral communication and computer literacy objectives:
A.  Students will have the opportunity to practice academic research and writing with
    guidance and feedback from the instructor, in the form of a 7 to 10 page research
    paper and preliminary assignments, including an annotated bibliography and 
    full-sentence outline.  This will involve assimilating and analyzing published 
    peer-reviewed information from different disciplines (anthropology, sociology,
    economics, psychology), expressing the students' own intellectual 
    interpretations of this material, and composing effective written arguments 
    suitable for publication in a professional social science journal.  This 
    assignment will require students to use the library, the world wide web, and 
    a word processor.
B.  Students' quantitative reasoning skills and ability to use a spreadsheet will be 
    challenged with a simple optimal foraging simulation model in Excel.
C.  Students will lead discussions during some lectures, helping them to analyze oral
    information and communicate mature, appropriate scholarly information.

Part 1, the value of things:  Individual choice versus social structure
a.  Formalist theory part 1: the marginalist revolution and neoclassical models of 
    choice (math models develop quantitative reasoning skills)
b.  Formalist theory part 2: indifference, preference, and equivalency
Assignment 1: paper idea (preliminary web/library research and proper formating 
of bibliographic sources)
c.  Preferences for risk and delay
d.  Critiques of rational choice (student lead debates to develop oral communication,
    critical thinking, and moral reasoning)
e.  Substantivist theory part 1:  Structural functionalist approaches to exchange 
    (lecture/discussion about social cohesion & social justice)
f.  Substantivist theory part 2:  The moral economy, giving and receiving of gifts 
    (focus on moral reasoning, cross-cultural variability, tolerance)
Assignment 2:  Annotated bibliography (read, assimilate, analyze, and write mature,
intelligible prose about literature spanning disciplines using word processor)
g.  From primitive valuables to modern money
h.  Substantivist behavior in markets
i.  Labor theory of value (lecture/discussion about social cohesion & social justice)

Part 2, individuals, society, and groups
a.  Evolution of altruism and cooperation
b.  Reciprocal altruism and cheating (lecture/discussion about social cohesion & 
    social justice)
c.  Cooperation and defection: game theory (math models develop quantitative 
    reasoning skills)
Assignment 3:  Full sentence outline (compose written argument for professional
audience, proper citation)
d.  Evolutionary game theory (math models develop quantitative reasoning skills)
e.  Public goods and common property tragedies (student lead debates to develop oral 
    communication, critical thinking, and moral reasoning)
f.  Social preferences and experimental game theory

Part 3, foragers, farmers, and capitalists
a.  Hunter-gatherers: original affluence or persistent penury?
b.  Optimal foraging theory (Excel spreadsheet models)
Assignment 4:  First draft of paper (writing for a professional audience)
c.  Extensive versus intensive cultivation
d.  History and social organization of peasant societies
e.  Agrarian development (lecture/discussion about social cohesion & social justice)
f.  Livelihoods and capitals
Assignment 5:  Optional rewrite based on instructor's input
g.  Political economy of capitalism (student lead debates to develop oral 
    communication, critical thinking, and moral reasoning)
h.  Market integration (lecture/discussion about social cohesion & social justice)