Applied Anthropology Projects

Anthropology or the study of humans encompasses archeology in the study of buried bones.

Anthropology is the study of humans, current and past. The study of anthropology is often subdivided into four categories to include linguistic, biological and social anthropology as well as archeology. In your classroom, incorporate hands-on and interactive activities to create interest among students and to ensure the material is being learned through whole class participation in your lessons. Adapt the activities to allow for the study of anthropology at all grade levels.

Archeologist Finds

Bury an arrowhead, a bone, a coin or a tooth, for example, within a pile of sand in a plastic tub with high sides. Encourage the students to gently uncover the specimen using a soft brush and to study it with a magnifying glass. Ask each student to name the type of item it is, where it may have came from and what it was used for. As an added activity, take the students on a nature walk with a metal detector to find more buried treasure in the everyday world.

American Indian Culture

American Indians often communicated with pictographs and through drumbeats or smoke signals. Provide a musical adaptation of these native Americans' communication methods through counting drumbeats with your class. As an added activity, instruct your students to create a pictographic dictionary with columns displaying the pictographs and their meaning. The students can also use the dictionary to write letters to pen pals within the classroom.

Laughing Game

Promote a class discussion about the toys the children play with on a daily basis, and what would each do if she had no toys. Speak about the Inuit children who live in the Arctic and do not have toys to play with, so they make up games to occupy their time, including the laughing game. Divide the class into two teams. Each team takes turns trying to make the other team laugh by making faces, doing silly dances and acting crazy. The first team that can last a specific amount of time without laughing during the turn will be the winner.

Tut's Treasure

Discuss with your students the human tendency to keep treasure, and what is said to have been included in King Tut's treasure, including the items within his tomb: ear studs, ivory and stone bracelets, gold and wood chariot and a perfume vase, to name a few. Ask students to compare their personal treasures to those of King Tut. As a reinforcement activity, students can make and decorate a treasure chest from a shoe box and place their most valued treasure inside for a show-and-tell presentation to the class.

References

• American Anthropology Association: What Is Anthropology
• Teachers: Laughing Game
• National Geographic: King Tut's Treasures