ASS102 - Culture and Communication

Unit details

Year

2025 unit information

Enrolment modes:

Trimester 2: Burwood (Melbourne), Waurn Ponds (Geelong), Online, Community Based Delivery (CBD)*

Credit point(s):1
EFTSL value:0.125
Unit Chair:Trimester 2: Rohan Bastin
Prerequisite:

Nil

Corequisite:Nil
Incompatible with: Nil
Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - on-campus unit enrolment:

1 x 1-hour on-campus lecture per week

1 x 1-hour on-campus seminar per week

Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - online unit enrolment:

1 x 1-hour online lecture per week (recordings provided)

1 x 1-hour online seminar per week

Typical study commitment:

Students will on average spend 150-hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit.

This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site.

Note:

*Community Based Delivery (CBD): only for students of the National Indigenous Knowledges, Education, Research and Innovation NIKERI Institute (located at the Waurn Ponds campus)

Content

ASS102 continues the introduction to Anthropology commenced by ASS101, but can be taken first by mid-year commencing students. The unit examines other foundational issues for anthropologists including the relationship between violence and conflict and the human social order and the complexity of human communication in such diverse areas of human practice as symbolic communication, belief systems and myth and ritual. Examples of human societies and cultures are drawn from the Americas, Europe, and Australia.

Learning Outcomes

ULO These are the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can:

Alignment to Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs)

ULO1 Articulate a range of attitudes, terms, and methods in the discipline, including the role of ethnography in anthropological thinking

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

ULO2 Extend the development of anthropological theory with an ethnographic focus on modern Western societies

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

ULO3 Unpack and re-assess contemporary social issues by using anthropological terms and frameworks, such as critical events and the extended case method

GLO4: Critical thinking

GLO5: Problem solving

ULO4 Explore critical dimensions of the relationship between communication and perception, and communicate understandings of these through written assessments

GLO4: Critical thinking

GLO6: Self-management

Assessment

Assessment Description Student output Grading and weighting
(% total mark for unit)
Indicative due week
Assessment 1: Seminar/Online exercises 800 words
or equivalent
20% Ongoing
Assessment 2: Essay 1200 words
or equivalent
30% Week 8
Assessment 3: End-of-unit assessment  2000 words
or equivalent
50% End-of-unit assessment period

The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.

Learning resource

The texts and reading list for ASS102 can be found via the University Library.

Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list. Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.

Unit Fee Information

Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study and their study discipline, and your study load.

Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.

Estimate your fees

For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current Students website.