Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology

ANTHRO2A Winter 2026

Last updated: 03-19-2026

This is a page for Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology (ANTH2A) with James Egan. I am one of six TAs that are here to ensure that you succeed in this course. Here you will find information and materials that are not required for the course, but will be helpful if you want a good score and develop skills that will help you through your college experience and beyond. If the information is not on Canvas, it will be here.

My general advice for this course is that the lectures are extremely important to attend. Make a document with all the exam keyterms in it and fill in the blanks as the professor gives the lecture. This will determine 90% of your grade. The assigned readings are then secondary in importance, then the textbook. Attending teaching sections is a supplement, but it cannot substitute the actual lectures themselves, since so much of what is quizzed is relevant to things mentioned in lecture only.

My email: ecgu [at] uci [dot] edu
Teaching section: Tuesday 5-7 PM, HICF 100L
Office hours: Appointment by email
A Somoan canoe (va'a) in Newport Bay. In the 1960s at the height of American counterculture, UC Irvine had an experimental program called the Social Sciences Farm which involved inviting people from around the world to demonstrate and teach their crafts. This canoe is still displayed in the Social Science Tower today. What do you think the goals and ideas from that moment in history that made this event possible? What were it's problems and limitations?

Teaching Section

My teaching section is Tuesdays 5-7 PM at HICF 100L, in the little boxes south of the Science Library. We will go over materials for upcoming exams and essays using the study guide and answer other questions people may have. Teaching sections are optional for this course, but will be helpful for the otherwise difficult tests.

Office Hours

If you would like to speak one-on-one with me, I will have office hours that by default will be held near the end of the teaching section at HICF 100L. If that time doesn’t work for you, then we can work something else out. In either case, please email me ahead of time so I can plan accordingly.

Office hours are a space where you can ask me for any academic or professional advice: not just questions about the course, but also advice on resumes, applying to grad school, finding resources for disability assistance on campus, concerns about student or faculty conduct, and more. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Weeks

Week 2
  • Slides from today can be found here.
  • On Brazil and Japan in the study guide: see the textbook for more info on their relevance to the course.
  • NOTE: Today I said that Scantron forms are not required; this was wrong. Tests will require a Scantron Form F 288 PAR L, a No. 2 pencil, and a pen. Sorry!
Week 3
  • We went over the essay prompt on social race versus scientific racism. Some common mistakes included not explicitly defining social race and scientific racism, and forgetting to list at least two examples; if the prompt says to provide examples, remember to give more than one! It is better to use the examples given by Egan in class or in the textbook, since they more obviously connect to your argument. Remember also to not worry about essay structure; don’t spend too much time on filling out paragraphs if you haven’t laid out the basic definitions yet. Good luck! I will bring chocolate and pastries the week after the midterm in celebration.
Week 4
  • The day of the exam, so there is no teaching section. Good luck!
Week 5
  • We went over the broader concepts of the upcoming modules to best prepare for the exam, and some common mistakes in the essays from the first midterm.
Week 6
  • We played Jeapordy based on the study guide materials on kinship and production. Slides from the game are here.
Week 7
  • We did essay practice for midterm 2 (and got the right prompt for the exam essay again!)
Week 8
  • We went over the non-book related essays and concepts.
Week 9
  • We went over the book related essays and concepts. Good luck on the finals!

On Scantrons

The tests and essays for this course require the use of scantron forms, specifically the Scantron Form F 288 PAR L. You can buy them at the bookstore, or get one sheet for free from the SOAR office. These forms can be unintuitive to use these days, so if it is your first time taking a test with one, it’d be helpful to look up on YouTube how to fill one in and what common mistakes are. This may save a lot of potential headache for you and the test graders.