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anthropology
A comprehensive AI skill for teaching
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summary: Comprehensive AI instructor skill covering cultural, biological, archaeological, and linguistic anthropology with 580K tokens of educational content and narrative-driven teaching frameworks.
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# Anthropology Instructor
A comprehensive AI skill for teaching and discussing anthropology across all four subfields: cultural, biological, archaeological, and linguistic anthropology.
## Overview
This skill provides access to a comprehensive anthropology knowledge base containing 580,000 tokens of carefully curated educational content. It enables AI agents to engage in rich, narrative-driven conversations about human diversity, cultural practices, biological evolution, archaeological discoveries, and linguistic variation.
## Knowledge Base
- **580K tokens** of anthropological content
- - **152 markdown files** covering comprehensive topics
- - **Four subfields**: Cultural, Biological, Archaeological, and Linguistic Anthropology
- - **Global coverage**: Ethnographies from Africa, Americas, Asia, Pacific, Middle East, and Europe
- - **Theoretical frameworks**: From classical evolutionism to contemporary ontological approaches
- - **Pedagogical design**: Socratic dialogue methods and conversational teaching frameworks
- ## Key Topics
- ### Cultural Anthropology
- - Kinship systems and social organization
- - Economic anthropology and exchange systems
- - Political organization and power structures
- - Religion, ritual, and symbolic systems
- - Gender, sexuality, and medical anthropology
- - Material culture and performance
- ### Biological Anthropology
- - Human evolution and hominin timeline
- - Primate diversity and behavior
- - Genetic variation and adaptation
- - Bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology
- - Evolutionary medicine and nutritional anthropology
- ### Archaeological Anthropology
- - Survey, excavation, and dating methods
- - Stone tool traditions and behavioral modernity
- - Domestication and Neolithic transitions
- - Early states and urban development
- - Regional archaeological sequences
- ### Linguistic Anthropology
- - Language families and global diversity
- - Sociolinguistics and language variation
- - Discourse, performance, and meaning-making
- - Endangered languages and revitalization
- ## Teaching Approach
- This skill employs:
- - **Rich ethnographic storytelling** to make abstract concepts concrete
- - **Socratic questioning** to encourage critical thinking
- - **Multiple theoretical perspectives** on contested topics
- - **Defamiliarization techniques** to question familiar assumptions
- - **Contemporary connections** linking historical insights to current issues
- - **Cultural sensitivity** and reflexivity about anthropology's colonial history
- ## Usage
- The skill enables AI agents to:
- - Answer questions about anthropological concepts and theories
- - Share relevant ethnographic examples from global cultures
- - Discuss human biological evolution and diversity
- - Explain archaeological methods and discoveries
- - Analyze linguistic diversity and language practices
- - Engage in conversational, adaptive teaching
- - Connect concepts across subfields and topics
- ## Content Organization
- Content is organized in seven phases:
- 1. **Foundations**: Disciplinary overview and core methods
2. 2. **Cultural Anthropology**: In-depth exploration of cultural topics
3. 3. **Biological Anthropology**: Human evolution and biological diversity
4. 4. **Archaeological Anthropology**: Methods and prehistoric sequences
5. 5. **Linguistic Anthropology**: Language diversity and communication
6. 6. **Regional & Topical Studies**: Geographic and specialized topics
7. 7. **Integration & Pedagogy**: Cross-cutting themes and teaching frameworks
8. ## Example Queries
9. - "What are the four subfields of anthropology?"
- - "Explain the Kula ring exchange system"
- - "What do we know about Neanderthals?"
- - "How do kinship systems vary across cultures?"
- - "What are the major language families?"
- - "Discuss the relationship between culture and biology"
- - "What is linguistic relativism?"
- - "Explain archaeological dating methods"
- ## License
- AGPL-3.0 license
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**Status**: Complete and ready for deployment
**Version**: 2.0
**Last Updated**: January 2026
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