9th Grade – Social Institutions (SI)
This course surveys the world cultures of Australia, Mexico, South Africa, and China by examining their geography and history. You will gain an understanding of how geography played a role in shaping the histories of each of these countries and their development of social, political, and economic institutions. Our goal throughout the year is to critically think about the past to make more responsible choices and connections to the present.
Unit 1: An Interdependent and Globalized World
The first unit is an introduction to the basic understanding of culture and geography. Students are asked to take on the role of a cultural anthropologist, one who critically thinks about the political, social, economic, and cultural institutions of societies. Then, they examine the complexity of human evolution by reading adapted handouts based on Jared Diamond’s acclaimed book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and apply how geography impacted the way societies developed into industrious nations or remained more environmentally adaptive indigenous cultures.
Key Concepts:
Critical Thinking
Metacognition
Culture
Globalization
Farm Power
Readings:
Adapted handouts from Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Excerpts from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Loorn W. Anderson and David R. Krathwohl
“Body Ritual among the Nacirema,” Horace Miner
Video:
Guns, Germs, and Steel (National Geographic) Part One
Emerald Forest
Story of Stuff (storyofstuff.com)
Unit 2: Australian Aboriginal Culture and Geography
We begin the unit with an overview of the land and geography of Australia to extend our discussion on the significance of the natural environment to the Aboriginal people. Students evaluate how the biologically desolate and isolated geographic location of Australia led the Aboriginals to maintain an interdependent lifestyle with their surroundings to ensure the preservation of their culture. However, this close relationship is jeopardized when the Aboriginals come in contact with a more powerful outside force who carries a view different from the notion of preservation. In doing so, students begin to reflect on the idea whether it is important to prevent indigenous cultures from disappearing in the “wake of progress”.
Key Concepts:
Progress
Egalitarian
Kleptocracy
Terra Nullius
Social Organizations
Readings:
Adapted handouts from Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Australia: A Concise Political and Social History
Unit 3: Mexican Culture, History, and Geography
For this unit, students will gain the historical context of the Mexica people from the creation of the grand city of Tenochtitlan up to the conquest by the Spanish, which consequently gave birth to the modern-day Mexican people and culture. As the underlying text of the year, we use Jared Diamond’s, Guns, Germs, and Steel to address the significant role of the natural environment in the evolution of human development. For that reason, the class begins with an overview of Mexico’s land and geography. Then, we evaluate the early civilizations of the Olmecs, Toltecs, and Mayas to exemplify their influences on the Mexicas, most commonly known as the Aztecs, in Lake Texcoco.
Key Concepts:
Domestication
Synthesis
Conquest
Castas
Readings:
Adapted handouts from Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Modern History Sourcebook Hernan Cortes: from Second Letter to Charles V, 1520
Videos:
Guns, Germs, and Steel (National Geographic) Part II
Mexican Prehispanic Cultures
Conquistadores (PBS)
Unit 4: African Culture, History, and Geography
We begin the unit with an overview of the land and geography of Africa to celebrate the richness of the continent with a discussion of the early thriving civilizations. Despite these prosperous African societies, European nations conquered them in the late 19th century, which resulted in the struggle for power between the colonizers and native populations. In order for students to understand this struggle, they analyze the motives behind the first and second waves of Imperialism. Then, we use South Africa as a case-study to demonstrate the difficulties the black South Africans endured during the Apartheid regime. This resulted in a need for black south african leaders to model the different strategies of resistance and how to reclaim one’s freedom under oppressive conditions.
Key Concepts:
Imperialism
Colonialism
Dehumanization
Oppression
Segregation
RAW model (Resistance, Accommodation, and Withdrawal)
Black Consciousness
Ubuntu
Reconciliation
Reading:
Adapted handouts from Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Video:
Cry Freedom
Unit 5: Chinese Culture, History, and Geography
We begin the unit with an overview of the land and geography of China to once again emphasize the importance of the natural environment to the development of societies. Although China is a neighbor to many nations, they were isolated for much of its history in order to preserve their cultural traditions established in the early Unification Period. Students will study how these traditions significantly shaped the nation’s development well into the 20th century. Lastly, we examine if Mao’s political and economic policies embedded in the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution can be considered successful with an evaluation of its lasting social, political, economic, and cultural impacts on modern-day China.
Key Concepts:
Dynastic Cycle
Reading:
Adapted handouts from Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Videos:
Redcliff
To Live