Probably the best teacher I’ve had in the entire time I’ve been at UCLA. He made me fall in love with anthropology. The work is extremely easy and there is no essay for COVID classes. He is extremely caring and understanding. If I could rank all the professors professor Fiske is number one.

Selling course reader for $30
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Also selling "Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande"(the first required book) for $20.00

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This professor was such a letdown. The readings were all old and boring; stuff most anthropology majors have seen a million times. The lectures didn't connect to the readings, and were extremely repetitive. The essay prompts were ridiculous. The TA's were inconsistent in their grading and Fiske had zero interest in the grading side of things.

Essentially, I felt like I worked my butt off for an A, but didn't learn anything new or worthwhile. I'm not sure if he's just been teaching for way too long or what. I'd avoid this class at all costs, it's a huge waste of time and money.

Fiske is a boring, absent minded sloth... He says the essays are about having fun and learning, yet the experience is anything but! He has no intest in tending to the business of his underling students, and leaves them in the hands of power hungry, incompetent TAs, with no oversight. Avoid.

I really wasnt impressed with Fiske. I was extremley interested in this class before i took it, but i found it to be extremely boring. He just presents random facts, that dont really tie into the readings. His paper topics are super broad, but he only gives you a small word limit to answer them in. A lot of people really felt like there was not enough room in the paper to get yourself an A. I was a psych major, and then switched to anthro, so I thought this would be an easy A. I got B's on the first two papers, and an A on the last one. And finally, for our final, Fiske agreed to give us a larger word limit, and I got an A+. Most people got a much higher grade on the final due to the longer length.

Overall, I really was disappointed with this class. I felt like the whole thing could have been summed up in a 1 hour discovery channel show and been much more interesting. There were to many random facts, with not enough theory or support to back them up.

You MUST go to lecture to get an A (I got an A-). All of the papers demand you to incorporate points from lecture.

Make sure to get a good TA, section is 30% of your grade. My ta only graded on a -,+/-, or + scale, which made it impossible to gauge what your final grade would be. You will have to turn in "questions" on readings every week. Dont bother spending time to think of insightful questions, at least if you get W. Frankenhuis for your ta. The less ammount of time I spent on the questions, and the more simple they were, the better my grade.

In summary: I'd take this class with another professor if you can.

Reading materials are very interesting. His lectures is a supplement to the main reading though they do not really connect much with the essays assigned.
Overall I enjoyed the class and learned a good deal of things. In terms of grading, it's really up to his TAs. Personally I found the class to be quite easy.

Papers are all 2 pages max, and the final was to edit one of those two-page papers and make it into a 3 page paper. Make sure that you define all key terms you're using in your papers (like relational models or types of memory you are discussing) or you will lose big points (I made that mistake on my first paper). The TAs are VERY hit-or-miss, and having a bad one will make section completely useless.

Fiske spends a lot of time rehashing his own experience with fieldwork and has one of those voices that it's hard to stay focused on, but the class, lecture, and readings are all actually really interesting. Going to lecture is really important if you want to get something out of this class, and you absolutely need to understand memory systems, relational models, and the discussion of emotions for the papers. All in all a very easy and interesting class.

Fiske is amazing. By far the best anthro professor I've had at UCLA. He doesn't use visual aids or anything, but quite often his classes were so interesting that I actually forgot to take notes. 135B was a very easy class (four essays, 2 pages each!) and my TA was great, but professor Fiske is a lecturer that I will never forget!

take this class if: you are here to receive a great education (you'll get it with Fiske); psychology interests you; you're searching for a phenomenal professor who lectures well and tests fairly
You will be blown away by the course material and the efficient, organized way in which it is presented...at least I was! Professor Fiske is a true scholar.
do not take this class if: you are looking for a class you can slide by in
For this class to be truely worth it, I recommend you attend all the lectures and do as many of the readings as you can. Testing is all writing: 3 short papers and 1 longer paper (about 5 pages) so you won't do very well if you haven't heard Fiske's ideas or haven't done the reading.

This professor is great. His lecturs ar very straight foreward, he explains everything, will andswer all qestions, and really wants to teach. There are three 2 page essays and one 4 page final. Not difficult if you go to class and pay attention ( and 75% of the class went to every lecture) the class even clapped for him as he was walking out on the last day! There are suplementary ethnographies but the class is based on hs lectures so you must attend.