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ANTHROPOLOGY 0130: MYTHS ALIVE
PROFESSOR WILLIAM SIMMONS
[email protected]
MWF at 10, 212 GIDDINGS
OFFICE HOURS WEDS. 2-4
SPRING 2016
OVERVIEW
Myth is an important part of the architecture that sustains human culture and
society. This course will begin with an account of the principal theoretical
perspectives that have shaped anthropological understandings of myth as a living
and guiding force in human communities in ancient times and in the present day.
We will examine the expressions of myth in creation, senses of place, social
harmony, inequality, conflict, religious experience, radical social change, and
contemporary urban life—in a wide variety of historical and ethnographic settings
including Native North America, West Africa, and various colonial expansions. We
also will draw upon objects from Brown University’s Haffenreffer Museum of
Anthropology to recognize them as materialized representations from mythical
worlds. Following the Introduction, the course will be divided into four parts,
theoretical perspectives, indigenous case studies, myths of territorial expansion, and
the mythical dimensions of contemporary cities and of universities with a focus on
Providence and Brown.
Course requirements will include a series of 9 short papers (2-3 pages) based on
class readings, lectures and discussions, and two papers at the end to be based on
field and library research. The short papers will be due before class on February 9,
February 13, February 23, February 27, March 4, March 11, March 16, March 20, and
April 8. Topics for each of these papers will be distributed in class the week before
the due date. The two final papers, one on Providence and the other on Brown, will
emphasize the final segment of the course--Mythscapes of Providence and Brown.
They will give you the opportunity to do original field and library research on the
mythical dimensions of our immediate environment and to use what you have
learned to interpret the complex ways in which such phenomena penetrate
contemporary life. In approaching this research we will make use of MediaKron, an
online platform that helps share digital content and visualize it in a variety of ways
for learning purposes. The Myths Alive MediaKron site will enable us to collect and
share artifacts (images, sounds, videos) related to Providence and Brown.
The short papers will count for 50% of the grade, the final two papers 40%, and
class participation 10%. My office hours in 102 Giddings will be Wednesdays 2-4
and by appointment as needed. Feel free to come as often as you like to talk about
your work and discuss ideas.
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INTRODUCTION
January 27. Introduction: What to Expect.
January 29. Myth and Related Narrative Genres
Reading
William S. Simmons Spirit of the New England Tribes: Indian History and Folklore,
1620-1984. 1986: vii-xi, 3-9 (this required book is available at Brown bookstore).
Keith H. Basso “Wisdom Sits in Places: Notes on a Western Apache Landscape” in
Steven Feld and Keith H. Basso, eds., Senses of Place 1996: 53-88.
Stephen Powers Tribes of California 1976 [1877]: 109-110.
February 1. Myth, Symbols and Culture
Reading
Clifford Geertz, “Ethos, World-View and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols,” The
Antioch Review, Vol.17, No.4 (Winter, 1957), pp. 421-427, 436-437 (access through
JSTOR).
Sherry Ortner, On Key Symbols, American Anthropologist, Vol. 75, No. 5 (Oct., 1973):
1338-1346 (via JSTOR)
Marshall Sahlins, “Two or Three Things that I Know about Culture” The Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 5, No. 3. (Sept. 1999): 399-421 (via JSTOR)
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
February 3. Myth as Superstructure
Karl Marx “Material Forces and the Relations of Production” in Theories of Society
Vol. 1 Talcott Parsons et al eds., [1859]: 136-138.
Michel Foucault Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison 1991 [1975]: 25-31.
February 5. Myth and the Sacred
Arnold van Gennep, “The Territorial Passage” in The Rites of Passage 1960 (1908):
15-25.
Emile Durkheim The Elementary Forms of Religious Life Oxford World’s Classics
Abridged Edition, 2001 [1912]: 35-41, 153-182.
February 8. Myth, Dreams and Illusions
Readings
Sigmund Freud The Interpretation of Dreams 1998 [1900]: 154-155, 592, 628, and
648-660.
Sigmund Freud and D. E. Oppenheim Dreams in Folklore 1958: page 25.
Sigmund Freud The Future of an Illusion 1961 [1927]: 70-71.
Sigmund Freud Civilization and Its Discontents 1961 [1930]: 108-109.
February 10. Structure in Myth
Claude Levi-Strauss Myth and Meaning 1978: 5-24.
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Claude Levi-Strauss “Four Winnebago Myths: A Structural Sketch” in John
Middleton, ed., Myth and Cosmos: Readings in Mythology and Symbolism 1967: 15-26.
February 12. Enchantment, Disenchantment, and Prophecy
Max Weber The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 2004 [1904-05]: 92125.
Max Weber “The Prophet” in The Sociology of Religion 1956 [1922]: 46-59.
February 15. The Eternal Return
Mircea Eliade Myths, Dreams and Mysteries 1975 [1957]: 23.
Mircea Eliade The Sacred & The Profane: The Nature of Religion 1987 [1957]: 70-71,
91-93.
Mircea Eliade The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History 1974 [1949]:
21-27.
Mircea Eliade Myth and Reality 1975 [1963]: 7-11, 19.
INDIGENOUS NORTH AMERICA
February 17. Creation: The Mountain Maidu of Northern California
William Shipley The Maidu Indian Myths and Stories of Hanc’ibyjim 1991. The Shipley
book is required and available at Brown bookstore.
February 19. The Maidu Today—Long After the Flood
William Simmons, Ron Morales, Viola Williams, and Steve Camacho “”Honey Lake
Maidu Ethnogeography of Lassen County “ The Journal of California and Great Basin
Anthropology 1997 19(1): 2-31 (via JSTOR).
Leona Peconom Morales Susanville Maidu Creation 2005: 1-17.
February 22. No Class—Long Weekend.
February 24. The Zuni World
Peter Nabokov and Robert Easton Native American Architecture 1989: 348-351,
396-351, 396-401.
Dennis Tedlock “Zuni Religion and World View” in Alfonso Ortiz, ed Handbook of
North American Indians, Volume 9: Southwest 1979: 499-508.
Frank Hamilton Cushing Zuni: Selected Writings of Frank Hamilton Cushing
1979:185-203.
February 26. Zuni Creation and Tales
Dennis Tedlock, Translator Finding the Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuni Indians
1972: 225-297 (parts I & II of the chapter on “The Beginning”)
February 29. Myth and Art at Zuni
Margaret Ann Hardin Gifts of Mother Earth: Ceramics in the Zuni Tradition 1983: 2843 (Chapters 5 & 6).
Marian Rodee and James Ostler Zuni Pottery 1997
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Marian Rodee and James Ostler The Fetish Carvers of Zuni 1995: 25-48.
March 2. Seneca Creation.
Peter Nabokov and Robert Easton Native American Architecture 1989 76-91.
Jeremiah Curtin and J.N.B. Hewitt “Seneca Fiction, Legends, and Myths” in Bureau of
American Ethnology, Thirty-Second Annual Report 1918: pages 460-462.
Arthur C. Parker Seneca Myths and Folk Tales [1923] 1989: 59-73.
March 4. Seneca Rebirth
Arthur C. Parker “The Code of Handsome Lake, The Seneca Prophet” in New York
State Museum: Museum Bulletin 163 1912: 5-80. (copies of this book will be on
reserve at the Rock and are available online via AbeBooks.com or Amazon.com. The
Seneca Prophet’s code is also reprinted in Arthur Parker’s Parker on the Iroquois)
March 7. Native American Myth and Legend in Southern New England
William Simmons Spirit of the New England Tribes 1986: 10-171.
March 9. Native American Myth and Legend in Southern New England
William Simmons Spirit of the New England Tribes 1986: 172-270.
KINGDOMS, EMPIRES, WORLD RELIGIONS AND WAR
March 11. Benin
Joseph Nevadomsky “Religious Symbolism in the Benin Kingdom” in Phyllis
Galembo, ed., Divine Inspiration: From Benin to Bahia 1993: 19-31.
Joseph Nevadomsky “Kingship Succession Rituals in Benin 3: The Coronation of the
Oba” in African Arts, Vol. 17. No. 3 (May, 1984): 48-57, 91-92 (via JSTOR).
March 14. Benin
Paula Ben-Amos Artistic Creativity in Benin Kingdom African Arts Vol. 19, No. 3
(May, 1986): 60-63 and 83-84 (via JSTOR).
Paula Ben-Amos “Men and Animals in Benin Art” Man, New Series, Vol. 11, No. 2
(June, 1976): 243-252 (via JSTOR)
March 16. Benin
Paula Girshick Ben-Amos The Art of Benin: Revised Edition 1995: 8-120 (this
required book is available online via AbeBooks or Amazon—n.b. the revised edition,
1995).
March 18. Gilgamesh: The Oldest Recorded Myth.
David Damrosch The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of
Gilgamesh 2006: 1-50.
Andrew George, Translator The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and
Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian 1999: 1-42 (Gilgamesh is required and
available at Brown bookstore).
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March 21. Gilgamesh: Before the Flood
Andrew George, Translator The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and
Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian 1999: 42-99.
March 23. African Prophet: Amadu Bamba and the Murid Order
Patricia Seed “The Requirement: A Protocol for Conquest” in Ceremonies of
Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World 1995: 69-99.
Cheikh Anta Babou Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of the
Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913 2007: 1-76 this required book is available via
Josiah in free electronic version).
March 25. African Prophet: Amadu Bamba and the Murid Order
Cheikh Anta Babou Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the Founding of
the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853-1913 2007: 77-183.
March 28-April 1. Spring Break
April 4. The Franciscan Missions of Alta California.
Maynard Geiger, editor and translator., Chapter xvii of Palou’s Life of Fray Junipero
Serra “He Founds the Second Mission at San Diego” and chapter xxviii “The
Venerable Father Changes the Site of Mission San Carlos to the Carmel River” 1955
[1787]: 75-79, and 115-117.
Frances J. Weber “Jean Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Perouse (1741-1788)” in
Prominent Visitors to the California Missions (1786-1842) 1991: 8-18.
Pablo Tac Indian Life and Customs at Mission San Louis Rey [c. 1835]” Minna and
Gordon Hewes, editors and translators, Mission San Luis Rey 1952: 6-15.
April 6. The Mission Indian Communities after Secularization.
Rupert and Jeannette Henry Costo, eds. The Missions of California: A Legacy of
Genocide 1987, excerpts by Father Michael Galvan “No Veneration for Serra” and by
Rev. Francis F. Guest, pages 168-170 and 223-232.
Robert Louis Stevenson “The Old Pacific Capital” in Across the Plains With other
Memories and Essays 1892: 104-107.
Rev. Owen da Silva Mission Music of California The Franciscan Fathers of California
1941: ix, xiii-xv, 3-4.
Carol Pogash “To Some in California, Founder of Church Missions is Far From Saint”
The New York Times, January 21, 2015: http://nyti.ms/1ErMd8l
Michele Jurich “Serra sainthood cause just one miracle away” The Catholic Voice
online edition, February 21, 2011:
http://www.catholicvoiceoakland.org/2011/02-21/frontpage2.htm
April 8. The Puritan Migration to New England
Robert Cushman “Reasons and Considerations Touching the Lawfulness
[Rightfulness] of Removing Out of England Into the Parts of America” in Edward
Arber ed., The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1606-1623 A.D. 1897 [1621]: 495-505.
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John Cotton “Gods Promise To His Plantations” [1630] Old South Leaflets No. 53: 415.
John Winthrop “A Modell of Christian Charity” 1630. This text can be accessed by
Googling the title and Hanover Historical Texts.
April 11. Puritan Settlements and Institutions
Erik Vogt “A New Heaven & a New Earth: The Origin and Meaning of the NineSquare Plan” in Vincent Scully et al eds., Yale In New Haven: Architecture and
Urbanism 2004: 36-51.
Anonymous “New England’s First Fruits: In Respect of the Colledge, and Learning
Therein” 1643 in Old South Leaflets No. 51 (including an excerpt from Cotton
Mather’s Magnalia Christi Americana): 1-16
April 13. Puritan Missionaries, Praying Towns and Wars
William Simmons Conversion from Indian to Puritan The New England Quarterly 52
(2) 1981: 197-218.
John Langdon Sibley “Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck” in Biographical Sketches of
Graduates of Harvard University Volume II 1659-1677 1881: 201-204.
William S. Simmons “Cultural Bias in the New England Puritans’ Perception of
Indians” The William & Mary Quarterly xxxviii (1) 1981: 56-72.
William S. Simmons “From Manifest Destiny to the Melting Pot: The Life and Times
of Charlotte Mitchell, Wampanoag” in William L. Merrill and Ives Goddard, eds.,
Anthropology, History and American Indians Smithsonian Contributions to
Anthropology No. 44 2002: 131-138.
MYTHSCAPES OF THE CITY AND OF BROWN
April 15. Mythoi of Providence
Oscar S. Straus Roger Williams: The Pioneer of Religious Liberty 1936: 110-112.
William Simmons “Providence Mythscapes” in Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes
Vol. 16, No. 1 November 2011:112-121.
Michael Fink “In the Land of the Jonnycake: My Roger Williams” in Rhode Island
Jewish Historical Notes Vol. 16, No. 1 November 2011:123-130.
April 18. Mythoi of Providence
Class will meet at the Visitor Center of the Roger Williams Memorial Park on North
Main Street at 10 AM.
April 20. Mythoi of Providence
Class discussion, no reading.
April 22. Mythoi of Higher Learning
John W. Meyer “Foreword: Remaking the University” in David John Frank and Jay
Gabler Reconstructing the University: Worldwide Shifts in Academia in the 20th
Century 2006: vii-xvii.
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Pierre Bourdieu and Loic Wacquant The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of
Power 1996: ix-xiii and 116-119.
William Simmons Brown University Faculty Bulletin June 2006, December 2013 and
June 2014. [Go to the Brown A-Z index, click on F, then Faculty Governance, then
Faculty Bulletin]
April 25. Mythoi of Higher Learning
Horatio Rogers The Influence of College Inspiration on After Life 1898: 3-28.
Brown University “The Torchlight Procession” in The Sesquicentennial of Brown
University 1764-1914: A Commemoration 1915: 159-161.
Class will meet in the Haffenreffer Museum Gallery in Manning Hall for a tour of the
exhibit, In Deo Speramus: The Symbols and Ceremonies of Brown.
April 27. Mythoi of Higher Learning
Class discussion, no reading.
April 29. Reading Period
May2. Reading Period
May 4. Reading Period
May 6. Reading Period
May 9. Reading Period
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