Download First Year Booklet 2016-17

Departmentof
SocialAnthropology
SA1002
Handbook
2016/17
17.1.17
SA1002
WAYSOFTHINKING
Thismoduleconcernsthewaysinwhichhumanbeingsthinkabouttheirworlds.Doweallthinkofthe
worldinthesamewayordowethinkoftheworldinmanydifferentways?Whataretheconsequences
of even making such a distinction? Is one way of thinking more rational than another? This dualism
between a universal worldview and a multiplicity of different perspectives is crucial to the
anthropologicalapproachanditformstheframeworkforthedifferentsectionsinthismodule.Coveringa
rangeofethnographicareasofstudy,bothclassicalandcontemporary,themoduleaimstostimulatenew
waysofthinkinganthropologicallyabouthumanbeingandbecoming.Thetopicswewillbecoveringthis
semesterare:
• Anintroductiontoeconomicanthropologywithafocusoncross-culturalvariationsandshared
humanpredicaments.
• Differentwaysoforderingandclassifyingtheworldandthesocialconsequencesthatemerge
fromthesedifferences.
• Across-culturalperspectiveonissuesoforalityandliteracyaswellasalternativeformsof
communication.
• Theanthropologicalengagementwithclimatechange,whichprovokesquestionsaboutculture,
knowledgeandengagement.
• Anindepthexplorationoftheimportanceofchildrentoanthropologicalstudies.
ModuleConvener:
DrMicheleWisdahl(mw537)
Lecturers:
Dr Tony Crook (tc23), Professor Roy Dilley (rmd), Dr Mette High (mmh20), Dr
SabineHyland(sph),ProfessorChristinaToren(ct51)
Credits:
Teaching:
LectureHour: Tutorials:
20
Lectures,weeklytutorials
4pmMonday,Tuesday,ThursdayandFridayintheBuchananLectureTheatre
These are held weekly in the Departmental Seminar Room, Room 50 Quad, or
CASLibrary,Quad.
CourseAssessment: TWOassessedessays=each30%ofthefinalmark
Twohourexamination=40%ofthefinalmark
Anonlinereadinglistisavailableforthismodule.http://resourcelists.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.htmlIt
containskeyreadingsforthecourseincludingallthosenecessaryforthetutorials.Otherreadingsare
availableinShortLoanand,insomecases,viaMMS.
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AIMSANDOUTCOMESOFSTUDY
INSOCIALANTHROPOLOGY
The Sub-Honours modules are primarily designed to lay the foundations for further study at Honours
levelinAnthropology.WhilethegradesearnedatSub-Honourslevelarenotfactoredintoyouroverall
degree classification, they do appear on your official University transcript, which will be seen by any
futureemployersorinstitutionstowhichyouapply.TheHonoursmodulesaredesignedtobuildonthe
foundationslaidbySub-HonoursmodulesinAnthropology,andgivestudentstheopportunitytodevelop
andbroadentheirunderstandingofAnthropology.Inaddition,Honoursmodulesaredesignedtoequip
students with a broad range of personal and intellectual skills which will not only enable students to
successfully complete their degree but will provide a foundation for further training and prepare them
fullyfortheirfuturecareers.
DISCIPLINARYOUTLOOK
Our programme aims at enabling students to learn to think anthropologically, acquiring a distinctive
disciplinaryoutlook.Tothisend,theprogrammeaimstoenablelearnerstodevelopthefollowing:
1. anunderstandingofsocialanthropologyasthecomparativestudyofhumansocietiesandcultures.
2. an appreciation of the importance of empirical fieldwork as the primary method of gathering data
andasabasisforthegenerationofanthropologicaltheory.
3. a detailed knowledge of specific themes in social anthropology and the intellectual debates
concerningthem,suchasgender,religion,kinship,nationalism,exchangeormaterialculture.
4. a realisation that knowledge is contested; that anthropology by its nature is dynamic, constantly
generating new priorities and theories; and that the peoples with whom anthropologists have
traditionallyworkedmayhavestudiesofthemselvesfromwhichwemightalsolearn.
5. an informed awareness of, and sensitivity to, human diversity, an appreciation of its scope and
complexity,andrecognitionoftherichnessofexperienceandpotentialthatitprovides.
6. self-reflection regarding both the nature of our knowledge of the social and of the role of the
anthropologistorethnographerinthecollectionandpresentationofdata.
THEORETICALANDTHEMATICCOMPETENCE
Thelearners’achievementofananthropologicaloutlookhastobegroundedonanunderstandingofthe
development of the theoretical and thematic scope of the discipline. Our programme is designed to
enablelearnerstoachievethefollowing:
1. anacquaintancewiththetheoryandhistoryofanthropology.
2. anabilitytorecognise,assessandmakeuseofdifferenttheoreticalapproacheswithinthediscipline,
and an awareness of links to cognate bodies of theory, such as philosophy, history, linguistics and
feministtheory.
3. adetailedknowledgeofanthropologicalworkonparticularareasoftheworldpresentedasregional
courses(suchasSouthAmericaandtheCaribbean,Europe,CentralAsia,thePacificandAfrica).
4. a familiarity with a range of anthropological methods of representing data, including primary and
secondarytexts,filmandothervisualmedia,andoralsources.
5. anawarenessofethicalissuesconcernedwiththestudyandrepresentationofothers.
6. anawarenessofthewaysinwhichanthropologicalknowledgecanbeapplied(andmisapplied)ina
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7.
8.
9.
rangeofpracticalsituations.
an awareness of social and historical change, and knowledge of some paradigms and modes
(includingindigenousones)forexplainingit.
anabilitytorecogniseandanalysecontextsinwhichrelationsofpower,subordinationandresistance
affecttheformstakenbyhumancommunities.
an appreciation of the interconnections between various aspects of social and cultural life, belief
systems,globalforces,individualbehaviourandthephysicalenvironment.
SUBJECT-SPECIFICSKILLS
Dependingupontheproportionofsocialanthropologywithintheirdegreeprogramme,studentswillbe
abletodemonstratethefollowing:
1. an ability to understand how human beings interact with their social, cultural and physical
environments,andanappreciationoftheirsocialandculturaldiversity.
2. theabilitytoformulate,investigateanddiscussanthropologicallyinformedquestions.
3. acompetenceinusingmajortheoreticalperspectivesandconceptsinanthropology.
4. the ability to engage with cultures, populations and groups different from their own, without
forgoingasenseofpersonaljudgment.Anawarenessofculturalassumptions,includingtheirown,
andthewaysinwhichtheseimpactonaninterpretationofothers.
5. a recognition of the politics of language, indirect forms of communication, forms of power,
theoreticalstatementsandclaimsofauthority,andanabilitytoanalysethem.
6. the ability to apply anthropological knowledge to a variety of practical situations, personal and
professional.
7. the ability to plan, undertake and present scholarly work that demonstrates an understanding of
anthropologicalaims,methodsandtheoreticalconsiderations.
GENERICSKILLS
Dependinguponthenatureandfocusoftheirdegreeprogramme,studentattainmentwillincludesome
orallofthefollowing:
1. anabilitytounderstandtheirstrengthsandweaknessesinlearningandstudyskillsandtotakeaction
toimprovetheircapacitytolearn.
2. the capacity to express their own ideas in writing, to summarise the arguments of others, and to
distinguishbetweenthetwo.
3. independenceofthoughtandanalytical,criticalandsynopticskills.
4. informationretrievalskillsinrelationtoprimaryandsecondarysourceofinformation.
5. communicationandpresentationskills(usingoralandwrittenmaterialsandinformationtechnology).
6. scholarlyskills,suchastheabilitytomakeastructuredargument,referencetheworksofothers,and
assessevidence.
7. timeplanningandmanagementskills.
8. the ability to engage, where appropriate, in constructive discussion in group situations and groupworkskills.
9. computingtechniques.
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SECTION1
WAYSOFTHINKING
WEEK1
DrMicheleWisdahl,[email protected],Room49,UnitedCollege
LECTURE1:INTRODUCTION
In this first lecture, the module coordinator will introduce the general themes of SA1002 and outline
expectationsforstudents.
LECTURE2:ANTHROPOLOGYANDDIFFERENCE
Inthislecture,welookathowanthropologistshavesoughttounderstand(andevenvalorise)difference.
Tracing a brief history of anthropology, this lecture considers the importance of emic/etic perspectives
andculturalrelativism.
LECTURE3:ETHNOGRAPHYANDOTHERWAYSOFTHINKING
This lecture examines ethnography as process and product. Long-term participatory fieldwork is one of
thedefiningcharacteristicsofsocialanthropology.Howdoanthropologistsconductfieldwork?Howdoes
theproductoffieldworkreflectthedifferentwaysofthinkingthattheanthropologistencountersinthe
field?
LECTURE4:16AT34:THINKING/FEELINGINBRAZILIANHIGHSCHOOL
Allschoolingteachesusparticularwaysofbeing,thinkingandfeeling.Inthislecture,IreflectonwhatI
learnedwhenIwenttoBrazilianhighschool.Whilestudying(with)myclassmates,Ibegantounderstand
that a ‘thinking/feeling’ dichotomy could not capture what was happening in the classroom as selfesteem,dreamsandindignationbecamecentralthemesinmyproject.Thislectureappliesconceptsfrom
theintroductoryweektoanexampleofethnographicfieldwork.
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SECTION2
OILANDECONOMICLIFE
WEEKS2&3
DrMetteHigh,[email protected],UnitedCollege
This section of the course offers an introduction to economic anthropology, which we will approach
throughsomeoftheurgentandcontroversialissuesrelatedtooil.Wewilllookattheimportanceofoilin
life styles, imaginations and aspirations, valuations and conflicts. Topics such as climate change, oil
dependence,petrodollars,energymarkets,alternativelifestyleexperiments,andtechnologicaladvances
will be brought into dialogue with classical anthropological concepts. The aim of the section is to
encourage students to reflect on the relationship between cross-cultural variations and shared human
predicamentsaspeoplegoabouttheireconomiclives.
LECTURE1:WHATISECONOMICANTHROPOLOGY?
Atitsmostbasic,economicscanbeseenasthestudyoftherelationshipbetweenpeopleandobjectsas
occurring through production, circulation, and consumption. Most of the theories which comprise the
modernfieldofeconomicsweredevelopedtodescribeWesterncapitalistsystems.Earlierthiscentury,
anthropologistsbegantousetheircross-culturalstudiestoquestioneconomicassumptionsabouthuman
behaviour.InthislecturewewilllookatMalinowski’sfoundationalstudyoftheKulagiftexchangeamong
the Trobrianders to consider how economic anthropology is different from economics. What is ‘the
economy’?Howhaveanthropologistsanalysedeconomiclifeinnon-capitalistsettings?Andhowcanwe
understandtherelationshipbetweencultureandeconomics?
Requiredreadings:
• Kuper, Adam.2014. “Malinowski” In Anthropology and Anthropologists: The Modern British
School,pp.1-34.
• Malinowski,Bronislaw.1922.ArgonautsoftheWesternPacific.Esp.Ch.3.Pp.82-104[essential
extractsalsoavailableinEdwardE.LeClairandHaroldK.Schneider.1968.EconomicAnthropology,
pp.17-40]
Supplementaryreadings:
• Dalton,George.1965.“PrimitiveMoney”.AmericanAnthropologistvol.67,issue1,pp.44-65.
• Malinowski,Bronislaw.1920.“Kula:TheCirculatingExchangeofValuablesintheArchipelagoesof
EasternNewGuinea”.Man,vol.51,pp.97-105.
• Malinowski,Bronislaw.1921.“ThePrimitiveEconomicsoftheTrobriandIslanders”.TheEconomic
Journal,vol.31,issue121,pp.1-16.
• Nash, Manning. 1966. “Ch. 1: The Meaning and Scope of Economic Anthropology”. In Primitive
andpeasanteconomicsystems.
• Young,Michael.1979.TheEthnographyofMalinowski:TheTrobriandIslands1915-18.
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LECTURE2:CONSUMPTIONOFOILANDTHEAMERICANDREAM
Sinceoilwasfirststruckin1859,ithasenabledanddefinedoureconomic,social,andpoliticallandscape
acrosstheworld.Initstransformationofhowwegoaboutourdailylives,oilhasbecomethesinglemost
consumed commodity and our consumption continues to rise. However, the idea that the mass
consumptionofoilwasfoundationaltoaparticularwayoflifedidnotemerge‘naturally’.Anthropologists
haveshownhowintheUSduringtheGreatDepressionthisparticularunderstandingwasproducedoutof
a wider set of struggles and crises related to capitalism. In this lecture we will look at what
anthropologicaltheoriesofconsumptioncantellusabouthowobjectsbecomesuchuniquelydesirable
commodities. What is the relationship between oil and culture? What is so particular, spectacular or
mythicaboutoil?Andinwhatwayshasitbecomefundamentalinshapingourcollectiveimaginariesof
theworld?
Requiredreadings:
• Huber,MatthewT.2013.“RefuellingCapitalism:Depression,Oil,andtheMakingof‘TheAmerican
WayofLife’”.InLifeblood:Oil,Freedom,andtheForcesofCapital.Pp.27-60.
• Miller,Daniel.2005.“ConsumptionStudiesastheTransformationofAnthropology”.InD.Miller
(ed.)AcknowledgingConsumption.Pp.263-292.
Supplementaryreadings:
• Appadurai, Arjun. 1988. “Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value”. In A. Appadurai
(ed.)TheSocialLifeofThings:CommoditiesinaCulturalPerspective.Pp.3-63.
• Bourdieu,Pierre.1984.“Ch.7:TheChoiceoftheNecessary”.InDistinction:Asocialcritiqueofthe
judgementoftaste.
• Douglas, Mary.2002. “Ch 1: Why People Want Goods”. In The World of Goods: Towards an
anthropologyofconsumption.
• LeMenager, Stephanie. 2014. “The Aesthetics of Petroleum”. In Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in
theAmericanCentury.Pp.66-101.
• Obama,Barack.2007..“Prologue”.InTheAudacityofHope:ThoughtsonreclaimingtheAmerican
dream.
• Film: THE END OF SUBURBIA:OilDepletionand the Collapseof The American Dream (2004, 78
min).endofsuburbia.com.TheElectricWallpaperCo.
LECTURE3:PRODUCTIONOFPETRODOLLARSANDCOMMODITYFETISHISM
Theproductionofoilgivesrisetoenormouswealth.Insomecountries,suchasVenezuelaandNorway,
oilproductioniscloselytiedtonationalsocialwelfareagendas,whilstinothersitisanovertlymessyand
conflict-endorsingventure.Thestaggeringinfluxofoilmoniesoftenreadilycapturespeople’simagination
and gives rise to intense associations of petrodollars with freedom and opportunity, if not domination
anddoom.Formany,itbecomesa‘fantasticform’thatseemscapableofgeneratingcertainoutcomesin
and of itself, as if the petrodollar had a life of its own independently of the process of production. For
anthropologists, this kind of commodity fetishism provides a vantage point from which we can see not
onlyhowpetrodollarsandothermoniescontributetosocialintegrationanddisintegration,butalsohow
economic life is intertwined with cosmological understandings. What is the value of money? How is it
determined? And why does it seem so urgent in economies that are premised on natural resource
extraction?
Requiredreadings:
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•
•
Watts,Michael.2004.“OilasMoney:Thedevil’sexcrementandthespectacleofblackgold”.In
T.J.Barnesetal(eds.)ReadingEconomicGeography.Pp.205-219.
Taussig,Michael.1977.“TheGenesisofCapitalismamongstaSouthAmericanPeasantry:Devil's
laborandthebaptismofmoney”.ComparativeStudiesinSocietyandHistoryvol.19,issue2,pp.
130-155.
Supplementaryreadings:
• Coronil,Fernando.1997.“Ch.9:HarvestingtheOil:TheStormofProgress”.InTheMagicalState:
Nature,money,andmodernityinVenezuela.Pp.367-386.
• High, Mette. 2013. “Polluted Money, Polluted Wealth: Emerging Regimes of Value in the
MongolianGoldRush”.AmericanEthnologist,vol.40,issue4,pp.676-688.
• Marx, Karl. 1990. “Ch. 1. Sec. 4: The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret”. In Capital:
CritiqueofPoliticalEconomy,Vol.1.Pp.163-177.
• Simmel,Georg.2004[1900].“Ch4:IndividualFreedom”.InThePhilosophyofMoney.
• Spyer,Patricia.1998..“Introduction”.InBorderFetishisms:Materialobjectsinunstablespaces.
FILM:ACRUDEAWAKENING:THEOILCRASH
2006.BasilGelpkeandRayMcCormack.ArtificialEyeproduction.82mins
We wrap up the first week of this section with a film that ties together many of the ideas we have
encountered this week and signals some of the topics we will discuss next week. This documentary
explores the implications of cheap oil running out – implications for our economies, ways of life, and
variouskindsofvaluations.
Fromthedistributors’description:“Ashockingwake-upcallthatissettodoforenergywhatAlGore’s‘An
InconvenientTruth’didfortheenvironment,‘ACrudeAwakening’isanurgentwarningthattheageof
abundant oil is over. Featuring testimonies from the world’s top experts, this startling documentary
reaches an ominous yet logical conclusion – the Earth’s oil supplies are peaking, threatening our illprepared,fossil-fueladdictedcivilizationwithacrisisofglobalproportions.Highlightingthecriticalneed
forsustainablealternativeenergysources,BasilGelpkeandRayMcCormack’sstartlingdocumentaryisan
intelligentandutterlycompellingcalltoaction”.
LECTURE4:CREATINGMARKETSANDTHEIMPORTANCEOFMATERIALITY
Financial markets might appear abstract and immaterial, so all-encompassing yet distant. Indeed, the
notion of ‘market failure’ would suggest that markets have a logic and dynamism of their own.
Anthropologistshaveshownhowthisdistancedviewofeconomicprocessesthatdenyentanglementsin
socio-political relations can be highly appealing to oil company executives as a way of abdicating
responsibilityinthelocationofoilextraction.Therecanbeissuessuchasenvironmentaldisasters,deep
poverty, and despotic rulers. But is this separation and abstraction ever possible? How are markets
made?Andwhatistherelationshipbetweenthematerialandimmaterialinsuchcreations?
Requiredreadings:
• Appel, Hannah C. 2012. “Walls and White Elephants: Oil extraction, responsibility, and
infrastructuralviolenceinEquatorialGuinea”.Ethnographyvol.13,issue4,pp.439-465.
• Zaloom, Caitlin. 2006. “Trading on Numbers."In M.S. Fisher and G. Downey (eds.) Frontiers of
Capital:EthnographicReflectionsontheNewEconomy.Pp.58-85.
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Supplementaryreadings:
• Abolafia, Mitchel Y. 1998. “Markets as Cultures: An ethnographic approach”.The Sociological
Reviewvol.46,S1,pp.69-85.
• Dilley,Roy.1992.“Ch.1:ContestingMarkets:AGeneralIntroductiontoMarketIdeology,Imagery
andDiscourse”.InContestingMarkets:Analysesofideology,discourseandpractice.Pp.1-36.
• Garcia-Parpet,Marie-France.2007.“TheSocialConstructionofaPerfectMarket:TheStrawberry
Auction at Fontaines-en-Sologne”. In D. MacKenzie, F. Muniesa and L. Siu (eds.)Do Economists
MakeMarkets?:Ontheperformativityofeconomics.Pp.20-53.
• MacKenzie,Donald.2008.“Ch.4:Derivatives:TheProductionofVirtuality”.InMaterialMarkets:
Howeconomicagentsareconstructed.
• Zaloom,Caitlin.2006.Ch1:MaterialsoftheMarket”.InOutofthePits:Tradersandtechnology
fromChicagotoLondon.
LECTURE5:GLOBALCAPITALISMSANDAMBITIONS
Whether it is a Wall Street investment bank or a transnational oil company, thedesire to ‘be global’ is
central to many business expansion strategies today. Apart from highlighting a view of the world as
accessible, marketable and profitable, these global proclamations can also become actual goals with
precarious outcomes for the employer and the employees. Alongside the desire for corporate
responsiveness and efficiency, the ambition of having a ‘global presence’ also entails greater demands
and responsibilities, be it submitting to national laws, observing basic human rights principles, or
engaging in voluntary corporate social responsibility activities. By directly engaging with globality as a
specific cultural formation, anthropologists demonstrate its particular meanings so that global projects
cannotsimplybetakenasadominantnormoratfacevalue.Whatistherelationshipbetweencapitalism
andcorporateambitionsonaglobalscale?Whocreates‘theglobal’?Andforwhom?
Requiredreadings:
• Ferguson, James. 2005. “Seeing Like an Oil Company: Space, security, and global capital in
neoliberalAfrica”.Americananthropologistvol.107,issue3,pp.377-382.
• Ho, Karen. 2005. “Situating Global Capitalisms: A view from Wall Street investment
banks”.CulturalAnthropologyvol.20,issue1,pp.68-96.
Supplementaryreadings:
• Appel, Hannah. 2012. “Offshore Work: Oil, modularity, and the how of capitalism in Equatorial
Guinea."AmericanEthnologistvol.39,issue4,pp.692-709.
• Gupta, Akhil, and James Ferguson. 1992. “Beyond ‘Culture’: Space, identity, and the politics of
difference”.Culturalanthropologyvol.7,issue1,pp.6-23.
• Mitchell,Timothy.2011..“Ch5:FuelEconomy”.InCarbonDemocracy:Politicalpowerintheage
ofoil.Pp.109-143.
• Miyazaki,Hirokazu.2013..“Introduction”InArbitragingJapan:Dreamsofcapitalismattheendof
finance.Pp.1-23.
• Watts, Michael J. 2005. “Righteous Oil? Human rights, the oil complex, and corporate social
responsibility”.AnnualReviewofEnvironmentandResourcesvol.30,pp.373-407.
LECTURE6:CLIMATECHANGEANDALTERNATIVEENERGYFUTURES
Climate change has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. Increased air and ocean
temperatures,alteredprecipitationandstormpatterns,andrisingsealevelsareaffectingtheworldwith
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profoundsocial,political,andeconomicconsequences.Newformsofknowledgearebeingproducedand
new forms of action are being sought. However, despite the proclaimed and perhaps desired novelty,
theseradicaldeparturesarehistorically,culturallyandsociallyconstituted,whetheritisREDDpoliciesin
Mexico or renewable energy development in Orkney. How do people understand and deal with future
uncertainty?Towhatextentarealternativespossible?Andhowcanwebringthemabout?
Requiredreadings:
• Lipset,David.2014.“PlaceintheAnthropocene:AmangrovelagooninPapuaNewGuineainthe
timeofrisingsea-levels”.HAU:JournalofEthnographicTheoryvol.4,issue3,pp.215-243.
• Watts,Laura.N.D.“OrkneyStandardTime:GuidetotheEnergyFutureTimeZone”
Supplementaryreadings:
• Finlay,AlecandLauraWatts,AlistairPeebles.2015.Ebbanan’Flowan
• Latour,Bruno.2014.“AnthropologyatthetimeoftheAnthropocene—Apersonalviewofwhatis
to be studied”.Distinguished lecture delivered at the American Anthropological Association
annualmeeting,Washington.
• Martinez-Alier, Joan, and Leah Temper. 2007. “Oil and Climate Change: Voices from the
south”.EconomicandPoliticalWeekly.Dec.,pp.16-19.
• Stern, Nicholas. 2006.“Introduction” and “Summary of Conclusions”. In Stern Review: The
economicsofclimatechange.Pp.xiii-xix.
• Tsing,AnnaL.2015..“Ch.1:ArtsofNoticing”InTheMushroomattheEndoftheWorld:Onthe
PossibilityofLifeinCapitalistRuins.Pp.17-26.
LECTURE7:ENERGYETHICS
In this final lecture I will talk about my own research, which started with gold miners in Mongolia, via
monksinBuddhistmonasteries,tooilexecutivesandrigworkersintheUSoilfields.Iwillreflectonwhat
anthropologicalattentiontoeconomiclifehasbroughttomyunderstandingofthehumanpredicament
andourdisciplinemoregenerally.
Requiredreadings:
• High,Mette.2013.“CosmologiesofFreedomandBuddhistSelf-TransformationintheMongolian
Gold Rush”. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute vol. 19, issue 4, pp. 753-7
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SECTION3
THESYMBOLICORDERINGOFSOCIALLIFE
WEEKS4&5
ProfessorRoyDilley,[email protected],UnitedCollege
WEEK4:SEEINGTHEWORLDINANTHROPOLOGICALPERSPECTIVE
Human beings in all cultures order their social worlds by classifying things on the basis of some
perceived similarity and difference. A shared quality or feature among things is often used to
constituteaclass,whichiscontrastedwithotherclassesofdifferentthings.Wethusattempttobring
ordertotheworldaroundus.Thesesystemsofclasseshelpusinthewayweoperateintheworld,
talk about the world, and pass on knowledge to others about the world. What is striking to the
anthropologist,aswellastothecasualtravellertoothercultures,isthatthewayhumansclassifythe
worldaroundthemdiffersfromoneplacetothenext.Whenconfrontedbydifferentwaysofordering
the world, and acting upon it, we can often experience unease and confusion, sometimes even
repugnanceanddisgust.Forexample,whatpeopleinothercultureseatisoftenanareathatexcites
suchresponses,andtheirhabitsarecomparedtothetypesofthingsweeatandthinkofas‘proper
food’.Anthropologistshaveexaminedvarioussystemsofsuch‘culturalclassification’,andhavetried
tomakesenseofwhythesedifferencesariseandwhattheirsocialconsequencesare.Indeed,these
localfeaturesofdifferenceandsimilarityareoftenrelatedwithinthesamesocietytoawholerange
ofseeminglyunconnectedculturalconceptionsandwaysofthinkingaboutandactingupontheworld.
Wewillexamineinthecourseoftheselecturesanthropologicalapproachestowaysofdividingupor
classifyingtheworldinavarietyofdifferentculturalsettingsaroundtheglobe.
Introduction
•
•
•
J. Hendry. An Introduction to Social Anthropology: Other People’s Worlds. Macmillan 1999.
Chps1and2.
R.KeesingandA.Strathern,CulturalAnthropology(3rdedition).HarcourtBrace,1998.
R.Ellen&D.Reason(eds),ClassificationsintheirSocialContext.AcademicPress1979.
Topic1.FoodTaboos,PollutionandProhibition
•
•
•
•
M.Douglas.PurityandDanger.Routledge[1966]1996.Chp3.
AbridgedversionprintedinW.Lessa&E.Vogt(eds),ReaderinComparativeReligion(1979),
pp.149-52.
M.Douglas.‘LandAnimals,PureandImpure’inM.Lambek(ed.)AReaderintheAnthropology
ofReligion(2002),pp.194-209.
M.Douglas.‘AnimalsinLeleReligiousThought’,Africa,27(1957),46-58.
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•
•
•
E.Leach,‘AnimalCategoriesandVerbalAbuse’,reprintedinW.Lessa&E.Vogt(eds),Reader
inComparativeReligion(1979),pp.153-66.
J.Okely.TheTraveller-Gypsies.Cambridge1983.Chp6.
S. Tambiah. ‘Animals are Good to Think and Good to Prohibit’, Ethnology, 8 (1969) 424-59.
ReprintedininM.Douglas(ed.)RulesandMeanings.Harmondsworth:Penguin,pp.127-66
WEEK5:THECONCEPTSOFTIME,SPACEANDCOLOUR
Arangeofwhatweoftenliketothinkofas'taken-for-granted'or‘natural’conceptsarethefociof
investigation in this series of lectures. We will examine how time, space and colour are viewed in
different cultural settings across the world, and will see how social anthropologists have come to
explain similarities and differences in cross-cultural perspective. We will ask questions about how
representationsoftime,spaceandcolourvaryornotfromoneculturetoanother.Aretheseconcepts
universaltoallcultures,oraretheywhollyrelativetoeachsocietyinwhichtheyarefound?Howdo
peopleindifferentculturesunderstandtime,spaceandcolourintermsthataremeaningfultothem?
Whatarethesocialandculturalconsequencesofsuchwaysofunderstanding?Intheprocessofthis
examination,wewillconfrontourownaswellasotherpeople’sviewsonthissetofselectedtopics.
GeneralReading:
•
W. James, 2003. The Ceremonial Animal. A New Portrait of Anthropology. Oxford: OUP.
(Especiallychp.3,‘Species,Space,andTime’)
Topic2:Colour
Areconceptionsofcolourcategoriesfundamentallydifferentacrossdifferentlanguagesandtherefore
across different cultures, or are there universal constants that make for basic cross-linguistic and
cross-culturalsimilaritiesincolourterminology?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Berlin B. and P. Kay Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, (1969) Berkeley:
UniversityofCaliforniaPress.
Conklin, H. 'Hanunóo Color Categories', in D. Hymes (ed.) Language in Culture and Society,
(1964),pp.189-92.Harper&Row.
Conklin,H.'ColorCategorization:ReviewofBerlinandKay,1969',AmericanAnthropologist,
(1973),Vol.75,pp.931-42.
Conklin,H.‘ColorCategories’,JournalofAnthropologicalResearch,(1986)42(3),pp.441-46.
Hendry, J. An Introduction to Social Anthropology (1999), esp. pp. 23-28. London:
Macmillan.
Levinson, S. ‘Yeli Ndaye and the Theory of Basic Color Terms’, Journal of Linguistic
Anthropology,(2000)10(1),pp.3-55.
Newcomer, P. and J. Faris. ‘Basic Color Terms (A Review)’, International Journal of American
Linguistics(1971)37(4),pp.270-275.
Saunders, B. ‘Revisiting Basic Color Terms’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
(2000)6(1),pp.81-99.
Turner, V. ‘Colour Classification in Ndembu Ritual’, in M. Banton (ed.) Anthropological
ApproachestotheStudyofReligion(1966),pp.47-84;alsopublishedasChp.3ofTurner’sThe
ForestofSymbols:AspectsofNdembuRitual.Ithaca:CornellUniversityPress.
12
Topic3:Time
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Adam, B. “Perceptions of time.” Chp. 18 of T. Ingold (ed), Companion Encyclopedia of
Anthropology(1994).London:Routledge.
Bourdieu,P. Algeria1960(1979)esp.pp.8-29.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.
Evans-Pritchard,E.TheNuer(1940),firsthalfofchp.3.Oxford:ClarendonPress.Reprinted
as 'The Nuer: Time and Space' in R. Grinker and C. Steiner (1997), Perspectives on Africa,
pp.24-37.Oxford:Blackwell.
Geertz, C. “Person, time, and conduct in Bali.” Chp. 14 of his The Interpretation of Cultures
(1973),especiallypp.391-398.NewYork:BasicBooks.
Gell,A.TheAnthropologyofTime(1992).Oxford:Berg.
James,W.&D.Mills,(eds).2005.TheQualitiesofTime:AnthropologicalApproaches.Oxford:
Berg.(Especiallythe‘Introduction’.)
Leach,E.“Twoessaysconcerningthesymbolicrepresentationoftime.”InE.Leach,Rethinking
Anthropology (1961). Reprinted in W. Lessa and E. Vogt, Reader in Comparative Religion
(1979),pp.220-229.
Nanni,G.TheColonisationofTime:Ritual,RoutineandResistanceintheBritishEmpire(2013).
ManchesterUniversityPress.
VanGennep,A.L.TheRitesofPassage.RKP1977[1908].
Topic4:Space
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bourdieu, P. “The Kabyle house.” Appendix of his The Logic of Practice (1990), Cambridge:
CambridgeUniversityPress;orpp.133-153inhisAlgeria1960,asabove.Alsoreprintedas
'The Berber House or the World Reversed', in M. Douglas (ed.) Implicit Meanings (1975),
London:RoutledgeandKeganPaul.
Evans-Pritchard,E.TheNuer(1940),secondhalfofchp.3.Asabove.
Holy,L.‘Symbolicandnon-symbolicaspectsofBertispace’,inMan1983(18):269-288.
Littlejohn,J.‘TemneSpace’,inAnthropologicalQuarterly(1963),pp.1-17.
Littlejohn,J.‘TheTemneHouse’,inJ.Middleton(ed),MythandCosmos.TexasU.P.1976.
Beattie,J.‘AspectsofNyoroSymbolism’Africa,38(1968),413-42.
‘Right,LeftandtheBanyaro’,Africa,46(1976),217-35.
Needham,R(ed.)
RightandLeft:EssaysonDualSymbolicClassification.ChicagoU.P.1978
(IntroductionandNeedham’schapteronNyorosymbolicclassification).
13
SECTION4
ORALITYANDLITERACY
WEEKS6&7
[email protected],71NorthStreet
This section of SA1002 addresses issues of orality and literacy in cross-cultural perspective. How do
languageandwritingshapeourviewoftheworld?Inthefirstweekwewillexaminenatureoforal
traditions and the plight of language loss, reflecting on the implications of the loss of linguistic
diversityinourworldtoday.Duringthesecondweek,weanalyzealternativeliteracies,focusingon
glyphsaswellasonnon-phoneticformsofgraphiccommunicationsuchaswampum,pictographsand
knottedcords.Thesectionwillendwithaconsiderationofhowwritingsystemsdevelopand/ordie
out, whether through apocalyptic religious movements or through the use of social media, which
somecommentatorshaveclaimedwillleadtothe"endofwriting"asweknowit.
LECTURE1:LANGUAGEDEATH
Wearelivingthroughperiodofunprecedentedlanguagelossaroundtheworld;everytwoweeks,an
elderdieswhocarriestohisorhergravethelastsyllablesofanancienttongue.Whataretheforces
behindthelossoflanguagediversity?Whydoesthelossoflinguisticdiversitymatter?Whatefforts
haveanthropologistsundertakentoaddressthisissue?
•
•
•
•
•
WadeDavis,“TheWonderoftheEthnosphere”In:WadeDavis,LightattheEdgeoftheWorld:
AJourneyThroughtheRealmofVanishingCultures.(Douglas&McIntyre,2007),pp.1-14.
K.DavidHarrison,“AWorldofMany(Fewer)Voices”In:K.DavidHarrison,WhenLanguages
Die:TheExtinctionoftheWorld’sLanguagesandtheErosionofHumanKnowledge.(OxfordU.
Press,2007),pp.2-21.
ElizabethKolbert,“LetterfromAlaska:LastWords,ALanguageDies”TheNewYorker(6June
2005),pp.46-59.
Michael E. Krauss, "A History of Eyak Language Documentation and Study", Arctic
Anthropology,43(2),pp.172-218,2006.
JuniperGlass,"TalesoftheEthnosphere",UtneReader,March/April,2004.
LECTURE2:THENATUREOFORALTRADITIONS
What is the nature of oral traditions? Are “oral” cultures qualitatively different from “written”
cultures?Howdoanthropologistsrecordandinterpretoralliterature?Thislecturewillexplorethese
issues,focusingonthediverseoraltraditionsoftheIroquoisnations.
• JohannesFabian,“KeepListening”In:JonathanBoyarin,ed.,TheEthnographyofReading(Uof
CaliforniaPress,1992).
14
•
•
•
•
•
JackGoody,“TheConstructionofaRitualText:TheShiftfromOraltoWrittenChronicle”In:
ThePoweroftheWrittenTradition(SmithsonianInstitutePress,2000).
JohnHalverson,"GoodyandtheImplosionoftheLiteracyThesis",Man,NewSeries,27(2),pp.
301-317,1992.
Dennis Tedlock, “Introduction” In: The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation (U of
PennsylvaniaPress,1983).
ElisabethTookerandWilliamC.Sturtevant,NativeNorthAmericanSpiritualityoftheEastern
Woodlands: Sacred Myths, Dreams, Visions, Speeches, Healing Formulas, Rituals and
Ceremonials(PaulistPress,1979).
RobertW.Venables,"TheClearingandtheWoods:TheHaudenosaunee(Iroquois)Landscape-GenderedandBalanced"In:ArchaeologyandPresevationofGenderedLandscapes,Springer,
2010,chapter2.
LECTURE3:ETHNOPOETICS
Ethnopoetics is a decentered poetics, “an attempt to hear and read the poetries of distant others,
outside the Western tradition as we now know it” (Dennis Tedlock). Taking the artistic
accomplishments of other cultures seriously challenges and broadens our own understanding of
aesthetics. This lecture will review ethnopoetic theory and examine how it applies to one of the
world’sgreatestpoetictraditions,theMayanPopolVuh.
•
•
•
•
DellHymes,NowIKnowOnlySoFar:EssaysinEthnopoetics(UofNebraskaPress,2003),
chapter2.
DennisTedlock,ReviewofNowIKnowOnlysoFar:EssaysinEthnopoeticsbyDellHymes,
AmericanAnthropologist,108(1),pp.246-247,2006.
AnthonyK.Webster,"'Soit'sgotthreemeaningsdildil':Seductiveideophonyandthesounds
ofNavajo",forthcomingCanadianJournalofLinguistics(isonacademia.edu)
PopolVuh:SacredBookoftheQuichéMayaPeople.TranslationandCommentarybyAllenJ.
Christenson,2007.http://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf
FILM:WEEKONE:"EDGEWALKER:ACONVERSATIONWITHLINDASCHELE"
The story of the decipherment of the Mayan glyphs in the words of one of the main figures in this
extraordinarytaleofdiscovery.
LECTURE4:ALTERNATIVELITERACIES
The development of writing is often described as an evolutionary arc that concludes with phonetic
scriptastheonly“true”writing.Thisviewmarginalizesmanyindigenouswritingsystemsanddistorts
our understanding of graphic communication. In this presentation, I will explore the nature of
alternativeliteraciessuchaspictographs,wampumandknottedcords.
15
Frank Salomon and Sabine Hyland, “Introduction” In: Graphic Pluralism: Native American
InscriptionandtheColonialSituation,SpecialVolumeEthnohistory(Vol.57,Number1,Winter
2010),pp.1-9.
• Heidi Bohaker, “Reading Anishinaabe Identities: Meaning and Metaphor in Nindoodem
Pictographs” In: Graphic Pluralism: Native American Inscription and the Colonial Situation,
SpecialVolumeEthnohistory(Vol.57,Number1,Winter2010),pp.11-33.
• Elizabeth Hill Boone, “Presidential Lecture: Discourse and Authority in Histories Painted,
KnottedandThreaded”,Ethnohistory(vol.59,no.2,Spring2012),pp.211-237.
• Marshall Joseph Becker, "A Wampum Belt Chronology: Origins to Modern Times", Northeast
Anthropology,63,pp.49-70,2001.
• Christina Burke, "Collecting Lakota Histories: Winter Count Pictographs and Texts in the
NationalAnthropologicalArchives",AmericanIndianArt26(1),pp.82-103,2000.
• GaryUrton,"FromKnotstoNarratives:ReconstructingtheArtofHistoricalRecordKeepingin
theAndesfromSpanishTranscriptionsofInkaKhipus",Ethnohistory,45(3),pp.409-438,1998.
LECTURE5:MAYANHIEROGLYPHICS
•
The last thirty years have witnessed the near total decipherment of the Classic Mayan hieroglyphic
writingsystem.Howdidthisoccur?HowdoesthedeciphermentofMayanhieroglyphicschallenge
ourviewsaboutwhatwritingis?
Stephen D. Houston, “Literacy Among the Pre-Columbian Maya: A Comparative Perspective”
In: Elizabeth Hill Boone and Walter D. Mignolo (eds), Writing Without Words: Alternative
LiteraciesinMesoamericaandtheAndes(DukeU.Press,1994).
• MichaelD.Coe,BreakingtheMayaCode(ThamesandHudson,2012)(optional).
• David Freidel and Linda Schele, A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya.
(WilliamMorrow,1992)(optional).
• DavidRoberts,"SecretsoftheMaya:DecipheringTikal",SmithsonianMagazine,July2005.
LECTURE6:THEENDOFWRITING
How do scripts and other forms of writing fall out of use? What processes are involved in the
disappearanceofwritingsystems?Willtextingandotheronlinemedialeadtotheendofwritingas
weknowit?
• John Monaghan, “Revelatory Scripts, ‘the Unlettered Genius’, and the Appearance and
Disappearance of Writing” In: John Baines, John Benet and Stephen D. Houston (eds.), The
Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication (London,
EquinoxPress,2008).
• NaomiBaron,AlwaysOn:LanguageinanOnlineandMobileWorld(OxfordUPress,2008).
• E. Gabriella Coleman, "Ethnographic Approaches to Digital Media", Annual Review of
Anthropology,39,pp.487-505,2010.
• SeverinFowles,"WritingCollapse",In:SocialTheoryinArchaeologyandAncientHistory,ed.by
GeoffEmberling,pp.205-230,2015.
•
16
•
Feray J. Baskin, "Turkish Women in Alsace: Language and Shift in Negotiating Identity", In:
ConferenceProceedings,Genderandthe'Law'",edbySibelSafiandEdaAycanAras,London
CentreforSocialStudies,2014,pp.2-10.
LECTURE7:FIELDWORKLECTURE:INSEARCHOFTHELOSTKHIPUS
FormyfinallectureIwilltalkbrieflyaboutmyfieldworkintheAndestrackingdownalegendarytext
thatmayprovidecluestothedeciphermentoftheInkas’ancientwritingsystem.Thepresentation
willincludeshowingahalfhourNationalGeographicdocumentaryaboutmyresearch.
2-WEEKEASTERVACATION13/3/2017TO24/3/2017
17
SECTION5
CLIMATECHANGE
WEEKS8&9
DrTonyCrook,[email protected],,2ndFloor,71NorthStreet
Thissectionofthecourseexplorestheanthropologyofclimatechange,anddiscussesthediversityof
the discipline's responses to questions of culture, knowledge and engagement. Whilst the
distinctivenessandcombinationofdifferentwaysofknowingaboutclimatechangehavechallenged
anthropology,theyhavealsocreatednewspacesforresearchandpractice.Thelecturesfocusontwo
particular contexts - the Pacific and Euro-America - to illustrate particular connections and cultural
concernsthatclimatechangeraises,andtouseeachasacriticalperspectiveontheotherwhereby
certain underlying assumptions become obvious. Whilst the lectures discuss the expanding
development of an anthropological literature on climate change, they also use perhaps unexpected
questions and ethnographic examples as provocations in order to provide a sideways view on what
peopleperceiveinclimatechangeandwhattheytakeforgranted.
LECTURE1:ANTHROPOLOGYANDCLIMATECHANGE
This first lecture will provide an outline to this section of the course, and introduce the questions,
arguments and methods taken up in exploring the anthropology of climate change. Old social
constructions and questions about nature and culture, and anthropology's premise of 'one nature,
many cultures', may be intellectually redundant yet still haunt the discipline's understandings and
responses to climate change. What is the place of anthropology and of 'culture' in understanding
climate change, and in contributing to efforts to address the climate crisis? What are the
consequences of approaching climate change through a wider culturalist lens? Why do people
disagreeaboutclimatechange?
Requiredreadings:
• Hulme, M. 2009. 'Why we disagree about climate change?', The Carbon Yearbook, pp41-43.
http://www.mikehulme.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Hulme-Carbon-Yearbook.pdf
• Roncoli,C.,Crane,T.andOrlove,B.2009.'FieldingClimateChangeinCulturalAnthropology',
in Crate, S. and Nuttall, M. (eds.) Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters To
Actions,https://ssrn.com/abstract=2396931
• Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi Efi, 2009. 'Climate Change and the Perspective of the Fish',
http://www.head-of-state-samoa.ws/speeches_pdf/Climate%20Change_April%202009.pdf
18
SupplementaryandGeneralreadings:
• Crate, S. and Nuttall, M. 2009. 'Introduction: Anthropology and Climate Change', in Crate, S.
and Nuttall, M. (eds.) Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters To Actions,
http://www.nabohome.org/meetings/glthec/materials/crate/AnthroClimateChange_front.pdf
• Baer, H. and Singer. M. (eds.) 2014. The Anthropology of Climate Change: An Integrated
CriticalPerspective,London:Routledge.GF71.B34
• Barnes,J.andDove,M.(eds.)2015.ClimateCultures:AnthropologicalPerspectivesonClimate
Change,NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress.http://library.standrews.ac.uk/record=b2398839~S5
• Crate, S. 2011. 'Climate and Culture: Anthropology in the Era of Contemporary Climate
Change',AnnualReviewofAnthropology,40,175-194.http://www.jstor.org/stable/41287727
• Crate,S.andNuttall,M.2009AnthropologyandClimateChange:FromEncountersToActions.
• CrateandNuttall2016AnthropologyandClimateChange:FromActionsToTransformations.
• Fiske,S.J.,Crate,S.A.,Crumley,C.L.,Galvin,K.,Lazrus,H.,Lucero,L.Oliver-Smith,A.,Orlove,
B., Strauss, S., Wilk, R. 2014. Changing the Atmosphere. Anthropology and Climate Change.
Final report of the AAA Global Climate. http://s3.amazonaws.com/rdcmsaaa/files/production/public/FileDownloads/pdfs/cmtes/commissions/upload/GCCTFChanging-the-Atmosphere.pdf
LECTURE2:SHRINKINGPEOPLE,SPIRITUALBLESSINGSANDITCHYWATER:ECOLOGICALCOLLAPSE
ANDCLIMATECHANGEAROUNDTHEOKTEDIMINEINPAPUANEWGUINEA
For the West Ningerum Pressure Association, evidence of ecological and climate change was all
aroundandwasseentobecausedbyastoppageintheflowofspiritual'blessings'thatoriginatefrom
the Ok Tedi mine site. The effects of this stoppage caused people to shrink - an effect reported
elsewhere in PNG. How might the spirit and the mountain be connected with the fertility of the
surrounding landscape and food gardens, and the 'water' that flows through the sky and
underground? These issues are explored through a comparison with the nearby village of Bolivip
wherepeopledescribeasimilarnotionofsubstancesabletoflowbetweenpeople,plants,spiritsand
theground.Mensaythattheancestorculthouse'copies'ahorticulturaltarogarden,andthatmale
initiation rituals are likened to garden practices which are also concerned with growth. These ideas
alsopointtotheheartoftheWNPAcomplaintsandleadusintorethinkingwhatconstitutes'nature’
whenitsveryphysicalitydependsonhowpeopletreateachother.
Requiredreadings:
• Crook,T.1999.'GrowingKnowledgeinBolivip',Oceania,65(4).
• Crook,T.2007.'"Ifyoudon'tbelieveourstory,atleastgiveushalfofthemoney":Claiming
ownershipoftheOkTediMine,PapuaNewGuinea',JournaldelaSociétédesOcéanistes,125,
année2007-2
Supplementary readings:
•
•
Clark,J.1989.‘TheIncredibleShrinkingMen:MaleIdeologyandDevelopmentinaSouthern
Highlands Society’, in Healey, J., ed., Culture and Development in Papua New Guinea.
Canberra:AustralianNationalUniversity.
Crook, T. 2007. Anthropological Knowledge, Secrecy and Bolivip, Papua New Guinea:
ExchangingSkin,London:BritishAcademyPress,2007.
19
•
•
Nakashima,D.J.,GallowayMcLean,K.,Thulstrup,H.D.,RamosCastillo,A.andRubis,J.T.2012.
WeatheringUncertainty:TraditionalKnowledgeforClimateChangeAssessmentand
Adaptation.Paris,UNESCO,andDarwin,UNU,120pp.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002166/216613e.pdf
Salick, Jan and Anja Byg. 2007. Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change. Tyndall Centre for
ClimateChangeResearch.http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/Indigenouspeoples.pdf.
LECTURE3:RITUALRESPONSESANDATTEMPTSTOPRECIPITATECLIMATECHANGEINPAPUANEW
GUINEA'SHIGHLANDFRINGE
This lecture explores how peoples in the Highland fringe of Papua New Guinea seek to engage and
influencetheflowsoflifecirculatingthroughpersons,landandsky.Fromthelonghouseritualsofthe
Foi and Kaluli peoples, to the Wola, Huli and Porgera peoples involved in cyclical rituals of volcanic
ash-fall, these ethnographic examples explore connections in these Melanesian lifeworlds to
understand how what Euro-Americans might take as 'nature' falls within, expresses and makes
manifest the realm of 'culture'. The lecture looks to how climate change has been experienced and
interpreted in vernacular terms, and looks to how indigenous theories are made evident in the
manifestedimpacts,ritualresponsesandevendeliberateattemptstoprecipitateclimatechanges.
Requiredreadings:
• Ballard,C.1998‘TheSunbyNight:HuliMoralTopographyandMythsofaTimeofDarkness’,in
Goldman, L. and Ballard, C., eds., Fluid Ontologies: Myth, Ritual and Philosophy in the
HighlandsofPapuaNewGuinea,Westport,CN:Bergin&Garvey.
• Jacka, J. 2009. 'Global Averages, Local Extremes: The Subtleties and Complexities of Climate
Change in Papua New Guinea', in Crate, S. and Nuttall, M. (eds.) Anthropology and Climate
Change:
From
Encounters
To
Actions,
http://jerryjacka.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/09/Jacka-2009-Climate-Change-in-PNG.pdf
• Sillitoe, P. 1993 ‘A Ritual Response to Climatic Perturbations in the Highlands of Papua New
Guinea’,Ethnology,Vol.32,No.2.
Supplementaryreadings:
• Feld, S. 1982 Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression,
Philadelphia:UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress.DU740.42F4
• Jacka, J. 2016. 'Correlating Local Knowledge with Climatic Data: Porgeran Experiences of
Climate Change in Papua New Guinea', in Crate, S. and Nuttall, M. (eds.) Anthropology and
Climate Change: From Encounters To Actions To Transformations, http://jerryjacka.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/11/Jacka-2016-Local-Knowledge-Climatic-Data.pdf
• Schieffelin,E.1976'TheGisaro',inTheSorrowoftheLonelyandtheBurningoftheDancers,St
Martins,1976,Chap.10pp172-195.
• Weiner, J. 1991 The Empty Place : poetry, space, and being among the Foi of Papua New
Guinea.Bloomington:IndianaUniversityPress.DU740.42W45
20
FILM:SUNCOMEUP(2011)
SunComeUpshowsthehumanfaceofclimatechange.ThefilmfollowstherelocationoftheCarteret
Islanders,acommunitylivingonaremoteislandchaininPapuaNewGuinea,andnow,someofthe
world’sfirstenvironmentalrefugees.Whenclimatechangethreatenstheirsurvival,theislandersface
a painful decision. They must leave their ancestral land in search of a new place to call home. Sun
ComeUpfollowsagroupofyoungislandersastheysearchforlandandbuildrelationshipsinwar-torn
Bougainville,50milesacrosstheopenocean.http://redantelopefilms.com/project/sun-come-up/
Supplementaryresources:
• Connell,J.2016.LastdaysintheCarteretIslands?Climatechange,livelihoodsandmigration
oncoralatolls.AsiaPacificViewpoint,57:3–15.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apv.12118/full
• Lokani,P.2011.'TulelePeisaandtheCarteretIslands',(filmedpresentation,7mins),
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/pacificstudies/news/pacconn/
LECTURE4:MARGARETMEAD'SATMOSPHEREFORTHEFUTURE
WhilstMargaretMeadestablishedherresearchandreputationinthePacific,shebecameinterested
in the atmosphere in the early 1970s, and as president of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) organised one of the first inter-disciplinary conferences on climate
changein1975.However,Meadwasposthumouslyaccusedofhavinghadahandinthecreationof
'global warming' and in the invention of 'virtually every scare scenario in today’s climate hoax'
(Hecht). Mead's early engagements are instructive of the subsequent ways that anthropology has
approached climate change, and her vision of the shared atmosphere as a cultural idea provides a
departure point for turning our considerations towards transformations in Euro-American cultural
historythroughwhichcontemporaryclimatechangeisunderstood.
Requiredreadings:
• Hecht,M.'1975‘EndangeredAtmosphere’Conference:WheretheGlobalWarmingHoaxWas
Born',inEIR--ExecutiveIntelligenceReview,June82007.PDFavailableat:
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2007/sci_techs/3423init_warming_hoax.html
• Mead,M.1974.'WaystoDealwiththeCurrentSocialTransformation',TheAmericanBiology
Teacher,37:1,http://www.jstor.org/stable/4445042
Supplementaryreadings:
• Mead,M.1965.'TheFutureastheBasisforEstablishingaSharedCulture',Daedalus,94:1,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20026899
• Mead,M.1972.'TheSharedAtmosphereofthisPlanet',TheTeilhardReview,London:The
TeilhardCentre.
• Mead,M.1972.TwentiethCenturyFaith:HopeandSurvival,NewYork:Harper&Row.
BL50.M4
• Mead,M.1977.'Preface',TheAtmosphere:EndangeredandEndangering,Fogarty
InternationalCenterProceedingsNo.39.
• Mandler,P.2013.ReturnfromtheNatives:HowMargaretMeadWontheSecondWorldWar
andLosttheColdWar,NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress.http://library.st-
21
andrews.ac.uk/search~S5?/aMandler%2C+p/amandler+p/1%2C2%2C9%2CB/frameset&FF=am
andler+peter+author&1%2C1%2C
LECTURE5:LIFEITSELF:BIOTECHNOLOGYANDCULTURALCHANGE
Climatechangehasaccompaniedtechnologicalandsocialchanges,andhasreshapedourconceptual
understandings of the world. This lecture will also explore these issues through recent changes to
Englishconceptionsofkinshipandtheresponsetogeneticengineering.WewillalsoexploreFranklin's
suggestion that ‘Life Itself’ is undergoing fundamental transformation and cultural redefinition - the
technologisationoflifeitself-thatimplicatesunderstandingsandresponsestoclimatechange.That
carbon dependency rests on certain technologies and that new technologies promise climate
solutions brings us back to the conceptual, technological and societal changes that accompany and
informEuro-Americanapprehensionsofclimatechangeanditsfutureimplications.
Requiredreadings:
• Crook,T.2000‘LengthMatters:ANoteontheGMDebate’,AnthropologyToday,16:1.
• Franklin,S.2000'LifeItself:GlobalNatureandtheGeneticImaginary'.InGlobalNature,Global
CultureeditedbyFranklin,S.,Lucy,C.andStacey,J.London:Sage,
http://sk.sagepub.com/books/download/global-nature-global-culture/n7.pdf
• Strathern,M.1993‘Prologue:MakingExplicit’;‘GreenhouseEffect’,inAfterNature:English
KinshipinthelateTwentiethCentury,Cambridge:CUP.
Supplementaryreadings:
• Haraway,D.2015.'Anthropocene,Capitalocene,Plantationocene,Chthulucene:MakingKin',
EnvironmentalHumanities,vol.6,2015,pp.159-165.
http://environmentalhumanities.org/arch/vol6/6.7.pdf
• Latour,B.2014.‘Theclimatetocomedependsonthepresenttime’,http://www.brunolatour.fr/sites/default/files/downloads/14-11-ANTHROPO-transl-GB.pdf
• Rosenberg,D.andHarding.S.2005‘Introduction:HistoriesoftheFuture’,inRosenberg,D.and
Harding.S.,(eds.)HistoriesoftheFuture,DukeUniversityPress.
LECTURE6:ALGORE'SINCONVENIENTTRUTH
In an age of climate urgency, Al Gore has come to be known as 'the popular prophet of global
warming'.AlGoreservedasU.S.Vice-PresidentunderPresidentBillClintonovertwoadministrations
from 1993-2001, and stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 presidential election. Gore's Oscar winning
documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning' (2006), was highly influential in raising
international public awareness about global warming, and highlighted Gore's long-standing
environmentaladvocacy,forwhichhejointlywontheNobelPeacePrizein2007.Thislectureexplores
a series of eco-theology connections first developed in Gore's Earth in the Balance (1992). Gore's
interestin'holography'enablesaninnovativesynthesisofecologyandtheology,whilsttheroleofthe
'breath'holdsbothpersonalsignificanceandprovidesanimportantmetaphor.
Film:
• Guggenheim,D.2006.AnInconvenientTruth:AGlobalWarning.ParamountPictures.
22
Requiredreadings:
• Gore,A.2006.AnInconvenientTruth:ThePlanetaryEmergencyofGlobalWarmingandWhat
WeCanDoAboutIt.London:Bloomsbury.
• Harding,Susan.2007.'AftertheFalwellians'.InWhatOrwellDidn'tKnow:Propagandaandthe
NewFaceofAmericanPolitics,editedbyAndrásSzántó,122-134.NewYork:PublicAffairs.
Supplementaryreadings:
• Gore,A.1992.EarthintheBalance:EcologyandtheHumanSpirit.Boston:HoughtonMifflin
Company.[Revisedin2000&2007].
• Luke,T.2008.'ThePoliticsofTrueConvenienceorInconvenientTruth:StrugglesoverHowto
SustainCapitalism,Democracy,andEcologyinthe21stCentury',EnvironmentandPlanningA,
Vol40,Issue8,pp.1811-1824.http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/a40158
• Ross,Andrew.1994."EarthtoGore,EarthtoGore."SocialText41:1-10.
LECTURE7:ANTHROPOLOGYANDCLIMATECHANGEINPRACTICE
This final lecture picks up some earlier threads and will discuss my own research and policy
engagements on climate change: from fieldwork in Papua New Guinea; to reflections on how
Margaret Mead and Al Gore provide insights into the turns of cultural history which shape
understandingsofclimatechange;toadvisingtheEUonclimatechangeanddevelopmentstrategyin
thePacific;totheUNSIDSconferencein2014;andtoacollaborationwiththeUniversityoftheSouth
Pacificwhichbroughtperformancesof'Moana:TheRisingoftheSea'toStAndrewsin2015.
Requiredreadings:
• Crook,T.&Lind,C.2013.'EU-PacificClimateChangePolicyandEngagement:ASocialScience
andHumanitiesReview,ECOPASProjectReportD3.311
• Borrevik,C.,Crook,T.,Hviding,E.,andLind,C.2014.EuropeanUnionDevelopmentStrategyin
thePacific,ReportofstudyrequestedbytheEuropeanParliament'sDevelopmentCommittee,
Brussels:EuropeanUnion.ISBN:978-92-823-5763-7,Doi:10.2861/6397,
https://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/pdf/deve-eu_pacific_study_en_2014-06-30.pdf
Supplementaryresources:
• Moana:TheRisingoftheSea,(Film,38mins),https://vimeo.com/user23941100/moana&The
Chief'sSpeech,(Film,6mins)https://vimeo.com/134147522.
• PolynesianVoyagingSociety,https://www.hokulea.com
• Rubow,CecilieandBird,Cliff.2016'Eco-theologicalResponsestoClimateChangeinOceania',
Worldviews:GlobalReligions,Culture,andEcology,Volume20,Issue2,pages150–168.
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685357-02002003
• U.N.2014.SmallIslandDevelopingStatesThirdConference.'SIDSACCELERATEDMODALITIES
OFACTION[S.A.M.O.A.]Pathway',http://www.sids2014.org/index.php?menu=1537
• WorldCouncilofChurches,2001.TheIslandofHope:AnAlternativetoEconomicGlobalization
• https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/public-witnessaddressing-power-affirming-peace/poverty-wealth-and-ecology/neoliberal-paradigm/islandof-hope/@@download/file/dossier-7.pdf
23
SECTION6
CHILD-FOCUSEDANTHROPOLOGY
WEEKS10&11
ProfessorChristinaToren,[email protected],71NorthStreet
Early anthropologists such as Malinowksi, Firth, Sapir and others recommended that children be
routinelyincludedinanthropologicalstudies,buteventodaythisisnotcommonplace.Whyisthisso?
Andwhyshouldchildrenasinformantsbeimportanttoanthropologists?Thisseriesoflecturesshows
howimportantchild-focusedanthropologyistothecomparativestudyofwhatitistobehuman.
LECTURE1:THECHILDINANTHROPOLOGY
A fundamental issue in anthropology is how we conceive of what it is to be human. This lecture
focusesonwhatthestudyofchildrencanbringtoourunderstandingofthisissue.
•
•
•
•
Enfield,N.J.andStephenC.Levinson.2006.Eds.RootsofHumanSociality.Culture,Cognition
andInteraction.Berg.Introduction.
Goldin-Meadow,Susan.2006.‘Meetingothermindsthroughgesture:howchildrenusetheir
handstoreinventlanguageanddistributecognition.’InN.J.EnfieldandStephenC.Levinson,
eds.RootsofHumanSociality.Culture,CognitionandInteraction.Berg.
Ingold, Tim. 2007. ‘The social child’. In Alan Fogel, Barbara King and Stuart Shanker, Eds.
Human Development in the Twenty-First Century. A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Life
Sciences,CambridgeUniversityPress.
Toren, Christina. 2007. ‘An anthropology of human development: what difference does it
make?’ In Alan Fogel, Barbara King and Stuart Shanker, Eds. Human Development in the
Twenty-FirstCentury.ADynamicSystemsApproachtotheLifeSciences,CambridgeUniversity
Press.
LECTURE2:CHILDRENASSUBJECTSANDOBJECTS
Howdochildrenfigureinethnography?Thislecturesdiscussesthedominantapproachestothestudy
ofchildreninanthropology.
• Bornstein, Erica. “Child Sponsorship, Evangelism, and Belonging in the Work of World Vision
Zimbabwe.” American Ethnologist, vol. 28, no. 3, 2001, pp. 595–622.
www.jstor.org/stable/3095065.
• Briggs, Jean. 1979. Aspects of Inuit Value Socialization, Ottowa: National Museum of Man,
MercurySeries.
24
Goldman, Laurence, and Calvin Smith. “Imagining Identities: Mimetic Constructions in Huli
ChildFantasyPlay.”TheJournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute,vol.4,no.2,1998,pp.
207–234.www.jstor.org/stable/3034500.
• Hendrick,Harry.1990.‘ConstructionsandreconstructionsofBritishchildhood:aninterpretive
survey, 1800 to the present’ in A.James & A.Prout (eds) Constructing and Reconstructing
Childhood,London,NewYork,TheFalmerPress.
• Kessen,W.1983.‘Thechildandotherculturalinventions’inF.S.Kessel&A.W.Siegel(eds)The
ChildandOtherCulturalInventions,PraegerPublishers.
• Lancy, David F. 2008. The Anthropology of Childhood Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings,
CambridgeUniversityPress.
• Malkki, Liisa, and Emily Martin. “Children and the Gendered Politics of Globalization: In
RemembranceofSharonStephens.”AmericanEthnologist,vol.30,no.2,2003,pp.216–224.
www.jstor.org/stable/3805373.
• Montgomery, Heather. 2008. An Introduction to Childhood: Anthropological Perspectives on
Children'sLives,Wiley-Blackwell.
• Toren, Christina. 2004.Do Babies Have Culture? Review of The Afterlife Is Where We Come
from:TheCultureofInfancyinWestAfricabyAlmaGottliebinAnthropologicalQuarterly,Vol.
77,No.1(Winter,2004),pp.167-179
LECTURE3:GENDERANDPERSONHOOD
Why is it necessary that the ethnographer pay particular attention to arriving at a social analysis of
genderandpersonhood?Thislecturelooksathowtheethnographershaveapproachedthisissuein
respectofchildren.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Howell,Signe.1988.‘Fromchildtohuman:Chewongconceptsofself’,inJ.Jahoda&I.M.Lewis
(eds),AcquiringCulture,London,CroomHelm.
James, Allison with Chris Jenks and Alan Prout. 1998. Theorizing Childhood, Polity Press. See
Chapters8and10.
Kusserow, Adrie. 2004. American Individualisms: Child Rearing and Social Class in Three
Neighborhoods.NewYork:PalgraveMacmillan.
Ochs, Elinor and Bambi B. Schieffelin,. 1984. ‘Language acquisition and socialization: three
developmental stories and their implications’ in R.A.Shweder & R.A. LeVine (eds) Culture
Theory.Essaysonmind,selfandemotion,CambridgeUniversityPress.
Prout, Alan and Allison James. 1990. ‘A new paradigm for the sociology of childhood?
Provenance,prmiseandproblems’inA.James&A.Prout(eds)ConstructingandReconstructing
Childhood,London,NewYork,TheFalmerPress.
Schieffelin,BambiB.1986.‘TeasingandshaminginKalulichildren’sinteractions’inBambiB.
Schieffelin & Elinor Ochs (eds.) Language Socialization Across Cultures, Cambridge University
Press.
Toren,Christina.2011.Thestuffofimagination:whatwecanlearnfromFijianchildren’sideas
abouttheirlivesasadults.SocialAnalysisVolume55,Issue1,23–47.
25
FILM:ROOM11HOTELETHIOPIA
ThisfilmaimstocaptureasenseofthelifeofchildrenlivingonthestreetinEthiopiabywitnessing
the interaction between two children in Gondar and the Japanese film-maker, Itsushi Kawase.
Althoughitisaboutthechildren'slifeonthestreets,theentirefilmwasshotinthefilm-maker'sroom
in the Ethiopia Hotel. This limited space allows the film to focus on communication between two
childrenandfilmmakerandtorevealsomeoftheideasthatenablethemtoendureandsurviveon
thestreets.Thisfilmismoreasensitivetestimonythanascientificdocumentary.Throughitshybrid
approach, the filmmaker aims to explore new trends in the visual anthropology touching upon
intimacyandsubjectivity.
LECTURE4:THECHILDINKINSHIP
This lecture takes a child-focused perspective on the study of kinship and why it remains central to
comparativeanalysisinanthropology.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Gow, Peter. 1989. ‘The perverse child: desire in a native Amazonian subsistence economy’,
Man,(N.S.)24,299-314.
Gow,Peter.2000.‘Helpless.TheAffectivePreconditionsofPiroSocialLife’,inJoannaOvering
and Alan Passes (eds) The Anthropology of Love and Hate: the Aesthetics of Conviviality in
NativeAmazonia,London,Routledge.
Rival,Laura.“AndrogynousParentsandGuestChildren:TheHuaoraniCouvade.”TheJournal
of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 4, no. 4, 1998, pp. 619–642.
www.jstor.org/stable/3034825.
Simpson, Bob. “On Gifts, Payments and Disputes: Divorce and Changing Family Structures in
ContemporaryBritain.”TheJournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute,vol.3,no.4,1997,
pp.731–745.www.jstor.org/stable/3034036.
Toren, Christina.2007. ‘Sunday Lunch in Fiji: Continuity and Transformation in Ideas of the
Household.’AmericanAnthropologistVol.109,No.2pp285-295.
Viegas, Susana de Matos. 2003. “Eating with Your Favourite Mother: Time and Sociality in a
South Amerindian Community (South of Bahia/Brazil).” Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute9,no.1:21–37.
LECTURE5:THECHILDINRITUAL
Ritualisanotherkeydomainofanthropologicalinvestigation.Thislecturesshowswhytheanalysisof
ritualdemandsachild-focusedperspectiveonhowritualinformspeople’slives.
•
•
•
•
•
Fortes, Meyer. 1970. ‘Social and psychological aspects of education in Taleland’ in Time and
SocialStructureandotheressays,London:Athlone.
Goldman,L.R.1998.Child’sPlay.Myth,MimesisandMake-Believe,Oxford,Berg.
Gottlieb, Alma. 2004. The Afterlife is Where We Come From. The culture of infancy in west
Africa.:ChicagoUniversityPress.
Gottlieb,Alma.2005.Babies'Baths,Babies'Remembrances:ABengTheoryofDevelopment,
HistoryandMemor.Africa:JournaloftheInternationalAfricanInstitute,Vol.75(1),pp.105118.
Telban,Borut.1998.DancingThroughTime:ASepikCosmology,Oxford,ClarendonPress..
26
Telban,Borut.1998.‘Body,beingandidentityinAmbonwari,PapuaNewGuinea.’InVerena
Keck (ed) Common Worlds and Single Lives: Constituting knowledge in Pacific societies,
London,Berg,pp55-70.
• Toren, Christina. 2006. ‘The Effectiveness of Ritual.’ In The Anthropology of Christianity.
FenellaCannell,ed.Pp.185–210.Durham,NC:DukeUniversityPress.
• Weil, Shalva. “The Language and Ritual of Socialisation: Birthday Parties in a Kindergarten
Context.”Man,vol.21,no.2,1986,pp.329–341.NewSeries,www.jstor.org/stable/2803163.
LECTURE6:LEARNINGANDEDUCATION
An implicit theory of learning informs all theoretical perspectives on what it is to be human. This
lectureshowswhyitissoimportanttoarriveatanethnographicunderstandingoflearningprocesses.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Carter, Anthony T. “Learning to Hate? Schooling, Nationalism, and Children.” The Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 17, no. 4, 2011, pp. 873–876.
www.jstor.org/stable/41350759.
Evans,Gillian.2006.EducationalFailureandWorkingClassWhiteChildreninBritain,Palgrave
Macmillan.
Kulick,Don.1992.LanguageShiftandCulturalReproduction:Socialization,self,andsyncretism
inaPapuaNewGuineanvillage,Cambridge:C.U.P.
Lave,JeanandEtienneWenger.1991.SituatedLearning,CambridgeUniversityPress.
Nabobo-Baba, Unaisi. 2006. Knowing and Learning. An Indigenous Fijian Approach. Suva:
InstituteofPacificStudies,UniversityoftheSouthPacific.
Toren, Christina. 2009. ‘Intersubjectivity as epistemology’ in What is Happening to
Epistemology? A special issue edited by Christina Toren and João de Pina-Cabral. Social
Analysis.Volume53,Issue2.
Toren,Christina.2012.Learningasamicrohistoricalprocess.InPeterJarvis,ed.TheLearning
Handbook.Routledge.
LECTURE7:FIELDWORKWITHCHILDREN
27
TUTORIALS
TUTORIAL1(WEEK2)
WhatissurprisingaboutthewaysinwhichtheEmberádressandundress?Whatfactorshaveshaped
Emberáclothing?HowisEmberáclothingculturallyandhistoricallyconstructed?Whatdowordslike
“traditional”,“exotic”and“authentic”mean?Whatdifferencesdothesewordsimply?Whatkindsof
thinkingareconnectedtotheseunderstandings?
• Theodossopoulus,D.2012.Indigenousattire,exoticizationandsocialchange:Dressingand
undressingamongtheEmberáofPanama.JournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute18(3):
591-612.
TUTORIAL2(WEEK3)
NecessaryextractionorMatterOutofPlace?
In this tutorial we will take the discussion further by considering the issue of hydraulic fracturing,
whichisatechnologythatenablestheextractionofoilandnaturalgasfrompreviouslyinaccessible
deposits.Ofparticularinterestforthistutorialistheabilitytodrillhorizontallyformorethanamile
underneath the ground. This means that above ground there might be agricultural fields (as in the
articlebelow),NationalParks(asintheUK)orevenschoolsandairports(asinTexas).Towhatextent
doyoufeelthatthis‘mixing’ofindustrialandotherenvironmentsisproblematic?Ifitis‘matteroutof
place’,whatculturalunderstandingsofplace,purityandpurposeunderpinyourdiscomfort?Andifit
isjustnecessaryextraction,whatculturalunderstandingsunderpinyourease?
Requiredreadings:
• DeRijke,Kim.2013.“TheAgri-GasFieldsofAustralia:Blacksoil,food,andunconventional
gas”.Culture,Agriculture,FoodandEnvironmentvol.35,issue1,pp.41-53.
• Douglas,Mary.2003.“SecularDefilement”.InPurityandDanger:Ananalysisofconceptsof
pollutionandtaboo.Pp.36-50.(inparticularpp.45-50)
Supplementaryreading:
• BBCNews:“FrackingunderNationalParksBackedbyMPs”.16December2015.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35107203
• BBCNews:“SherwoodForestFrackingFearsPromptProtest”.8Jan2017.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-38547173
TUTORIAL3(WEEK4)
Forthisfinaltutorialwewillbeexploringalternativelifestylesoflowcarbonlivingandthekindsof
assumptionsthatundergirdtheseexperiments.Oneexperimentisthe100DaysWithoutOilcarried
outbya25year-oldwomanintheUS.Hergoalwastounderstandtheextentofoildependencein
Americansocietytodayandusethatunderstandingtoidentifythemanysystemsthatwillhavetobe
28
modified in a world without cheap oil. From watching her film and reading her blog, consider the
extent to which such an experiment (as well as those described in the Slower Homes chapter)
highlightslocalhistoriesandculturalpractices.Howisenergyandenergyuseculturallymediated?Do
peoplecross-culturallyfacesimilarpredicamentswhenthereisnolongeranabundanceofcheapoil?
Andhowdoyouthinkpeople’seconomicliveswilllookinthefuture?
Requiredreadings:
• Vannini,Phillip,andJonathanTaggart.2014.“Ch.9:SlowerHomes”.InOfftheGrid:Reassemblingdomesticlife.Pp.141-158.
• http://www.100dayswithoutoil.blogspot.co.uk/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acTQ-9Vos0c
Supplementary readings:
•
•
Gupta,Akhil.2015.“AnAnthropologyofElectricityfromtheGlobalSouth”.Cultural
Anthropologyvol.30,issue4,pp.555-568.
Pickerill,Jenny.2016.Eco-Homes:People,PlacesandPolitics.
TUTORIAL4(WEEK5)
Discussionofsymbolistapproachestofoodtaboos.Towhatextentcanfoodtaboosbeinterpretedas
evidenceofasymboliccapacityinhumansforsocialandcosmologicalordering?
•
•
•
M.Douglas,PurityandDanger,chp.3
J.Okely,TravellerGypsies,chap.6
See also, R. Keesing and A. Strathern, Cultural Anthropology (3rd edition), pp.104-125 for a
critiqueofculturalmaterialistexplanationoffoodtaboos,andpp.312-316foracommentary
onDouglas’swork.
TUTORIAL5(WEEK6)
Discussionofvariousrepresentationsoftime,orhowtimeisgivenshape,inrelationtodifferingsets
ofsocialactivities.
• Leach,E.“Twoessaysconcerningthesymbolicrepresentationoftime.”InE.Leach,Rethinking
Anthropology (1961). Reprinted in W. Lessa and E. Vogt, Reader in Comparative Religion
(1979),pp.220-229.*
• Bourdieu,P.Algeria1960(1979)esp.pp.8-29.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress.*
TUTORIAL6(WEEK7)
WhatisBenjaminWhorf’shypothesisaboutlanguage(theSapirWhorfHypothesis)?WhatisNoam
Chomsky’stheoryofUniversalGrammar?HowdoesDanielEverett’sanalysisofthePirahalanguage
challengeChomsky’sviewoflanguage?IfEverettiscorrect,whataretheimplicationsofthelossof
29
linguistic diversity around the globe for our understanding of human diversity? How does Webster
defendasoftlinguisticrelativism?
Requiredreadings:
• BenjaminWhorf,“TheRelationofHabitualThoughtandBehaviortoLanguage”In:J.B.Caroll
(ed.) Language, Thought and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (Cambridge,
MITPress:1956),pp.139-159.
• JohnColapinto,“TheInterpreter:HasaremoteAmazoniantribeupendedourunderstanding
oflanguage?”TheNewYorker,April16,2007.
• AnthonyK.Webster,“WhytheWorldDoesn’tSoundtheSameinAnyLanguageandWhythat
Might Matter: A Review of the Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any
LanguagebyJohnMcWhorter.”LinguisticAnthropology,25(1),87-104.
TUTORIAL7(WEEK8)
Whatis“writing”?Isitnecessarilyphonetic?HowdoesBoonedefinewriting?Whatishertypologyof
writingthroughoutindigenousAmerica?WhatdoesAdamsmeanbythe“Inkaparadox”?HowdoInka
khipusfitintoourunderstandingofAmerindiancommunicationsystems?Ifweconsideronlyphonetic
graphicsystemstobe“writing”,arewedistortingthenatureofAmerindiangraphiccommunication?
WhydoesBoonebelievethathistoriansandanthropologistsmustconsulthistoriesthat“arepainted,
knotted,andthreaded”?
Requiredreadings:
• ElizabethHillBoone,“TheCulturalCategoryofScripts,Signs,andPictographies”In:TheirWay
ofWriting:Scripts,Signs,andPictographiesinPre-ColumbianAmerica.EditedbyElizabethHill
BooneandGaryUrton(WashingtonDC,DumbartonOaks,2011),pp.379-390.
• MarkAdams,“QuestioningtheIncaParadox:DidthecivilizationbehindMachuPicchureally
failtodevelopawrittenlanguage?”Slate,July12,2012.
• SabineHyland,“HowKhipusindicatedlabourcontributionsinanAndeanvillage:An
explanationofcolourbanding,seriationandethnocategories”JournalofMaterialCulture
21(4),490-509.
TUTORIAL8(WEEK9)
WhatmightaPacificviewofclimatechangelooklike?ThelowlyingatollsandislandsofthePacific
are in the frontline of rising sea levels due to global warming. Some of the region's peoples have
becomethefirstclimatechangerefugees,andsomegovernmentsaremakingprovisionsforhavingto
relocatepopulations.Butforpeopleswhoseconnectiontothelandandancestorisintegraltotheir
being,movingawayfromthelandiseasiersaidthandone:someoftheCarteretislandersreturned
fromtemporaryrelocationinBougainville.WhatissuesdoPacificIslandersfaceasaconsequenceof
climatechange?HowhavePacificpeoplesreceivedandinterpretedglobalnarrativesaboutislandloss
andmassmigration?Doesclimatechangealsostandforwidersocialandeconomicproblemscaused
byglobalisation?HowdoesthePacificbalancevernacularexplanationsofclimatechangeintermsof
culturalandBiblicalnarrativeswhenitportraystheimpactsofglobalwarmingandengagesscientific
explanationsofclimatechange?
30
Requiredreadings:
• Rubow,CecilieandBird,Cliff.2016'Eco-theologicalResponsestoClimateChangeinOceania',
Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, Volume 20, Issue 2, pages 150 – 168.
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685357-02002003
• Rudiak-Gould,P.2011.'AnthropologyandClimateChange:TheImportanceofReception
Studies',AnthropologyToday,27:2,pp9-12.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8322.2011.00795.x/abstract
TUTORIAL9(WEEK10)
Hulmearguesthat'climatechangeisnot“aproblem”waitingfor“asolution”.Itisanenvironmental,
cultural and political phenomenon that is reshaping the way we think about ourselves, about our
societies and about humanity’s place on Earth'. Why is it then, that taking seriously vernacular
conceptualisations and cultural histories (whether Pacific or Euro-American) appears to some as
either doubting or taking away from the reality of climate change? Does anthropology start by
acceptingthescientificexplanationofclimatechange,andthenlookatcultureafterthefact?Inother
words,istheanthropologyofclimatechangemerelysuperficialwhenitcomesto'culture'?
Required readings:
•
•
AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation.2015.'AAAStatementonHumanityandClimate
Change',http://s3.amazonaws.com/rdcmsaaa/files/production/public/FileDownloads/pdfs/cmtes/commissions/CCTF/upload/AAAStatement-on-Humanity-and-Climate-Change.pdf
Hulme, M. 2009. 'Why we disagree about climate change?', The Carbon Yearbook, pp41-43.
http://www.mikehulme.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Hulme-Carbon-Yearbook.pdf
TUTORIAL10(WEEK11)
Whydoesitmakeanalyticalsensetoincludechildreninanthropologicalstudiesofsocialprocesses?
Whataretheargumentsagainst‘theanthropologyofchildhood’?
• Robertson,A.F.1996.Thedevelopmentofmeaning:Ontogenyandculture.Journalofthe
RoyalAnthropologicalInstitute.Dec96,Vol.2Issue4,p591.20p
• Toren,Christina.2009.‘Intersubjectivityasepistemology’inWhatisHappeningto
Epistemology?AspecialissueeditedbyChristinaTorenandJoãodePina-Cabral.Social
Analysis.Volume53,Issue2.
31
ESSAYS
Studentsmustwritetwoassessedessaysof2000wordsforthemodule.Thefirstessayquestionmust
bechosenfromthelistbelowunderEssay1.Thesecondessayquestionmustbechosenfromthelist
belowunderEssay2.
ESSAY1
DUEBY23.59ON10THMARCH2017
1. WhatdidtheKulaRingdemonstrateabouttheculturalconstructionofeconomiclife?
Inadditiontothereadingsassignedforlecture1,thefollowingsupplementaryreadingsmight
beusefulforyou:
•
•
•
•
•
Landa,JanetT.1983.“TheEnigmaoftheKulaRing:Gift-exchangesandprimitivelawand
order”.InternationalReviewofLawandEconomics,vol.3,issue2,pp.137-160.
Leach,JerryW.andEdmundLeach.1983.“Introduction”.InTheKula:Newperspectiveson
Massimexchange.Pp.1-28.
Mauss,Marcel.1954.TheGift:Formsandfunctionsofexchangeinarchaicsocieties.
Uberoi,JPSingh.1962.“Ch.6:TheKulainSocietyandPolitics”.InPoliticsoftheKulaRing:
AnanalysisofthefindingsofBronislawMalinowski.Pp.74-138.
Weiner,AnnetteB.1985.“InalienableWealth”.AmericanEthnologistvol.12,issue2,pp.
210-227.
2. Aremarketsculturalconstructs?DiscusswithreferencetoTWOethnographicexamples.
Inadditiontothereadingsassignedforlecture4,thefollowingsupplementaryreadingsmight
beusefulforyou:
• Applbaum,Kalman.2009.“GettingtoYes:Corporatepowerandthecreationofa
psychopharmaceuticalblockbuster”.Culture,Medicine,andPsychiatryvol.33,issue2,pp.
185-215.
• Foster,RobertJ.2008.“Commodities,Brands,LoveandKula:Comparativenotesonvalue
creationinhonorofNancyMunn”.AnthropologicalTheoryvol.8,issue1,pp.9-25.
• Mazzarella,William.2003.“‘VeryBombay’:ContendingwiththeglobalinanIndian
advertisingagency”.CulturalAnthropologyvol.18,issue1,pp.33-71.
• Schneider,HaroldK.1974.EconomicMan:Theanthropologyofeconomics.
• Watson,JamesL.(ed.)2006.“Introduction:Transnationalism,Localization,andFastFoods
inEastAsia”.InGoldenArchesEast:McDonald'sinEastAsia.Pp.1-38
32
3. Whatarethestrengthsandweaknessofaculturalmaterialistapproachwithinsocial
anthropologyingeneral,andspecificallywithreferencetothetopicoffoodtaboos?Discuss
usingthereadingsforWeek4,Topic1:FoodTaboos,PollutionandProhibition.SeealsoM.
Sahlins,TheUseandAbuseofBiology:AnAnthropologicalCritiqueofSociobiology,esp.chp
1.*
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
4. IfBerlinandKay'sworkonBasicColorTerms(1969/1991)underminedthedoctrineof
linguisticrelativity,describethewayinwhichrecentresearchhasraiseddoubtsaboutthe
universalityofcolourterminology.SeereadingforWeek5,Topic2:Colour.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
M.Douglas.PurityandDanger.Routledge[1966]1996.Chp3.
AbridgedversionprintedinW.Lessa&E.Vogt(eds),ReaderinComparativeReligion
(1979),pp.149-52.
M.Douglas.‘LandAnimals,PureandImpure’inM.Lambek(ed.)AReaderinthe
AnthropologyofReligion(2002),pp.194-209.
M.Douglas.‘AnimalsinLeleReligiousThought’,Africa,27(1957),46-58.
E.Leach,‘AnimalCategoriesandVerbalAbuse’,reprintedinW.Lessa&E.Vogt(eds),
ReaderinComparativeReligion(1979),pp.153-66.
J.Okely.TheTraveller-Gypsies.Cambridge1983.Chp6.
S.Tambiah.‘AnimalsareGoodtoThinkandGoodtoProhibit’,Ethnology,8(1969)424-59.
ReprintedininM.Douglas(ed.)RulesandMeanings.Harmondsworth:Penguin,pp.127-66
M.Sahlins,TheUseandAbuseofBiology:AnAnthropologicalCritiqueofSociobiology,esp.
Ch.1.
BerlinB.andP.KayBasicColorTerms:TheirUniversalityandEvolution,(1969)Berkeley:
UniversityofCaliforniaPress.
Conklin,H.'HanunóoColorCategories',inD.Hymes(ed.)LanguageinCultureandSociety,
(1964),pp.189-92.Harper&Row.
Conklin,H.'ColorCategorization:ReviewofBerlinandKay,1969',American
Anthropologist,(1973),Vol.75,pp.931-42.
Conklin,H.‘ColorCategories’,JournalofAnthropologicalResearch,(1986)42(3),pp.44146.
Hendry,J.AnIntroductiontoSocialAnthropology(1999),esp.pp.23-28.London:
Macmillan.
Levinson,S.‘YeliNdayeandtheTheoryofBasicColorTerms’,JournalofLinguistic
Anthropology,(2000)10(1),pp.3-55.
Newcomer,P.andJ.Faris.‘BasicColorTerms(AReview)’,InternationalJournalof
AmericanLinguistics(1971)37(4),pp.270-275.
Saunders,B.‘RevisitingBasicColorTerms’,JournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute,
(2000)6(1),pp.81-99.
Turner,V.‘ColourClassificationinNdembuRitual’,inM.Banton(ed.)Anthropological
ApproachestotheStudyofReligion(1966),pp.47-84;alsopublishedasChp.3ofTurner’s
TheForestofSymbols:AspectsofNdembuRitual.Ithaca:CornellUniversityPress.
33
ESSAY2
DUEBY23.59ON21STAPRIL2017
5. DoWesterntheoriesofaestheticsadequatelydescribetheartisticaccomplishmentsofnonWesternpeoples?Discussusingethnographicexamples.
•
•
•
•
•
•
DellHymes,NowIKnowOnlySoFar:EssaysinEthnopoetics(UofNebraskaPress,2003),
chapter2.
DennisTedlock,ReviewofNowIKnowOnlysoFar:EssaysinEthnopoeticsbyDellHymes,
AmericanAnthropologist,108(1),pp.246-247,2006.
AnthonyK.Webster,“WhytheWorldDoesn’tSoundtheSameinAnyLanguageandWhy
thatMightMatter:AReviewoftheLanguageHoax:WhytheWorldLookstheSameinAny
LanguagebyJohnH.McWhorter.”LinguisticAnthropology25(1),87-140.
AnthonyK.Webster,"'Soit'sgotthreemeaningsdildil':Seductiveideophonyandthe
soundsofNavajo",forthcomingCanadianJournalofLinguistics(isonacademia.edu)
PopolVuh:SacredBookoftheQuichéMayaPeople.TranslationandCommentarybyAllen
J.Christenson,2007.http://www.mesoweb.com/publications/Christenson/PopolVuh.pdf
Elisabeth Tooker and William C. Sturtevant, Native North American Spirituality of the
Eastern Woodlands: Sacred Myths, Dreams, Visions, Speeches, Healing Formulas, Rituals
andCeremonials(PaulistPress,1979).
6. WhatiswritingandhowdoAmerindianformsofgraphiccommunicationchallenge
traditionalnotionsofwriting?Discussusingexamplesfromatleasttwodifferent
Amerindianpeoples.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Mark Adams, “Questioning the Inca Paradox: Did the civilization behind Machu Picchu
reallyfailtodevelopawrittenlanguage?”Slate,July12,2012.
FrankSalomonandSabineHyland,“Introduction”In:GraphicPluralism:NativeAmerican
Inscription and the Colonial Situation, Special Volume Ethnohistory (Vol. 57, Number 1,
Winter2010),pp.1-9.
Heidi Bohaker, “Reading Anishinaabe Identities: Meaning and Metaphor in Nindoodem
Pictographs”In:GraphicPluralism:NativeAmericanInscriptionandtheColonialSituation,
SpecialVolumeEthnohistory(Vol.57,Number1,Winter2010),pp.11-33.
Elizabeth Hill Boone, “Presidential Lecture: Discourse and Authority in Histories Painted,
KnottedandThreaded”,Ethnohistory(vol.59,no.2,Spring2012),pp.211-237.
Sabine Hyland, “How Khipus indicated labour contributions in an Andean village: An
explanationofcolourbanding,seriationandethnocategories”JournalofMaterialCulture
21(4),490-509.
Linda Schele & Peter Mathews, The Code of Kings: the Language of Seven Sacred Maya
TemplesandTombs.
34
7. Howcananthropologymediatebetweenindigenousandscientificknowledge?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Baer,H.andSinger.M.(eds.)2014.TheAnthropologyofClimateChange:AnIntegrated
CriticalPerspective,London:Routledge.GF71.B34
Barnes,J.andDove,M.(eds.)2015.ClimateCultures:AnthropologicalPerspectiveson
ClimateChange,NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress.http://library.standrews.ac.uk/record=b2398839~S5
Crate,S.2011.'ClimateandCulture:AnthropologyintheEraofContemporaryClimate
Change',AnnualReviewofAnthropology,40,175-194.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41287727
Nakashima,D.J.,GallowayMcLean,K.,Thulstrup,H.D.,RamosCastillo,A.andRubis,J.T.
2012.WeatheringUncertainty:TraditionalKnowledgeforClimateChangeAssessmentand
Adaptation.Paris,UNESCO,andDarwin,UNU,120pp.
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002166/216613e.pdf
Roncoli,C.,Crane,T.andOrlove,B.2009.'FieldingClimateChangeinCultural
Anthropology',inCrate,S.andNuttall,M.(eds.)AnthropologyandClimateChange:From
EncountersToActions,https://ssrn.com/abstract=2396931
Salick,JanandAnjaByg.2007.IndigenousPeoplesandClimateChange.TyndallCentrefor
ClimateChangeResearch.http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/Indigenouspeoples.pdf.
8. What is culturally at stake for Pacific peoples facing rising sea levels?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Farbotko,C.2010.‘WishfulSinking:DisappearingIslands,ClimateRefugeesand
CosmopolitanExperimentation’.AsiaPacificViewpoint,51(1):47–60.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8373.2010.001413.x/full
Lazrus,H.,2012.SeaChange:IslandCommunitiesandClimateChange.AnnualReviewof
Anthropology,41(1):285–301.http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurevanthro-092611-145730
Rubow,CecilieandBird,Cliff.2016'Eco-theologicalResponsestoClimateChangein
Oceania',Worldviews:GlobalReligions,Culture,andEcology,Volume20,Issue2,pages
150–168.http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/1568535702002003
Rudiak-Gould,P.2011.'AnthropologyandClimateChange:TheImportanceofReception
Studies',AnthropologyToday,27:2,pp9-12.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8322.2011.00795.x/abstract
Rudiak-Gould,P.2013.ClimateChangeandTraditioninaSmallIslandState:TheRising
Tide,London:Routledge.
TuiAtuaTupuaTamaseseTa’isiEfi,2009.'ClimateChangeandthePerspectiveoftheFish',
http://www.head-of-state-samoa.ws/speeches_pdf/Climate%20Change_April%202009.pdf
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35
HINTSONWRITINGESSAYSAND
EXAMANSWERS
Pleasenotethefollowingkeypoints:
EssaysshouldbetypedandsubmittedviaMMS(https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/mms/)
Essays should be properly referenced, especially direct quotations from books and articles, and a
bibliography should be attached. The bibliography should only contain items that have been specifically
referredtointhetext.Westronglyrecommendthatyoufollowthesystemexplainedinthelastsectionof
thishandbook.Consultyourlecturer/tutor/supervisorifindoubt.
ESSAYWRITING
1.Writinganessayorreportisanexerciseinthehandlingofideas.Itisnotthemeretranscriptionoflong
andirrelevantpassagesfromtextbooks.Togainapassmark,anessayorreportmustshowevidenceof
hardthinking(ideally,originalthinking)onthestudent'spart.
2.Whenalecturersetsyouanessayorreportheorsheisexplicitlyorimplicitlyaskingyouaquestion.
Aboveallelseyouraimshouldbetodiscernwhatthatquestionisandtoanswerit.Youshouldgiveita
cursoryanswerinthefirstparagraph(introduction),thussketchingyourplanofattack.Theninthebody
oftheessayorreportyoushouldgiveitadetailedanswer,disposinginturnofallthepointsthatithas
raised. And at the end (conclusion) you should give it another answer, i.e. a summary of your detailed
answer.NoteIfthequestionhasmorethanonepartyoushoulddedicateequalattentiontoeachone.
3.Anessayorreportmustbebasedonasoundknowledgeofthesubjectitdealswith.Thismeansthat
youmustread.Ifyouaretemptedtoansweranyquestionoffthetopofyourhead,orentirelyfromyour
ownpersonalexperienceorgeneralknowledge,youareaskingfortrouble.
4. Make brief notes as you read, and record the page references. Don't waste time by copying out long
quotations. Go for the ideas and arrange these on paper. Some people find that arranging ideas in
diagramsandtablesmakesthemeasiertorememberandusethanverbalpassages.Youwillfinditeasier
to do this if you keep certain questions in mind: What is the author driving at? What is the argument?
Does it apply only to a particular society, or are generalised propositions being made? How well do the
examplesusedfittheargument?Wherearetheweaknesses?Alsothinkaboutthewiderimplicationsof
an argument. Copy the actual words only if they say something much more aptly than you could say
yourself.Itisagoodplantowritenotesonthecontentofyourreadinginblueandyourowncommentson
theminred.Thereisanotheraspectofyourreadingwhichshouldgohandinhandwiththeassessmentof
any one item: you should compare what you have read in different books and articles. Test what one
author proposed against evidence from other societies: what do the different approaches lend to one
another?Inthiswayyoushouldbegintoseethevalue(andtheproblems)ofcomparisonandlearnthat
writersdisagreeandwritecontradictorythings,andthatallprintedmatterisnotindisputablejustbecause
itliesbetweenhardcovers.Notethataswellasshowingevidenceofreadingofsettexts,goodanswers
link the essay topic back to material given in lectures or tutorials. You can also gain marks by including
additionalreading,providingitisclearfromyouressaythatyouhaveactuallyreadit!
36
5. Don't then sit down and write the essay or report. Plan it first. Give it a beginning, a middle, and an
ending.Muchoftheinformationyouwillhavecollectedwillhavetoberejectedbecauseitisn'trelevant.
Don'tbetemptedtoincludeanythingthathasn'tadirectbearingontheproblemexpressedinthetitleof
theessayorreport.Notethatintheintroductoryparagraphitisagoodideatomakeitabsolutelyclearto
the reader exactly what you understand by certain crucial concepts you will be discussing in the essay theseconceptswillprobablybethosewhichappearintheessaytitle.Definetheseconceptsifyouthink
theremaybeanyambiguityaboutthem.Notealsothatwhenyougiveexamplestoillustrateapointbe
careful not to lose track of the argument. Examples are intended to illustrate a general (usually more
abstract)point;theyarenotasubstituteformakingthispoint.
6.Whenyoufinallystartontheessayorreport,pleaserememberthesepoints:
(a)Leavewidemarginsandaspaceattheendforcomments.Anyworkthatisillegible,obviouslytoolong
ortooshort,orlackingmarginsandaspaceattheendwillbereturnedforre-writing.Essaysshouldbe
typed,preferablyononesideofthepaperanddouble-spaced.
(b)Appendabibliography givingdetailsofthematerialyouhavereadandcitedintheessay.Arrangeit
alphabetically by author and by dates of publication. Look at the Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Instituteasanexampleofthestyleofpresentingabibliography.
N.B.Inthebodyoftheessayorreport,wheneveryouhaveoccasiontosupportastatementbyreference
toabookorarticle,giveinbracketsthenameoftheauthoranddate.Toacknowledgeaquotationora
particular observation, the exact page number should be added. For example, 'Shortly after the
publicationofTheAndamanIslanders,Radcliffe-Browndrewattentiontotheimportanceofthemother's
brother(Radcliffe-Brown1924).WhatkindledhisinterestintheSouthAfricanmaterialwasthepseudohistoricalinterpretationofHenriJunod(Radcliffe-Brown1952:15)...........'Ifyouarenotsurehowtodo
this,lookinthejournalJournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstituteorsomemonographinthelibraryto
get an idea of how this is done. Alternatively, footnote your references.Note that if you simply copy a
writer'swordsintoyouressaywithoutacknowledgementyouwilllosemarks,andcouldevenreceivea
zeromark.
7.Footnotesshouldbeplacedeitheratthefootofeachpage,oralltogetherattheend.Ifoneachpage,
they should be numbered consecutively from the beginning of each chapter, e.g. 1-22. If placed all
togetherattheend,theyshouldbenumberedconsecutivelythroughoutthewholeresearchproject,e.g.
1-103,inwhichcasedonotstartrenumberingforeachchapter.
8.Footnotereferencesinthetextshouldbeclearlydesignatedbymeansofsuperiorfigures,placedafter
punctuation,e.g.................theexhibition.10
9.Underlining(oritalics)shouldincludetitlesofbooksandperiodicalpublications,andtechnicaltermsor
phrasesnotinthelanguageoftheessay,(e.g.urigubu,gimwali).
10.Italicize:ibid.,idem.,op.cit.,loc.cit.,andpassim.
11.Singleinvertedcommasshouldbeplacedatthebeginningandendofquotations,withdoubleinverted
commasforquotes-within-quotes.
12.Ifquotationsarelongerthansixtypedlinestheyshouldbeindented,inwhichcaseinvertedcommas
arenotneeded.
13.PLEASETRYTOAVOIDGENDER-SPECIFICLANGUAGE.Don'twritehe/himwhenyoucouldbereferring
toawoman!Youcanavoidthisproblembyusingplurals(they/them).
37
Referencing:
Correctreferencingisacriticalaspectofallessays.Itistheprimaryskillthatyouareexpectedtolearnand
italsoguardsyouagainstthedangersofplagiarism.Makesurethatwhenyouarereadingtextsthatyou
notedownaccuratelythesourceofinformationbyrecordingthenameoftheauthor,thebooktitle,page
number and so forth. This will enable you to reference correctly when it comes to writing your essay.
Adequatereferencingrequiresyoutoindicateintheappropriateplacesinbodyofyouressaythesource
ofanyinformationyoumayuse.Suchreferencesvaryinkind,butageneralguidetothecorrectformat
wouldbe:Ageneralreference:…asTurnbull’s(1983)workdemonstrates…
…theromanticisationofPygmieshasbeencommonplaceinanthropology(e.g.Turnbull1983)…
Note: In this example, the author is referring to Turnbull’s work in a general way. If the author was
referring to specific ideas or details made by Turnbull, then the page number needs to be specified. A
paraphrase:…TurnbulldescribeshowtheIturiForesthadremainedrelativelyuntouchedbycolonialism
(Turnbull1983:24)…
Note: This is more specific than a general reference as it refers to a particular point or passage by an
author.Itisyoursummaryofapointmadebysomeoneelse(inthiscaseTurnbull).Whenparaphrasing,
youmustalwaysincludethepagenumberinyourreference.Aquotation:…underthesecircumstances,
“theMbuticouldalwaysescapetotheforest”(Turnbull1983:85).
Note:Allquotesfromanyoneelse’sworkmustbeacknowledgedandbeplacedwithinspeechmarks.The
pagenumberornumbersmustbereferenced.Ifyouneedtoalteranyofthewordswithinthequoteto
clarifyyourmeaning,thewordschangedoraddedshouldbeplacedinsquarebrackets[thus]toindicate
thattheyarenotthoseoftheoriginalauthor.
Bibliography:
Alltestsreferencedwithinthebodyofyouressaymustbeincludedwithinthebibliography.Entriesinthe
bibliographyshouldbeorganisedinalphabeticalorderandshouldcontainfullpublicationdetails.Consult
ananthropologicaljournal,suchastheJournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute(JRAI),toseehowthe
correctformatshouldappear.Thisisavailablebothelectronicallyandinhardcopy.Thestandardformatof
bibliographicreferencingisasfollows:
Book:
Turnbull,C.M.1983.TheMbutiPygmies:ChangeandAdaptation.NewYork,HoltReinhartandWilson.
EditedCollection:
Leacock, E. & R. Lee (eds) 1982. Politics and History in Band Societies. Cambridge:Cambridge University
Press.
Chapterineditedcollection:
Woodburn.J.C.(1980).Huntersandgathererstodayandreconstructionofthepast.InSovietandwestern
anthropology(ed.)E.Gellner.London:Duckworth.
Journalarticle:
Ballard,C.2006.Strangealliance:Pygmiesinthecolonialimaginary.WorldArchaeology,38,1,133151.
Webpages:
Itisunadvisabletousewebsitesunlessdirectedtothembyalecturer.Thereisagreatdealofrubbishon
38
theInternet.However,ifyoudo,itisimportantthatyouprovidefulldetailsoftheweb-pageaddressas
wellasthedateonwhichthepagewasaccessed.
Miller,J.J.2000,Accessed22/09/2006.TheFiercePeople:Thewagesofanthropologicalincorrectness.
Articleavailableelectronicallyat:http://www.nationalreview.com/20nov00/miller112000.shtml.
Ifyouarenotsurehowtodothis,lookinthejournalJRAIorsomemonographinthelibrarytogetanidea
ofhowthisisdone.Alternatively,footnoteyourreferences.Notethatifyousimplycopyawriter'swords
intoyouressaywithoutacknowledgementyouruntheriskofplagiarismandwilllosemarks,andmay
evenreceiveazeromark.
8.Pleasealsonotethefollowing:
(a)Spellings,grammar,writingstyle.Failuretoattendtothesecreatesapoorimpression.Note,especially:
society,argument,bureaucracy.
(b)Foreignwords:Underline(oritalicize)these,unlesstheyhavepassedintoregularEnglish.
(c)PLEASETRYTOAVOIDGENDER-SPECIFICLANGUAGE.Don'twritehe/himwhenyoucouldbereferring
toawoman!Youcanavoidthisproblembyusingplurals(they/them).
____________________________
39