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WOMEN WRITING CULTURE ANTH 323 (Spring 2013) Instructor: Professor Dorothy Hodgson Office: Room 314, Ruth Adams Building, Douglass Campus Telephone: 848-932-8757 Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesdays, 9:30-11:30am, or by appointment Class Time: Tuesdays, 12:35-3:35pm Location: Room 205, Biology Building, Douglass Campus This course seeks to place women ethnographers center stage in the current debates about how, for whom, and to what end ethnographies should be written. Women have exerted a strong presence in anthropology, yet their contributions as writers have rarely been highlighted. The history of women's ethnographic writing shows that women have experimented widely and creatively in their efforts to translate and give meaning to foreign cultural categories and experiences. Women have used, and to continue to use, diverse writing styles, including cross-cultural juxtapositions, life history, memoir, fictional forms, feminist critique, and meditations on the fieldwork process. The range of their work herald postmodernist concerns for an ethnography that is more humane, polyphonic, reflexive, and closer to "native" voices. The aim of the course is twofold: to bring gender consciousness to our understanding of the history of anthropology and to bring a subtler literary consciousness to our reading of ethnographic writings. The course is divided in two parts. In the first section, we will examine important predecessors in the history of women's ethnographic writing, while we shift in the second section to an exploration of the work of several contemporary women ethnographers. Given the immense amount of work by women writing and working in a number of different national and theoretical traditions in anthropology, I have chosen to emphasize the tradition of American cultural anthropology to maintain historical and cultural continuity and keep our discussion focused. Within this "tradition," I have tried to incorporate a wide selection of work by women from different cultural, racial, religious and class backgrounds. COURSE OBJECTIVES – After taking this course, students will be able to: Understand the history and influence of female anthropologists on theoretical and methodological debates in the discipline Critically evaluate how gender (and other social differences) shapes theory, methodology and ethnography Understand the strengths and weaknesses of different modes of conveying ethnographic material COURSE REQUIREMENTS: 1) Attendance, reading and discussion: 20% Attendance is mandatory. Since this is a course focused on the writing of ethnography, there is a substantial amount of required reading. Students are expected to have read the assigned material for each class meeting and to actively contribute to discussion of the issues. More than one unexcused absence and/or late arrival (defined as more than 15 minutes after class has started) from class will lower your final grade by 10 points. Each additional unexcused absence or late arrival will lower your final grade by an additional 10 points. Documentation of an excused absence must be submitted to me within 2 weeks of missing class or the absence will be considered unexcused. 2) Weekly Commentaries: 20% Since this is a course focused on the writing of ethnography, there is a substantial amount of required reading. Students are expected to have read the assigned material for each class meeting and to actively contribute to discussion of the issues. To facilitate discussion, each week students will submit a brief (one to two page) response to the week's readings by Monday afternoon (4pm at the latest) to the “Class Discussion” section of the course Sakai site, under the relevant topic. The response may be in the form of a brief summary, insight into a particular passage, a commentary or meditation on the unit's theme, a list of questions with a short discussion of the readings, or whatever format facilitates your reading and discussion of the assigned material. You must post a minimum of 10 commentaries over the course of the semester. 3) Class presentations 10% Each member of the class will also make an oral presentation as part of a small group on the week's author and readings. The presentation should offer enough background and insight to help set the stage for our discussion. A written outline of the presentation should be distributed to class members. 4) Papers 25% each Two 8-10 page double-spaced essays (due in class on March 5th and May 7th) are required for the course. Each essay should be a critical analysis of the work of any ethnographer we have read up to that point in the class. Comparisons and links between the works of two or more ethnographers are strongly encouraged, as are efforts to draw out the links between the life and the work of the ethnographer(s) in question. Another option is to develop an interpretation of the way in which a particular writer (or set of writers) has dealt with her "femaleness" and the question of voice in her writing of culture. I am open to other creative ideas as well, but students should meet with me early on to discuss them. 5) Extra credit: Students can receive two points of extra credit (up to ten points total for the term) on their final grade for attending talks and programs about cultural anthropology or gender that will be announced in class. You must attend the event from beginning to end, write a list of 4 questions for the speaker (or about the event), and submit questions to Professor Hodgson within 24 hours of the event. No other form of extra credit will be given. FINAL GRADE: Will be calculated as follows: Attendance, reading & discussion (20%), Weekly Commentaries (20%), Class Presentations (10%), Midterm Paper (25%), and Final Paper (25%), with a possible 10 additional points of extra credit available on the final numeric grade. The Grading Scale is: A = 90 and above; B+ = 88-89; B = 80-87; C+ = 78-79; C = 70-77; D = 60-69; F = 59 and below ACADEMIC INTEGRITY All students must strictly adhere to the Rutgers Academic Integrity Policy which identifies and defines violations of cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and denying others access to information or material. Full definitions of each of these violations, as 2 well as the consequences of violating the Academic Integrity Policy are available as part of the student handbook. For details see: http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/files/documents/AI_Policy_9_01_2011.pdf LAPTOPS, CELLPHONES AND COMMON COURTESY We are all responsible for creating and maintaining a culture of respect, active listening and participation in the classroom. To that end, I have the developed the following policies: student may use laptops to take notes in class or to refer to e-versions of the readings. But if I see that a laptop is being used for email, Facebook, or anything other than taking notes or reading course materials, then you will no longer be allowed to use your laptop in class for the rest of the semester. Cellphones must be turned off. If your cellphone rings during class or I see that you are texting or looking at it, I will take it away for the rest of the class period. REQUIRED TEXTS [Available at Barnes and Noble and on reserve in Douglass Library] Ruth Behar and Deborah Gordon, eds. 1995. Women Writing Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ella Deloria. 1988 [1944] Waterlily. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. Lila Abu-Lughod. 1986. Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: University of California Press. Barbara Myerhoff. 1978. Number Our Days. New York: Simon and Schuster. Ruth Behar. 1993. Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story. Boston: Beacon Press. The following text, which contains short biographies of many of the anthropologists we will study in this course, is also on reserve in Douglass Library: Ute Gacs et al, eds. 1989. Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Additional readings listed below are available through the course SAKAI site (sakai.rutgers.edu) *************************************************** COURSE OUTLINE: WOMEN WRITING CULTURE SA: Reading available on Sakai RT: Required Text Week 1: Introduction (Jan 22) FILM: “Coming of Age” (about Margaret Mead) Week 2: Legacies: Alice Fletcher & Elsie Clews Parsons (Jan 29) Fletcher, Alice. 1891. "Indian Messiah." Journal of American Folklore 4:57-60. (SA) Fletcher, Alice. 1883. "On Indian Education and Self-Support." Century Magazine 4:312-315. (SA) Parsons, Elsie Clews. 1916. "When Mating and Parenthood are Theoretically Distinguished." International Journal of Ethics 26(2): 207-216. (SA) Parsons, Elsie Clews. 1916. "Feminism and Sex Ethics." International Journal of Ethics 26(4): 462-465. (SA) 3 Parsons, Elsie Clews. 1922. "Preface," and "Waiyautitsa of Zuni, New Mexico." In Elsie Clews Parsons, ed., American Indian Life. New York: B.W. Huebsch, Inc. (SA) Lamphere, Louise. 1995. “Feminist Anthropology: The Legacy of Elsie Clews Parsons.” In WWC… (SA) Week 3: Contradictions, Erasures, Prospects (Feb 5) Clifford, James. 1986. "Introduction." In James Clifford & George Marcus, eds., Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. Berkeley: University of California Press. (SA) Gordon, Deborah. 1988. "Writing Culture, Writing Feminism: The Poetics and Politics of Experimental Ethnography." Inscriptions (special issue on "Feminism and Critique of Colonial Discourse") 3/4: 6-24. (SA) Behar, “Introduction: Out of Exile,” In Women Writing Culture (WWC) (RT) Gordon, “Conclusion: Culture Writing Women: Inscribing Feminist Anthropology,” In WWC (RT) Week 4: Writing the Poetics of Culture: Ruth Benedict (Feb 12) Benedict, Ruth. 1934. “The Pueblos of New Mexico,” from Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (SA) Benedict, Ruth. 1959. "The Story of My Life...," "Journal, 1912-1916," "Race Prejudice in the United States," "Postwar Race Prejudice," "Selected Poems, 1941." In Margaret Mead, ed., An Anthropologist At Work: The Writings of Ruth Benedict. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. (SA) Babcock, Barbara. “’Not in the Absolute Singular’: Rereading Ruth Benedict.” In WWC (RT) Week 5: Writing the Observed World: Margaret Mead (Feb 19) [We will see two films in class: "Dance and Trance in Bali" (20 mins) and "Bathing Babies in Three Cultures" (11 mins)] Mead, Margaret. 1930. Selections from Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization. New York: William Morrow (SA) Mead, Margaret. 1942. "We Are All Third Generation" and "These Things We Can Do," in And Keep Your Powder Dry. New York: William Morrow and Co. (SA) Lutkehaus, Nancy. “Margaret Mead and the ‘Rustling-of-the-wind-in-the-Palm-Trees School of Ethnographic Writing.” In WWC (RT) Week 6: Writing the Speaking Voice: Zora Neale Hurston (Feb 26) Hurston, Zora Neale. 1935. Selections from Mules and Men, pps. 1-57 New York: Harper & Row (SA) Hurston, Zora Neale. 1942. "I Get Born," "Research," "My People, My People," chapters in Dust Tracks on a Road. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott (SA) Hurston, Zora Neale. 1951. "Why the Negro Won't Buy Communism." American Legion Magazine 50: 14-15, 55-60. (SA) Hernandez, Graciela. “Multiple Subjectivities and Strategic Positionality: Zora Neale Hurston’s Experimental Ethnography.” In WWC (RT) Week 7: The Informant Writes: Ella Deloria (Mar 5) [NOTE: Midterm essays are due this week] Deloria, Ella. 1988 [1944] Waterlily. (RT) 4 Medicine, Beatrice. 1978. "Learning to be an Anthropologist and Remaining Native." In Elizabeth Eddy & William Partridge, eds., Applied Anthropology in America. New York: Columbia University Press. (SA) Finn, Janet. “Ella Cara Deloria and Mourning Dove: Writing for Cultures, Writing Against the Grain.” In WWC… (SA) Week 8: Writing Subjectivity into Social Analysis: Hortense Powdermaker (Mar 12) Powdermaker, Hortense. 1966. Selections from Stranger and Friend: The Way of an Anthropologist. New York: W.W. Norton and Co. (SA) Powdermaker, Hortense. 1944. "Preface," and "What Prejudice Does to Us," In Probing Our Prejudices: A Unit for High School Students. New York: Harper and Brothers. (SA) NO CLASS MARCH 19 ~ SPRING BREAK Week 9: Writing Emotion: Lila Abu-Lughod PART I (Mar 26) Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1986. Veiled Sentiments, pps. 1-167 (RT) Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1988. "Fieldwork of a Dutiful Daughter." In Soraya Altorki and Cammillia Fawzi El-Solh, eds., Arab Women in the Field: Studying Your Own Society. New York: Syracuse University Press. (SA) Week 10: Writing Emotion: Lila Abu-Lughod PART II (April 2) Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1986. Veiled Sentiments, pps. 168-259 (RT) Week 11: Writing the Self: Barbara Myerhoff PART I (April 9) [We will see Myerhoff's film "Number Our Days" (29 mins) in class.] Myerhoff, Barbara. 1978. Number Our Days, pps. 1-152 (RT) Frank, Gelya. “The Ethnographic Films of Barbara G. Myerhoff: Anthropology, Feminism, and the Politics of Jewish Identity.” In WWC (RT) Week 12: Writing the Self: Barbara Myerhoff PART II (April 16) Myerhoff, Barbara. 1978. Number Our Days, pps. 153-281 (RT) Week 13: Writing Lives: Ruth Behar PART I (April 23) Behar, Ruth. 1993. Translated Woman, pps. 1-164 (RT) Behar, Ruth. “Writing in My Father’s Name: A Diary of Translated Women’s First Year.” In WWC (RT) Week 14: Writing Lives: Ruth Behar PART II (April 30) Behar, Ruth. 1993. Translated Woman. pps. 169-342 (RT) Behar, Ruth. “Writing in My Father’s Name: A Diary of Translated Women’s First Year.” In WWC (RT) Final Essay Due May 7, 10am 5