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As of 25 January 2017
PRINCIPLES OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTH2010
SPRING 2017
MATTHEW GUTMANN, instructor
Th 4-6:20 P.M., Feinstein 104
Office hours: W + Th 2-3, Watson 318; phone: 3-7732
<[email protected]>
This course is a seminar exploring fundamental theoretical and ethnographic
currents in (late modern) twentieth-century cultural anthropology. We will roughly
pick up from where ANTH2000 left off: from 1950s on, and with more emphasis on
Anthropology in the United States than Europe. Would that I were allowed to assign
readings in Spanish, French, Portuguese, or any other language other than English!
Prerequisites: This seminar is open to first year graduate students in anthropology
and others with written permission of the instructor.
Requirements: Prior to meeting each week, selected students will write a five-page
critical response paper on the reading(s). The papers should focus on the required
readings for the week. At the beginning of the Thursday class, one of these students
will be randomly selected to read her or his paper. Another student who has not
prepared a paper for that particular week will be picked at random and asked to
comment on the paper and to open the seminar for general discussion. Then all
students will join in the discussion. By the end of the semester each student will
have written four of these papers. Finally, the word “interesting” is banned from
this seminar.
By University rules, I am required to remind you that you are required to spend a
minimum of 180 hours in classroom, readings, and writings for this course.
Grades will be based on essays as well as class participation.
Books at Amazon. Online readings on OCRA: password ANTH2010; and Canvas.
Required books
1. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques.
2. Jason de León, The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail.
3. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in
Brazil.
Reference material (rely on dictionary and encyclopedia entries at your peril…)
Thomas Barfield, The Dictionary of Anthropology.
Alan Barnard + Jonathan Spencer, Encyclopedia of Social + Cultural Anthropology
(available online through Josiah).
H. James Birx, Encyclopedia of Anthropology (available online through Josiah).
Tim Ingold, Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology (available online through
Josiah).
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26 January: Introduction
Theoretical aims of class—Mechanics of class—Writing assignments
2 February: Theoretical Concerns
Required readings:
Franz Boas, “On Alternating Sounds” (available online).
Catherine Lutz, “The Gender of Theory”(available online).
Sherry Ortner, “Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties” (available online).
Américo Paredes, “On Ethnographic Work among Minority Groups” (available
online).
Recommended readings:
Henrietta Moore + Todd Sanders, Anthropology in Theory: Issues in Epistemology.
Sherry Ortner, Anthropology + Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting
Subject.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen + Finn Sivert Nielsen, A History of Anthropology.
Paul A. Erickson + Liam D. Murphy, A History of Anthropological Theory.
9 February: Salvaging Savage Minds
Required reading:
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques: esp. chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 9-13, 17-20, 21,
24-30, 32, 36, 38.
Recommended readings:
Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind; Structural Anthropology.
Marshall Sahlins, Culture + Practical Reason.
16 February: Scientific Breakdowns
Required reading:
Mary Douglas, “Abominations of Leviticus” (available online).
Marvin Harris, “Pig Lovers + Pig Haters” (available online).
Marshall Sahlins, “The Future of the National Teach-In” (available online).
Recommended readings:
Mary Douglas, Purity + Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution + Taboo.
Marvin Harris, Cows, Pigs, Wars, + Witches: The Riddles of Culture.
George Stocking, ed., Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Biological Anthropology.
Victor Turner, Ritual Process: Structure + Anti-structure.
23 February: Hermeneutical Heresies
Required readings:
Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description,” “Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” “Anti antirelativism” (available online).
Edward Said, “Orientalism Reconsidered,” “On Defiance and Taking
Positions”(available online).
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Recommended readings:
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures; Works + Lives: The Anthropologist
as Author; After the Fact: Two Countries, Four Decades, One Anthropologist.
Paul Rabinow, Essays on the Anthropology of Reason.
Michelle Rosaldo, Knowledge + Passion.
Edward Said, Orientalism; Culture + Imperialism.
2 March: Theories of Value
Required readings:
John Comaroff, “The End of Anthropology, Again: On the Future of an
In/Discipline” (available online).
Sidney Mintz, “Food, Sociality, + Sugar,” “Eating + Being” (two chapters, available
online).
Eric Wolf, From “Introduction” to Europe + the People Without History + “Facing
Power” (two different essays, available online).
Recommended readings:
John Gledhill, Power + Its Disguises: Anthropological Perspectives on Politics.
John + Jean Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism, +
Consciousness in South Africa (2 vols); Ethnography + the Historical
Imagination.
Karl Marx, “Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.”
Sidney Mintz, Sweetness + Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History.
Eric Wolf, Europe + the People without History.
9 March: Gender/Sexuality
Required readings:
Judith Butler, “Performative Acts + Gender Constitution: An Essay in
Phenomenology + Feminist Theory” (available online).
Claudia Fonseca: “Philanderers, Cuckolds, + Wily Women” (available online).
Michel Foucault, “We ‘Other Victorians,’” “The Repressive Hypothesis,” “Right of
Death + Power over Life” (available online).
Sherry Ortner, “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” (available online).
Recommended readings:
Judith Butler, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex; Gender Trouble:
Feminism + the Subversion of Identity.
Michel Foucault, Discipline + Punish: The Birth of the Prison; History of Sexuality
(3 vols); Madness and Civilization: A History of Madness in the Age of Reason.
Faye Ginsburg + Rayna Rapp, eds., Conceiving the New World Order.
Kath Weston, “Lesbian/Gay Studies in the House of Anthropology.”
16 March: Practice + Essentialism
Required reading:
Lila Abu-Lughod, “Writing Against Culture”(available online).
Pierre Bourdieu, “The Practice of Reflexive Sociology (The Paris Workshop)” +
“Understanding” (available online).
Aihwa Ong, “(Re)articulations of Citizenship” (available online).
Renato Rosaldo, “Subjectivity in Social Analysis” (available online).
ANTH2010 Principles of Cultural Anthropology – Spring 2017
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Recommended readings:
Lila Abu-Lughod, Do Muslim Women Need Saving?; Writing Women’s Worlds:
Bedouin Stories.
Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice; Distinction: A Social Critique of
the Judgment of Taste; The Logic of Practice.
Aihwa Ong, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality;
Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship + Sovereignty.
Renato Rosaldo, Culture + Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis.
23 March: Ethnography as Witnessing
Required reading:
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, from Death Without Weeping: Intro, chapters 1, 4, 5, 8, 9.
SKYPE WITH AUTHOR, 5:00-5:30.
Recommended readings:
Ruth Behar + Deborah Gordon, Women Writing Culture.
James Clifford + George Marcus, Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of
Ethnography.
George Stocking, ed., Observers Observed: Essays on Ethnographic Fieldwork.
6 April: Bodily Beings
Required reading:
Jason de León, Land of Open Graves.
SKYPE WITH AUTHOR, 5:00-5:30.
Recommended readings:
Marcia Inhorn, Cosmopolitan Conceptions: IVF Sojourns in Global Dubai.
Margaret Lock, Encounters with Aging: Mythologies of Menopause in Japan and
North America.
Nancy Scheper-Hughes + Loïc Wacquant, eds., Commodifying Bodies.
13 April: Ethnic/Racial Formations
Required readings:
Fredrik Barth, “Introduction” to Ethnic Groups + Boundaries (available online).
Marisol de la Cadena, “Are Mestizos Hybrids?” (available online).
Stanley Tambiah, “Ethnic Conflict in the World Today” (available online).
Deborah Thomas + M. Kamiri Clarke, “Globalization + Race: Structures of
Inequality, New Sovereignties, + Citizenship in a Neoliberal Era” (available
online).
Recommended readings:
Fredrik Barth, Ethnic Groups + Boundaries.
Marisol de la Cadena, Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race + Culture in Cuzco,
Peru, 1919-1991; Earth Beings: Ecologies of Practice across Andean Worlds.
Deborah Thomas, Exceptional Violence: Embodied Citizenship in Transnational
Jamaica; Modern Blackness: Nationalism, Globalization + the Politics of Culture
in Jamaica.
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Stanley Tambiah, Leveling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflicts + Collective Violence
in South Asia.
20 April: Is Nature French?
Required readings:
Philippe Descola, “Modes of Being + Forms of Predication” (available online).
Bruno Latour, “Another Way to Compose the Common World,” (available online).
Recommended readings:
Philippe Descola, Beyond Nature + Culture; The Ecology of Others.
Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern; Reassembling the Social: An
Introduction into Actor-Network-Theory.
27 April: What Anthropology Has to Offer
Required reading:
Philippe Bourgois, “Anthropology + Epidemiology on Drugs: The Challenges of
Cross-Methodological + Theoretical Dialogue” (available online).
Veena Das, “Violence, Gender, + Subjectivity”(available online).
Paul Farmer, “Anthropology of Structural Violence” (available online).
Kimberly Theidon, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Children Born of Wartime Sexual
Violence” (available online).
Recommended readings:
Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.
Philippe Bourgois + Jeffrey Schonberg, Righteous Dopefiend.
Vena Das, Affliction: Health, Disease, Poverty; Life and Words: Violence + the
Descent into the Ordinary.
Paul Farmer, Infections + Inequalities: The Modern Plagues; Pathologies of Power:
Health, Human Rights, + the New War on the Poor.
Kimberly Theidon, Intimate Enemies: Violence + Reconciliation in Peru.