Download introduction to cultural anthropology

FALL 2012
OBERLIN COLLEGE
ANTHROPOLOGY 101

 INTRODUCTION
TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 

“MAN IS AN ANIMAL SUSPENDED IN WEBS OF SIGNIFICANCE HE HIMSELF HAS SPUN.”—
CLIFFORD GEERTZ, THE INTERPRETATION OF CULTURE (1973)
BUILDING KING | ROOM 323 | TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS, 11AM-1215PM
~
PROFESSOR CRYSTAL BIRUK
KING 320B
[email protected]
OFFICE HOURS: TUESDAYS, 1PM-4PM AND BY APPT.
~
Course Description |
An introduction to cultural anthropology through examination of concepts, methods, and
theories that anthropologists employ to understand the unity and diversity of human
thought, action, and sociality across cultures. Language and culture, kinship and the
family, politics and conflict, religion and belief, and economy and exchange are among
the analytics that guide our thinking. Across a range of ethnographic contexts, we grapple
with how globalization, and social change more broadly impact not only social processes
but also anthropological theory and method.
This course will introduce you to cultural anthropology. We begin with the historical
foundations of the discipline and then follow a few thematic strands of anthropological
inquiry. In this course, you will have the opportunity to read recent ethnographies and
learn to appreciate the methods and genre of writing that define the discipline. In reading
these texts, we will pay careful attention not only to the stories they tell about diverse
cultural groups, but also the politics and ethics of their production, their knowledge
claims, and their innovations. We will “visit” a wide range of geographic locations across
the globe, and encounter diverse cultural groups including: homeless heroin injectors in
US urban centers, traditional healers in South Africa, hijras in South India, and ravers
who attend all-night parties on the beaches of Goa, India. Of course, I hope that this
course inspires you to major in anthropology, but, at the very least, I trust it will grant
you an enduring anthropological perspective.
Couse Goals |
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Students will: 1) Understand the core methods and concepts that anthropologists use to
interpret social phenomena; 2) Become familiar with controversies, challenges, and major
issues faced by anthropology today; 3) Apply theoretical and methodological tools
learned in class to real-world issues, current events, and everyday life; 4) Cultivate good
research and writing skills (i.e., an ability to locate and utilize library resources to make a
strong argument); 5) Appreciate the value of a cosmopolitan and open-minded
anthropological worldview; and 6) Have fun!
Books |
*Adam Ashforth. (2000). Madumo: A Man Bewitched.
*Philippe Bourgois. (2009). Righteous Dopefiend.
*Gayatri Reddy. (2005). With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India.
*All other course readings are available in PDF form on Blackboard under “Library
Readings.”
Course Requirements |
*
Class participation + periodic pop quizzes: 20 %
*
Anthropology in the real world essays (#1, #2, #3): 30 %
*
Kinship diagram and analysis: 20 %
*
Topic paragraph and list of 5 academic sources, Final paper, and
in-class presentation: 30 %
Class participation + periodic pop quizzes \
| You should come to class having read the readings listed for that class meeting. You
should be actively engaged in class lectures, group activities, and discussions at all times.
The instructor reserves the right to administer periodic “pop quizzes” that draw on
material covered in class sessions. These provide you insight into your grasp of the
material and enable to instructor to gauge student difficulties with material. Students
should attend all class meetings. Three unexcused absences will result in a failing grade.
Students are responsible for all assignments, instructions, lecture notes, and so on they
may miss during an absence. Absences will only be excused when students have so
requested or notified the instructor IN ADVANCE of the session in question. Absences
will also be excused with a valid doctor’s note testifying to illness on the day in question.
Students may communicate with the instructor about missed classes by email or in
person.
| Make an effort to attend office hours once within the first month of class. This will help
me get to know you.
Assignments |
* Assignment | Anthropology in the real world essays
Due | October 2 (#1), November 8 (#2), December 4 (#3)
Description | Part of being a good anthropologist is staying informed about everyday
happenings; these assignments will help cultivate your anthropological “alertness.” In
each of three short papers, you will apply your growing knowledge of anthropological
concepts to the “real world.” Write a 2-3-page paper in which you interpret an “object” of
your choice through the lens of concepts and insights from the readings or class
discussion. Your object can be anything at all: a popular song, a performance you attend,
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a film, a news story, an art exhibit, or an advertisement. (Google Alerts might be a useful
tool to “alert” you to relevant items in the news or on the Web). Examples: one might
consider a news story about gay marriage alongside our readings on kinship; one might
analyze the Olympic opening or closing ceremonies through the lens of “ritual;” one
might consider the class, gendered, or racialized assumptions inherent in advertisements
for a popular product, and so on. Your objective is to illustrate to me that you can use
core course concepts to interpret social phenomena and objects. The general topic for
each paper and due date follows:
1. “The Gift and Gifts,” Due October 2
2.
“Race, class, and social stratification,” Due November 8
3. “Gender and sexuality,” Due December 4
* Assignment | Kinship Diagram and Analysis
Due | Kinship Diagram due October 11 in class
Due | Kinship Diagram + Analysis (3 pages) due October 18 in class
Description | You will generate a kinship diagram of an individual of your choice, then
share your findings with a group of other students in the class. To collect your “data,”
arrange an interview (with a friend, community member, teammate, classmate,
roommate, etc…) in which you collect the information necessary to construct and
describe the diagram. (More details forthcoming). Bring the diagram to class with you
on October 11. You will turn in your kinship diagram along with a 3-page analysis that
discusses your findings, insights, and what you learned about contemporary kinship
practices through the comparison with diagrams constructed by the other members of
your group on October 18.
* Assignment | Topic Paragraph, List of 5 Academic Sources, Final Research Paper
(10 pages) and In-class Presentation
a) Topic Paragraph + List of 5 Academic Sources
Due | Tuesday, October 30
Description | Submit a single paragraph that states the group that will be the topic of
your final paper, some preliminary information on the group, and why you are interested
in learning more about this group. In addition, submit a list of 5 academic sources that
you will use in your research on the group. Academic sources can include books
available at the library, e-books, and journal articles available through e-resources via the
library webpage. Anthrosource is a particularly relevant e-resource for this assignment.
Through Anthrosource, you can access many anthropological journals such as Cultural
Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Ethnos, Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute, Medical Anthropology, and so on.
b) Final Research Paper (10 pages)
Due | Tuesday, December 18 at 5pm via email to instructor ([email protected])
Description | You should choose a cultural group that is of interest to you and that is
represented in the anthropological literature. You may elect to focus on a group of
people anywhere in the world, but you must be able to argue that they comprise a
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“cultural group” and find enough ethnographic sources to answer the assigned questions
about the group. Obvious entry points into this assignment are ethnic groups (i.e. the San
of southern Africa, the Maasai of east Africa, or the Fore of Papua New Guinea), but you
may also choose to study a sub-cultural group if you prefer (such as men who have sex
with men in South Africa, diasporic communities in New York City, or anarchists). In ten
pages, you should address the following questions about your chosen group:
1) Who are they? Where do they live? What narratives do they tell about
themselves? On what bases can they be viewed as a single, cultural group of
people? How do they reproduce their belief systems and worldviews? How has
contact (or conflict) with other groups altered or strengthened the group’s
cohesion? What “norms” characterize this group?
2) What changes has the group undergone amid globalization? What challenges and
prospects do they face as a group? How has the group adapted (or not) to
changing economic, social, technological, environmental, or other conditions?
3) How have anthropologists studied the group? What questions have they asked and
what findings have they circulated? What challenges have anthropologists faced
or will they face in studying the group? How have anthropologists’ approaches to
the group changed over time (if relevant)? What is the nature of the relations
between anthropologists and this group?
4) How has the group been represented in popular media or other sources (e.g. New
Yorker, New York Times, NPR programs, travel sites, Wikipedia, National
Geographic, museums, performance art, activists’ statements or publications)?
What possibilities and constraints do these circulating representations afford the
group? How might they contest or embrace these representations?
c) In-class Presentation
Due | I will circulate a sign up sheet for a slot during the last few classes.
Description | You will give a short oral presentation to your classmates. You should
connect one of the major findings from your research to one of the concepts or themes
discussed in class or the readings. As we are a large class, each presenter will be given a
strict time limit (TBA). You should practice timing your presentation ahead of time to
ensure you meet the time limit.
Policies |
Honor Code |
At the end of each academic exercise students shall write in full the Honor Pledge: "I
affirm that I have adhered to the Honor Code in this assignment." It is assumed that all
students are familiar with the Oberlin College honor code and honor system. Plagiarism
is unacceptable. If you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism or how to
properly cite sources, refer to a style manual (APA, available online) or seek advice at the
library or writing center. You can review the Honor Code at:
http://new.oberlin.edu/students/policies/11-Policies-Honor.pdf
Office of Disability Services |
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If you have a disability that may influence your performance in the course, please inform
me no later than the second week of class so we can make appropriate accommodations.
For more information, visit the Office of Disability Services, Peters Hall G27-28 or
phone (440) 775-5588 or visit http://new.oberlin.edu/office/disability-services/.
Other |
| I will make my best effort to respond to emails within 24 hours. That said, awaiting my
response is never an excuse for not completing assignments described on the syllabus.
| Be sure you are receiving emails; I recommend checking your spam folder frequently.
| All mobile phones, iPods, pagers, and so on should be turned off during class.
| Although laptops can prove to be useful learning tools, I prefer that you not use them
inappropriately during class. If you plan to use a laptop, please sit where others in the
classroom will not be distracted by your screen. Avoid using Facebook, Twitter, chat
functions, and so on during class. If I notice inappropriate or overuse of technology
during class, I reserve the right to “call you out” and to ban laptop use at any point during
the semester.
A note on written assignments |
All written assignments should be submitted in 12-point Times New Roman font, doublespaced, with standard one-inch margins and in APA style format. Submit assignments in
class upon arrival on the stated due date, with the exception of the final research paper
which must be submitted via email to the instructor. If you are absent from class on the
day that an assignment is due, you must email the instructor the assignment by the start
of class that day (11am) to avoid deductions for lateness.
One objective of this course is to cultivate your research, analytic, and writing skills.
Each of the papers you write should make a clear argument and enlist evidence/sources
that are properly cited at the end of the paper in APA format. The assignments you
submit should be polished and articulate. If needed, you should visit the Writing Center
on campus for assistance. Similarly, for help with finding and accessing appropriate
academic/anthropological sources, please make a research appointment with a reference
librarian (http://www.oberlin.edu/library/reference/resappts.html).
Final note |
This course might be seen as a rite of passage or initial socialization into the “tribe” of
anthropologists. As we know, socialization is not always easy or painless.
Anthropologists know very well that their project to “make the strange familiar, and the
familiar strange” may require moving outside one’s comfort zone. As such, you may find
some of the concepts, readings, or lectures difficult or foreign. Do not despair! This is
normal in an introductory course. Feel free to visit office hours at any time.
Course Schedule
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Part 1: Core Concepts
Tuesday, September 4 | Introductions
Thursday, September 6 | What is “culture?”
*Clyde Kluckhohn. (1949). “Queer customs,” in Mirror for Man: The Relation of
Anthropology to Modern Life.
*Horace Miner. (1956). “Body ritual among the Nacirema.” American Anthropologist
58:503-507.
*Laura Bohannan. (1966). “Shakespeare in the Bush.” Natural History.
Tuesday, September 11 | Collecting culture/ Field notes
*B. Malinowski. (1922). “Introduction,” in Argonauts of the Western Pacific. (pp. 1-25).
*Philippe Bourgois. (2009). “Introduction,” Righteous Dopefiend (pp.1-24).
Thursday, September 13 | What is (hu)man?
*Clifford Geertz. (1973). “The impact of the concept of culture on the concept of man,”
in The Interpretation of Cultures (pp. 33-54).
Part 2: Exchange and Reciprocity
Tuesday, September 18 | Gifts and poison
*Marcel Mauss. (1923). Chapters I, IV ("Gifts and the obligation to return gifts,"
and "Conclusions") of The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic
societies.
*Lee Cronk. (1989). “Reciprocity and the power of giving.” (pp. 164-169).
I have also posted chapter II of The Gift, "Distribution of the system: generosity, honor,
and money.” This reading is optional.
Thursday, September 20 | Gifts and commodities
*Bronislaw Malinowski. (1922). “The essentials of the Kula,” Argonauts of the Western
Pacific (pp. 81-104).
*Karen Tranberg Hansen. (2004). “Helping or hindering?: Controversies around the
international second-hand clothing trade,” Anthropology Today 20(4):3-9.
*Larissa MacFarquhar. 2009. “The kindest cut: Giving a kidney to a stranger,” New
Yorker (pp.38-51).
Tuesday, September 25 | Kinship as social glue
*Claude Levi-Strauss. (1949). “Endogamy and exogamy,” in The Elementary Structures
of Kinship (pp. 42-51).
*”Incest, exogamy, and alliance,” in Cultural Anthropology: A Contemporary
Perspective.” (pp.228-233).
Thursday, September 27 | Queering Kinship
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*Real World Paper #1 Due (Bring a hard copy to class)
*E. Teman. (2003). “The medicalization of ‘nature’ in the ‘artificial body:’ Surrogate
motherhood in Israel.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 17(1):78-98.
*New York Times. (2012). “Same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic
partnerships.”
*Rachel L. Swarns. (2012). Gay couples face pressure to have children. New York Times.
Part 3: Healing, ritual, religion
Tuesday, October 2 | Ritual and liminality
*Victor Turner. (1963). “Liminality and communitas,” pp. 358-373.
*George Gmelch. (1992). “Baseball Magic,” pp. 1-5.
Thursday, October 4 | Library Research Day (more info, TBA)
Tuesday, October 9 | Illness narratives and etiologies
Madumo: A Man Bewitched, chapters 1-4, pp.1-55.
Thursday, October 11 | The modernity of witchcraft
*Kinship Diagram Due (Bring a hard copy to class)
Madumo: A Man Bewitched, chapters 5-8, pp. 55-108.
Tuesday, October 16 | Medical pluralism/ Patients & healers
Madumo: A Man Bewitched, chapters 9-14, pp. 121-183.
Thursday, October 18 | Bodies and uncertainty
*Kinship Diagram and Analysis Due
Madumo: A Man Bewitched, chapters 15-20, pp. 183-255 (note: you may wish to
complete this reading assignment over fall break).
Tuesday, October 23 + Thursday, October 25: Fall Break | NO CLASSES
Part 4: Race, Class, and Social Stratification
Tuesday, October 30 | Doing race and class
Topic Paragraph and List of Five Sources for Final Paper Due (Bring a hard copy
to class)
*John Jackson. (2001). “Doing Harlem, Touring Harlemworld,” and “Birthdays,
basketball, and breaking bread: Negotiating with class in contemporary black
America,” in Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black
America (pp. 1-15, 88-122).
Thursday, November 1 | Intimate apartheid: Fear and vulnerability in urban space
Righteous Dopefiend, pp. 25-79.
*New York Times. (January 20, 2011). “City Room: The state of the city, block by
block,” New York Times.
*BBC. (April 16, 2002). “Have you experienced crime in South Africa?”
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Tuesday, November 6 | Survival strategies: Moral economies, sharing, and
reciprocity
Righteous Dopefiend, pp. 79-117 and 147-183
Film: The Wire, season and episode TBA
Thursday, November 8 | Escaping addiction/ Applied anthropology
*Real World Paper #2 Due (Bring a hard copy to class)
Righteous Dopefiend, pp. 271-320
Part 5: Gender and Sexuality in a Transnational World
Tuesday, November 13 | Sex and intersections
Gayatri Reddy. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India, chapters 1
& 2, pp.1-44
Thursday, November 15 | Sexing bodies and selves
Instructor out of town, more later
With Respect to Sex, chapters 3 & 4, pp. 44-99
Film: Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990), 78 minutes.
Tuesday, November 20 | Producing gender, performing relatedness
With Respect to Sex, chapters 6 & 7, pp. 121-186
Thursday, November 22 | NO CLASSES: THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Tuesday, November 27 | Transnational sexual politics
With Respect to Sex, chapters 9 &10, pp. 211-232.
Part 6: Selected Contemporary Issues in Anthropology
Thursday, November 29 | Where the wild things are: The anthropology of tourism
*John Urry. (1990/2002). ”The Tourist Gaze,” in The Tourist Gaze, pp. 1-16.
*Arun Saldanha. (2007). “ethnography as thought,” “Tripping on India,” “The politics of
location,” “Dealing with the third world,” in Psychedelic White. University
of Minnesota Press, pp. 1-10, 28-44, 132-144, 167-177.
Tuesday, December 4 | Doing good: The anthropology of aid and development
*Real World Paper #3 Due (Bring a hard copy to class)
*Peter Redfield. (2012). “The unbearable lightness of Expats: Double binds of
humanitarian mobility.” Cultural Anthropology 27(2): 358-382.
*Ivan Illich. (1968). “To Hell with Good Intentions,” address delivered to the
Conference on Inter-American Student Projects.
*Christopher Shay. (2009). “Should anthropologists go to war?” Time Magazine.
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Thursday, December 6 | Student Presentations
Tuesday, December 11 | Student Presentations
Thursday, December 13 | Student Presentations
Tuesday, December 18 | Final Research Paper Due by 5pm via email to instructor
([email protected])
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