ANTH 1010/UGEC1681
Humans and Culture:
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Syllabus
Fall 2016
(Version 1.0, Subject to Change)
Professor:
Dr. Matthew WEST
Lecture:
Tuesdays, 3:30 – 5:15 pm
Lecture Location:
NAH 115
Office and Office Hours:
NAH 302, TBA
Tutorials:
T01
T02
T03
T04
Tutors:
WU Ying-ching
Ruslan YUSUPOV
Please email me at [email protected] if you
have any questions, want to discuss course
concepts with me, or need to find a time outside
of office hours to talk with me!
We 10:30AM - 11:15AM
Th 10:30AM - 11:15AM
We 12:30PM - 1:15PM
TBA
T.C. Cheng Bldg 114
Tsang Shiu Tim Bldg 312
Mong Man Wai Bldg 706
Course Description
Anthropology is a discipline concerned with what it means to be human; we research
“humanity” through exotically foreign human practices no less than through those human practices
that are most familiar to us. It provides a way of seeing the world and the place(s) of humanity in it
that emphasizes holism, experiential learning, and comparison. Anthropology is as concerned with
understanding the differences between and within groups of people as it is with the similarities that
make all of us equally human. Moreover, it offers a perspective on difference that allows us to see
how some differences have been historically infused with power, resulting not just in difference, but
deep-seated inequalities. This course introduces students to the core questions, conversations, and
concepts that have driven anthropological research and whose discussions have provided valuable
insight into the human experience.
We will begin the course by introducing the emergence of anthropology as a discipline out
of colonial battles with the “Other,” the parallel emergence of explanations at the level of “the
social” rather than that of individuals, and an often contradictory compulsion to understand the
world from another person's perspective. Through an openness to the great variety of ways of being
human (and therefore of being someone's “other”), the course provides students with a deeper
understanding of anthropological research on gender, race, religion, language, politics, and
economy. In this process, I ask student less to learn a set of facts, than to master a way of seeing and
thinking about their world. I ask that students master a set of concepts and, alongside these, a
collection of examples of how these concepts can help us to better understand a wide range of issues
that we confront today. By the end of the course, students will have gained experience with some of
the techniques of anthropological research and writing as well as a critical worldview which will
help them no matter where their careers take them.
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Course Requirements
The primary method of evaluation for this class will be a single written exam on November
15. In addition to a few short answer questions, students will be asked to intelligently re-teach, in
essay form, a selection of the key frameworks and ethnographic examples we discussed throughout
the semester. Students will be tasked with finding ways and examples of their own (in addition to
using examples from course readings and lectures) to convey what they have learned in the class to
someone who has not yet taken it. While a list of possible key concepts will be distributed in
advance of the exam, the format challenges students not only to review their readings and notes to
move towards mastery of the concepts, but also to think about them in a creative way that links inclass work with the world beyond it.
Besides this exam, students will have to complete two written papers that will help them
develop their writing skills. The first involves a (fun?!) reflection on and “thick description” of an
attempt at violating a cultural norm chosen by each student. The second involves a book review,
following an example given in class, of an ethnography chosen based on the student's own interests.
Students will pay particular attention to 1) evaluating how the ethnography musters evidence to
make its ethnographic/theoretical argument and, 2) to ways that the ethnography teaches its readers
more about specific concepts covered in our class. Each of these will be worth 20% of the student's
grade and will be between 3-6 pages long. Detailed instructions will be provided in class.
Finally, I also require students to turn in their “notes” (these can be typed, written in the
margins and at the end of a photocopy, or jotted down on paper) on the week's readings. These are
due at the beginning of class each week. These should not take any additional time to prepare (no
need for “full sentences”), but will help students in transitioning to University as well as help them
in their preparations for the final exam. I will occasionally assign specific themes, questions, or
short activities to focus these reactions. These will be graded on a present (1), absent (0), or
excellent (1.1) basis and will make up half of your class participation grade. The other half of the
class participation grade will be based on the student's active (and productive) oral participation in
lecture and in tutorial section. Weekly tutorial attendance is required. Unexcused absences will be
factored into the class participation grade.
Class Participation: 20% (10% reserved for written “notes”)
Norm Violation Paper: 20%
Exam: 40%
Ethnography Book Review: 20%
Note on Academic Honesty
Students are required by university policy to submit all papers to VeriGuide (the Chinese
University Plagiarism Identification Engine System) before turning them in. Be sure that you leave
enough time to submit the paper to VeriGuide, print out the receipt, and sign it. Do not forget to sign
the receipt! There is no excuse for plagiarism. It is your responsibility as University students to
understand what counts as plagiarism and what does not. If you are ever in doubt, cite your sources.
If you borrow someone else's specific words, then put them in quotation marks (“ ”) and cite it. To
learn more on citation and plagiarism, see
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ant/tstyle.doc and
http://www.ilc.cuhk.edu.hk/english/resource/referencing_avoidingplagiarism1.pdf. For information
on how to submit papers through VeriGuide, please point your browser to
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/.
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A Last Note, on Electronic Devices
As this is a class designed for first and second year students, I require everyone to take notes
with a pen or pencil on paper. If you believe that you already know how to take notes and that you
must take notes using an electronic device, then you may come and talk to me to negotiate
permission to use that device. Generally, I have found that computers and mobile devices tend to be
much more of a distraction then a help while in class. Remember that these are not only a
distraction for your own learning, but also for your classmates. Please turn all of your devices to
silent mode and put them away so as not to disturb the class! If I do give you specific permission to
use an electronic device to take notes, remember that this permission also requires discipline. You
should not be accessing email, phone conversations, chatting, or other non course-related apps. Nor
should you be updating or checking your social media profiles or browsing the web while in lecture.
If you do not understand something in class, raise your hand and ask me! If you do not have the
discipline to focus on class, you will be asked to switch off your device and take notes with paper
and pen instead.
Note on Readings and Assignments
Required Readings are listed below the date we will discuss them. Assignments are listed
below the date they are due. Late work will be marked down one third of a letter grade per day late
(an A paper will get an A- if turned in up to 24 hours late or a B+ if turned in within 48 hours of the
deadline). No assignments will be accepted more than 3 days late except under emergency
circumstances. You MUST speak with the professor as soon as possible if you think this applies to
you.
If you find yourself particularly intrigued by a topic, I have also included in the syllabus a
couple of supplementary readings to take you further (in italics). You should also feel free to consult
some of the introductory Cultural Anthropology textbooks in our library (for instance, Haviland,
William A. et al. 2011. Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge. 13 th Edition. Cengage) and
online resources when you find terms or groups of people/places that you do not recognize. This is
not cheating, it is smart University-level reading! Coming to class prepared will enable you to get
more out of the lecture, ask me (or your tutor) questions when you do not understand something,
answer questions when I ask them of you, and, overall, more fully participate in the discussions. I
want to hear each of your voices to get to know what you think!
1. September 6: What is Anthropology?
(Ethnocentrism; How might we make the Familiar Unfamiliar and vice versa?)
Calvino, Italo. The Flash. [Read in class]
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of A Single Story” [in class, finish at home]
2. September 13: The Other and Ourselves: Anthropology's Colonial Emergence
(The Other; What about diversity within groups and movement between groups?)
E. Evans Pritchard. The Nuer. “Introduction” (3-15).
Lee, Richard Borshay. [1969.] “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari.” In Elvio Angeloni ed.,
Annual Editions, 32nd Edition. (Pp. 10-13). New York: McGraw Hill.
Supplemental Readings:
Malinowski, Bronislaw. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. “Forward” and “Introduction: The
Subject, Method, and Scope of this Inquiry.” http://wolnelektury.pl/katalog/lektura/argonauts-ofthe-western-pacific.html
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“Off the Verandah” (Video on Malinowski's Fieldwork and Writings)
Pinkoski, Marc. 2008. “Julian Steward, American Anthropology, and Colonialism.”
Histories of Anthropology Annual 4:172-204.
Uperesa, Lisa. June 7, 2016. “A Decolonial Turn in Anthropology? A View from the
Pacific.” http://savageminds.org/2016/06/07/a-decolonial-turn-in-anthropology-a-viewfrom-the-pacific/#more-19841
3. September 20: Biology, The Human, and Race as Product of Culture
(Race vs. Ethnicity; Coeval; How can a mere cultural construction be so powerful?)
Fish, Jefferson. “Mixed Blood.” Psychology Today. (1-9).
https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199511/mixed-blood.
Yasukawa, Olivia and Tom Page. 2016. “After 20,000 years, the world's oldest people face a
crisis of culture.” CNN, August 24. Published online at
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/24/travel/basarwa-botswana-culture-crisis/index.html
Supplemental Readings:
Tyler, Sir Edward Burnett. 1871. “The Science of Culture.” In McGee and Warms ed.
Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. 41-55.
Boas, Franz. 1932. “The Aims of Anthropological Research.” 243-259.
Pierpont, Claudia Roth. 2004. “The Measure of America: How a rebel anthropologist waged
war on racism.” The New Yorker. 1-21.
López, Haney. “The Social Construction of Race” (1-62).
“Cheri's Camo Confession” Youtube clip [in class]
State of the ReUnion: Podcast, “Pike County, Ohio: As Black As We Wish To Be.”
Norm Violation Project Assigned.
4. September 27: Gender, Power, and Culture
(Sex vs. Gender; Are genders universal?)
Zevallos, Zuleyka. 2013. “Rethinking Gender and Sexuality: Case Study of the Native
American 'Two Spirit' People.” http://othersociologist.com/2013/09/09/two-spiritpeople/ (Pp. 1-12).
Louie, Kam and Louise Edwards. 1994. “Chinese Masculinity: Theorising 'Wen' and' Wu'.”
(135-148, ~ 8 pages selected).
Supplemental Readings:
Mead, Margaret. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. Part III. (279-322).
Martin, Emily. “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science has constructed a romance based on
stereotypical male-female roles.” Signs 16(3):485-501.
PBS, IndependentLens, “Two Spirits.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZDx9JQUGB0
(clip)
http://www.livinganthropologically.com/2012/05/16/anthropology-sex-gender-sexualitysocial-constructions/
5. October 4: Culture: Writing “the Field”
(Culture, Symbols, Thick Description; If culture is a lived, changing process,
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then how can we write it so it stays that way?)
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.” In
The Interpretation of Cultures, Pp. 5-10. New York: Basic Books.
Spradley, James P. 1980 [2016]. “Ethnography and Culture,” In McCurdy et al. Eds.,
Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 15 Edition, Pp. 6-12.
Boston: Pearson.
Supplemental Readings:
Jacobson, David. 1991. Reading Ethnography. (1-26).
6. October 11: The Trobrianders of PNG (Ethnographic Taste I)
(Ethnography, Worldview, Holism; System vs. Individuals, Complex Inequality)
Weiner, Annette. 1987. The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea. (1, 4-7, 9, 12-15, 111-123,
139-157).
Supplemental Readings:
Weiner, Annette. 1987. The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea.
Video: [Onka's Big Moka]
7. October 18: Dangerous Gifts, Culture, and “Economies”
(Gift vs. Commodity Economies; Relations and Obligations)
Mauss, Marcel. [1925]. The Gift: Expanded Edition. Jane Guyer, Trans. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, Hau Books. Selections (~9 pages).
Supplemental Readings:
Gregory, Chris A. 1982. Gifts and Commodities, Second Edition. Chicago: Hau Books.
http://haubooks.org/gifts-and-commodities/
Carrier, James. 2005. Gifts and Commodities: Exchange and Western Capitalism Since
1700. New York: Routledge.
Norm Violation Project Due.
8. October 25: Kinship, Culture, Politics, and Power
(Kin and Relatedness, Blood and Beyond Blood)
Stafford, Charles. 2000. “Chinese Patriliny and the cycles of yang and laiwang.” In Janet
Carston ed., Cultures of Relatedness: New Approaches to the Study of Kinship, Pp. 3754. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Supplemental Readings:
Hutchinson, Sharon Elaine. 2000. “Identity and Substance: The Broadening Bases of
Relatedness Among the Nuer of Southern Sudan.” In Janet Carston ed., Cultures of
Relatedness: New Approaches to the Study of Kinship, Pp. 55-72. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Carsten, Janet. 2004. After Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Ethnography Book Review Assigned.
9. November 1: Language and Culture
(Language Ideology, Speech Communities; How does language shape and get shaped
by culture/communities?)
Cameron, Claire. 2015. “5 Languages That Could Change the Way You See the World.”
Nautilus, March 3, Published online at http://nautil.us/blog/5-languages-that-couldchange-the-way-you-see-the-world.
Bolton, Kingsley and Christopher Hutton. “Bad Boys and Bad Language: Chou Hau and the
Sociolinguistics of Swearwords in Hong Kong Cantonese.” In Grant Evans, Maria SiuMi Tam, and eds., Hong Kong: The Anthropology of a Chinese Metropolis, Pp. 299-332
(selections).
Supplemental Readings:
Whorf, Benjamin. “The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language.” (134159).
Austin, John L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. (1-11, 94-108).
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By.
Ochs, Elinor and Bambi Schieffelin. 1994. “Language Acquisition and Socialization: Three
Developmental Stories and Their Implications.” (470-504).
Hill, Jane. 1998. “Language, Race, and White Public Space.” American Anthropologist
100(3):680-689.
Billings, Sabrina. 2009. “Speaking beauties: Linguistic posturing, language inequality, and
the construction of a Tanzanian beauty queen.” Language in Society 38:581 – 606.
MacNeil, Robert. Do You Speak American? PBS Episodes 1, 2, or 3.
[Video on Nicaraguan Sign Language, ask Prof. West if interested.]
10. November 8: Religion, Culture, Ritual and Community
(Ritual, Rationalities, Secularism; Is the world becoming secular? Why do people do
religion, rituals today?)
Evans-Pritchard, E. “The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events.” Witchcraft,
Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande. (63-83). (selections, ~12 pages)
Abu Lughod, Lila. 2002. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?Anthropological
Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others” American Anthropologist 104(3):783790. (selections, ~7 columns)
Supplemental Readings:
Turner, Victor. 1969. “Liminality and Communitas.” in The Ritual Process: Structure and
Anti-Structure. (94-131).
Watanabe, John M. 1990. “From saints to shibboleths: image, structure, and identity in Maya
religious syncretism.” American Ethnologist, 17: (131–150.)
Hoodfar, Homa. 1992. “The Veil in their Minds and on our Heads: The Persistence of
Colonial Images of Muslim Women.” Resources for Feminist Research 22(3/4): 5-18.
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11. November 15: Exam
12. November 22: Coffee, Yams, Organics, and a Return to PNG (Ethnographic Taste II)
(Multi-sited Ethnography, Global Capitalism; How do we do ethnography in the face
of globalization, colonialism, global capitalism, and seemingly borderless cultures?)
West, Paige. 2012. “From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The Social World of
Coffee from Papua New Guinea.” Durham: Duke University Press. (selections)
13. November 29: Globalization
(Localization, Globalization from Below; How can we “see” power in global
movements of people, money, knowledge, and things?)
Ehrenreich, Barbara and Arlie Russel Hoschcild. “Global Women in the New Economy.” In
McCurdy et al. Eds., Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 15
Edition, Pp. 326-334. Boston: Pearson.
Ethnography Book Review Due.
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