Introduction to Cultural Anthropology- Fall 2011
Department of Anthropology
University of Texas
Instructor: Mubbashir Rizvi
Email: [email protected]
Office hours: M, W 12-1 PM
Class Meets: Monday & Wednesday 1:00 – 2:00
Room: UTC 3.112
Teaching Assistants
Maria Garcia
[email protected]
Sections: 30860, Thursday 8-9 am.
30875 Thursday 4- 5 pm.
Office Hours: Thursday 9:30-10:30
2:00-3:00 pm
Alisa Perkins
[email protected]
Sections: 30870 Monday 2-3 pm.
30865 Tuesday 1-2 pm.
Office Hours: TBA
Course Description
A central preoccupation of Cultural Anthropology is the study of how people
understand themselves and the world around them through culture. The British critic
Raymond Williams referred to 'Culture' as that all encompassing term that fuses
things together as much as it confuses. To study culture is to study the production of
meaning, symbols, language, rituals, and metaphors.
In this course we will study how cultural norms, habits and practices shape the way
humans see the world. How do people interpret and grapple with cultural differences
in their daily lives? How do categories of race, gender, ethnicity and class affect
social life in different parts of the world? How do identities based on religion,
family, ethnicity and nation create a sense of close community between people who
never meet in person? And, what do our ordinary habits, like eating fast food at
McDonald's, say about contemporary American culture? Looking at the picture
above we might also want to guess at what the famous golden arches mean to the
urban poor in Karachi?
The goal of this course is to help you interpret cultural differences as well as to bring
a critical lens to our everyday assumptions about people, places and ourselves.
Ethnographic articles, monographs and films will be used introduce topics, case
studies, and we will draw comparative analyses of different cultures and
communities.
Course Objectives
1. To familiarize students with the founding concepts, methods and debates in the
discipline.
2. To develop critical analysis of how culture, as system(s) of meaning, constructs our
everyday life.
3. To generate an appreciation for cultural diversity.
4. To highlight the connections between the students lives to other places and
processes in the world.
5. To understand the role of power in creating systems of hierarchy and oppression
both locally and globally.
Note: The syllabus is an outline and not a contract. The Instructor reserves the right to
change and update the syllabus at any time.
Required Texts:
Nanda, Serena & Warms, Richard 2008, Culture Counts. A Concise Introduction
to Cultural Anthropology. Wadsworth.
Schlosser, E. 2001, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
Houghton Miflin.
Course Packet: Articles in Reader. (Available at Speedway Copiers in Dobie).
Course Requirements
1. Regular attendance in lectures and discussion sections. Please keep your cell phones
and internet off as common courtesy to your colleagues and instructor. Laptops are
permitted for note taking but you might be asked to leave the lecture hall if you are
caught browsing the web.
2. Reading the assigned material in a timely fashion. The readings will be available in
a course packet available at Speedway Copiers in Dobie Mall. You are responsible
for the reading for each section. Your participation in the discuss sections will
indicate your level of engagement with the text. We highly recommend you to take
an active role in discussions. All students are required to submit discussion leading
questions for three discussion sections. You will email your questions to your TA
ahead of time and bring the questions to class to lead the discussions for the weeks
readings.
3. There will be two quizzes. Quizzes will comprise of material from readings and
films analysis. There will be no makeup quizzes or exams.
4. Two reflection pieces where you will get the opportunity to apply the material from
the readings, lecture or films on a writing assignment. Make sure to work closely
with your TA's on the writing projects. We expect your writing to be college level,
carefully thought out, and edited. The Undergraduate Writing Center (FAC 211
http://uwc.utexas.edu) is available for help. I will strongly encourage you to get
feedback on your written material from the center before submitting it.
5. Taking a mid-term exam and a final exam. You will need to provide a legitimate
note by a Dr. in case of illness and/or similar documentation to request a makeup
exam.
Grading
1. Two Quizzes: 10%
2. Two 5 page reflection pieces: 20 %
3. Mid-term Exam: 25 %
4. Final Exam: 30%
5. Participation in the discussion. Each student is required to sign up to bring in the
discussion question for three different weeks of readings. Your TA's will give you
further instructions: 15%
Key to Success in the Course
A successful course is always a joint effort between the instructor, the students
and the TAs. This is a reading intensive class and the reading material might
prove to be challenging at times. Please make sure to communicate early with
your TAs if you face difficulty with the course material. You might also find that
certain topics and discussions might make you uncomfortable and upset.
However, the goal of this course is not to make you uncomfortable but rather to
shake our taken for granted assumptions about the world. We aim to make the
students familiar with that which might seem strange at first (for instance the
livelihood practices of hunter-gatherers) while also raising question about things
that we take granted (for instance the hidden costs of McDonalds Happy Meal on
society). We expect you to be respectful towards your colleagues and instructors.
Taking careful notes of the readings and in the classroom will greatly improve
your understanding of the material and improve your grade.
Week 1. What is Cultural Anthropology?
August 24
Course Introduction.
Overview of Course & Syllabus
Week 2. Doing Fieldwork
August 29
What is Culture? What is Anthropology?
Carol Delaney-Investigating Culture
Richard Eaton- Multiple Lenses of Calicat (Reader)
Keywords-­ Concepts Culture, Ethnocentrism,
Cultural Relativism,
Enculturation, Tacit Culture,
Explicit Culture
August 31
What is it that Anthropologists Do?
Fieldwork Video (Watch before class): MIT Dept- Doing
Fieldwork: http://bit.ly/bugDDJ
Readings:
Just & Monahagan- A Dispute in Dongo
Laura Bohannon- Shakespeare in the Bush (Reader)
Week 3. Fieldwork & Power-Ethics of Fieldwork
September 5No class, Labor Holiday.
Recommended Reading:
Trouillot- Anthropology of Savage Slot (Reader)
See: For help with this important article see
http://bit.ly/9uDyXu
September 7
Napoleon Chagnon- Fieldwork Among the Yanomami
AAA El Dorado Task Force Report Excerpts (Reader)
Movie- Secrets of the Tribe- Dir Padilha (Excerpts)
Participant Observation, naïve
Realism, Acculturation
Ethics, Primitivism, Salvage
Anthropology, Indigeneity,
Week 4 Language & Communications
September 12
Nanda- Communication & Culture
Morpheme, Phoneme, Sign
System, Saussure, Nonverbal Communication, Sapir-
Quiz 1a
Whorf Theory, Metaphors.
September 14
George Lakoff- Metaphors & War, Again (Reader)
Week 5 Culture, Body & the Self
September 19
Readings: Delaney – Our Bodies, Ourselves
Miner- Nacirema (Reader)
September 21
Gender & Society
Martin: The Egg and the Sperm. How Science Has
Constructed Romance Based on Stereotypical Male
Female Roles (Reader)
Lisa Jean Moore- Interview: http://bit.ly/nsA1m6
Week 6 Family, Relatedness & Kinship
Embodiment, Gender,
Naturalization,
Scientific metaphors, Medical
Anthropology, Research.
Gender, Objectivity, Situated
Knowledge
September 26
Nanda & Warms: Kinship Structures
Reflection Piece- Writing Assignment (Due
Discussion Section).
Kinship, Descent, Patrilineal,
Matrilineal, Patriarchy,
Matriarchy, Fictive Kinship
September 28
Scheper Hughes-Death Without Weeping
Margary Wolf- Uterine Families and the Women's
Community (Reader).
New Reproductive Technologies
http://www.madeinindiamovie.com/
Constraints and Factors in
Kinship relations.
Medical Tourism
Week 7 Race & Anthropology
October 3
Nanda & Warms- Race Chapter –Textbook
October 5
Stuart Hall: http://bit.ly/qPiB5h (63 min, watch before
class)
Robin Kelley: Interview
Race, Scientific Racism,
Whiteness, Black, Structural
Racism, Affirmative Action
Debate on White Victim-hood (Reader).
Excerpt from Beyond Beats, Dir Byron Hurt.
Week 8 Food & Livelihood
October 10
Nanda- Making a Living Chapter
October 12
Sahlins- Original Affluent Society
Fast Food Nation Chapter Introduction
Week 9 Economy & Society
October 17
Fast Food Nation- Chapter 4-6
Film- Fast Food Women
Midterm
October 19
FFN Chapters 7-8
David Graeber: http://to.pbs.org/qJKUqm
Week 10
Gift, Tribute, Exchange,
Progress Narratives,
Development, Affluence, Free
Market, Homo Economicus,
Progress Narratives, Modes
of Production, Distribution
Political Organizations
October 24
Nanda- Chapter Political Organizations
October 26
Marvin Harris- Life Without Chiefs
Benedict Anderson- “Imagined Communities”
(Selections Reader)
Week 11 Anthropology of Violence
October 31
Michael Gilsenan- On Conflict
Taussig- Diary as Witness
November 2
Ethnography of War
Bayoumi Chapter on Sami
Social Hierarchy, Imagined
Community, Nationalism,
War, Hobbes, Violence,
Rhetoric, Banal Violence,
Terrorism,
Experience of War, Conflict,
Evan Wright – Generation Kill Excerpts (Reader)
Second Writing Assignment
Week 12 Religion
November 7
Nanda- Religion Chapter
November 9
Monaghan & Just- A Drought in Bima: People and
Their Gods
Week 13
Representation, Trauma.
Rituals, Beliefs, Identity,
Community, Sacred
Globalization and Change
November 14
Nanda- Globalization
November 16
Aihwa Ong- Spirit Possession on Factory Floor
Quiz 2
Neoliberalism, Postmodernity,
Media Flows,Spirit
Possession, Rituals,
Resistance, Globalization
Week 14 Environmental AnthropologyNovember 21- Stefan Helmreich- Alien Ocean (Excerpt)
November 23- TBD
Life Forms, Culture of Nature,
Week 15 Avatar and Anthropology
November 28- Starn: Avatar Article
November 30- Last Class Review
Final: December 8th, 2-5 pm.
Activist Anthropology, Critique
of Salvage Anthropology,
Anthropological Tropes in
Popular Culture.