Contemporary Communities
CAT 3
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00 – 12:20
Room: Peterson Hall 110
Professor: Dr. Steven Carlisle
e-mail: [email protected] [Be sure to fill in the “subject” line with something
relevant, so I know it’s not spam.]
Office: Pepper Canyon Hall, room 252
Office Hours: To Be Announced
Internet Resources: available at http://weber.ucsd.edu/~scarlisl/index.htm
Overview:
Are communities built by people who share similar ideas and visions of the world, or
do communities shape the visions of the world that people have? Are our beliefs
about ourselves and the world based on observations, or are our observations based
on our beliefs? Are people able to choose their own goals and actions, or are they
pre-determined by social forces? As it turns out, we can find examples of all of these
at different times. In some ways and at some times, we behave as though we were
scientists, drawing conclusions from what we perceive, but at other times, we are
creatures of habits, and culturally pre-conceived notions shape the ways we think
about our worlds and ourselves – and even shape our memories. This class will
explore an important feedback loop that shapes human experience: the ways that the
expectations we learn from our communities (our friends, our families, our schools,
and the media that try to represent our society) contribute to our senses of who we
are, and also the ways that our identities shape our communities.
During the first part of the quarter, we will build up a set of theories that explains the
ways that identities are negotiated between individuals and their communities. Each
step will be supported by a short ethnographic example, many of which are drawn
from everyday American experience.
Once the theory is built, the course will focus on specific examples from familiar
contemporary communities, and provide information to think about things like
national identity, human nature, and their social and academic environments.
Because questions about what makes life meaningful are frequently important to
students at this point in their lives, and because senses of meaning tend to arise from
identities, the course will be themed around questions such as: What gives meaning to
your life? and How does these meanings relate to your experiences?
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Materials:
This book, required for the class, can be found both on reserve at the library and in
the bookstore:
The Forest People, by Colin Turnbull
All other readings will be available through the library’s e-reserves system. You can
link to it through the library’s web site, through the course web-site, or at this
address:
http://reserves.ucsd.edu/eres/courseindex.aspx?error=&page=dept
I choose to use e-reserves because it saves the students money; when we order
readers, students pay for paper, printing, and also for copyright fees that go to
publishers. By using e-reserves, students can save money on copyright fees, but
students required to print out the articles on reserve, take notes on them, and bring
them to class.
Some readings may be linked to through the on-line syllabus.
This class will also use the I-Clicker. You will need one of your own. They are
available from the bookstore.
Course Requirements:
This class will require three mid-length papers, one longer final project on the
meaning of life, and a final exam. After the first day of class, you will be expected to
complete assigned readings before lecture.
Distribution:
Paper #1:
Paper #2:
Paper #3:
Visual Argument Project:
Final Project:
Section and Class Participation:
Final Exam:
5%
15%
15%
10%
25%
15%
15%
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Schedule
[subject to change]
Part I: Simple Communities, and Constructing Reality
March 30:
April 1:
April 6:
April 8:
Introduction: Communities and Identities
Susan Sternthal – “Moscow’s Stray Dogs”
Horace Miner, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”
Claude Levi-Strauss, “The Sorcerer and His Magic”
Colin Turnbull, The Forest People, Introduction, Maps, and
chapters 1 & 2
Inventing Illness, and the Cure: Technology and Sharing Realities
Edward Schieffelin, “Performance and the Cultural Construction of
Reality”
The Forest People, chapters 3 &4
“Lexicon of Suburban Neologisms”
Peter Kramer, Listening to Prozac, ch. 1
Rick Mayes, “The DSM-III and the Revolution in the
Classification of Mental Illness”
The Economist, “That Way Madness Lies: Psychiatric Diagnosis”
 Paper #1 due
Part II: Life and Narrative
April 13:
You As a Story: Literary Forms and Reality
“Life as Narrative,” Jerome Bruner
Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud, chapter 3
The Forest People, chapters 5 & 6
April 15:
George Vaillant, Adaptation to Life, chapters 1 &4, Appendix A
April 20:
Elizabeth Marsh, “Retelling is not the Same as Remembering”
Abby Day, “Everyday Ghosts”
Jill Bolte Taylor, “How It Feels to Have a Stroke”
April 22:
April 27:
Writing Your Own Narratives
Dorothy Holland, Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds, ch. 4
Optional: chapter 3
 Paper #2 due
Tan and Barton, “From Peripheral to Central”
Binyavanga Wainaina, “Pure Product”
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Part III: Self in Society
April 29:
Culture and Human Development: Literature, Film, and Life
Shirley Heath, “What No Bedtime Story Means”
May 4:
Continued
 Paper #3 due
May 6:
Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society, chapter 7
May 11:
Continued
May 13:
Civilization and Thought: Technology and the Mind
The Geography of Thought, Richard Nesbitt, chapters 1-3
May 18:
Plato’s Republic, selections from books V and VI: pp. 538-555
 Visual Argument Project due
May 20:
Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism, chapter 1
Part IV: Modern Life in the US
May 25:
May 27:
June 1:
The Technological Environment and the Family
Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society, chapter 8
Sharon Jayson, “Tech-Savvy 'iGeneration' Kids Multi-Task,
Connect”
Nanci Hellmich, “Parents Want to be Teen Pals”
Jenna Gourdreau, “Are You a Best Friend Mom?
Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
What’s a Nation?
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities chapters 1, 2
 Final project due
Imagined Communities chapters 10 & 11
Eric Foner, “Twisting History in Texas”
June 3:
Finishing Up
Finals Week
Tuesday,
June 8
Exam – 11:30-2:30
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