Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Brown University, Summer 2015
M, W, Th 3:30-6:10pm
June 22-August 7, 2015
Sayles Hall 205
Instructor
Josh MacLeod
[email protected]
Office Hours: After class or by appointment
Course Description
This course provides an introduction to cultural anthropology, surveying its defining questions,
methods, and findings. Throughout the term we will study the history of anthropology and seek to
situate it within the broader social sciences in order to understand what an anthropological
perspective is and what makes it distinctive from related disciplines such as sociology or political
science. In this sense the course also serves as an anthropologically focused introduction to social
theory as broadly conceived. Basic questions we will ask in this course include: What do
anthropologists study? What methods do they use to carry out their research? What sorts of
questions does an anthropologist ask? And, how is anthropology situated within the larger field of the
social sciences?
In this course we will examine the history and utility of anthropology's hallmark method,
ethnography—the long-term immersion of the researcher in the culture under study. We will also look
at the different ways that anthropology’s central concept, culture, has been thought about and used
both within and without the discipline. Throughout the semester we will compare cultural
anthropology's findings and comportment in other cultures to its conclusions and conduct in the
anthropologists own, examining the dilemmas, ethics, inequalities, and politics of cross-cultural
research with other human beings.
Course Format
Being summer term, our class has a relatively short but intensive schedule with long class meetings.
Over the course of the 7-week term we meet 3-times a week for 2 hours and 40 minutes each
meeting. This offers us the advantage of being able to focus on and delve deeply into each theme,
reading, or film as we won’t be juggling a full schedule of classes.
Class meetings will be a mixture of lecture and student-led discussion with regular group activities to
split up our relatively long thrice-weekly meetings. Each week focuses on an important and central
theme in cultural anthropology and explores that theme through a variety of readings, films, or online
resources. Generally speaking, I will begin each class lecturing on the relevant theory, concept,
person, film (or whatever) in order to provide you context and to explain the significance of the
material in question. However, because of our extended meetings and the small size of the class,
discussion is going to be an important component to class which depends on your participation. The
second part of each class meeting will be more discussion oriented with a student or group of
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
students leading the discussion by preparing a short outline with key quotes, themes, questions, or
observations about the reading to orient our discussion. It is essential to have completed assigned
readings before class meetings. You should also always bring the readings to class (and any notes
you may have taken when reading) and be prepared to point to specific passages to illustrate relevant
points.
We also have a course site through Canvas (canvas.brown.edu) which, if you are enrolled in the
course, you are automatically signed up for. Through our course website you will be able to access
online readings and films. There you can find the syllabus, sign up for office hours, and see other
important class-related information. It is an important and efficient way for us to communicate where I
will periodically send out important messages. Please log into our site on a regular basis to ensure
that you are not missing something important.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course you will:
1. Be able to identify, define, and put into practice key methodological and theoretical ideas and
concepts from cultural anthropology to better explain and understand the socio-cultural worlds
in which we all live.
2. Have developed your ability to write well-organized, concise, convincing, and cogent analytic
essays that state a reasonable and persuasive argument and backs it up with evidence from
primary and secondary sources.
3. Have practiced critical reading skills in order to efficiently and critically understand assigned
readings using ideas and techniques learned in the course.
4. Have gained basic research skills, both in the library and in the field.
5. Understand what an anthropological perspective is and what makes it distinctive from other
disciplinary perspectives.
Evaluation
Your final grade in this course is based upon the following:
•
Regular, thoughtful participation (15%): It is essential for your learning and the success of
our class meetings that you read the assigned texts before coming to class. I have tried to
keep the amount of reading at a reasonable length to make this possible. Since we have long
class meetings and a small class size, engaging in lively discussion will be an essential
component to our course. I expect you to come prepared to ask questions about the texts, to
clarify ideas and debate themes and concepts that we are learning about. You will also have to
prepare a basic outline based on the reading for discussion once or twice during our course,
depending on how many students are enrolled in the class.
•
Three Critical Response Papers (15% each for a total of 45%): Critical reading, writing, and
thinking skills are central to any academic discipline and are a fundamental part of cultural
anthropology. This assignment is to write critical assessments of each of the three books we
are reading this semester. A critical response paper is not a summary or a book review, but
rather, a close, creative, and thoughtful engagement with a central aspect of the book that you
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
find to be most interesting, important, or insightful. In your paper you should come up with an
argument about the text and support it using material from the piece itself. (due the Sunday
after each book)
•
Fieldnote & Analysis (15%): This assignment is to conduct ethnographic research in
miniature, to give you an idea of what it is that anthropologists do. It requires that you spend at
least an hour conducting ethnographic participant observation on a local cultural phenomenon
(say, a busy Thayer Street cafe, WaterFire, a party you go to, dorm room behavior, an ice
cream social…the possibilities are endless). As you observe, jot down fieldnotes. Later, go
over your notes (this is the “analysis” part) underlining and identifying patterns of what you take
to be the most important themes you observed. Try to challenge your own understanding of
what you are observing, approaching it from an outsider’s perspective—even if it is something
that is common to you. Finally, write up your observations and analysis into a short paper
(maximum 700 words) describing, contextualizing, and interpreting this particular phenomenon
along the lines of Horace Miner’s Nacirema article. In your short paper you should draw on
material we have read in class.
This assignment gives you the opportunity to engage in “mini-ethnographic fieldwork”. In your
paper you should emphasize what you understand to be an anthropological perspective. I will
post a document on Canvas describing the assignment in more detail. Read the assignment
description carefully before beginning and make sure that you address every part of the
assignment. You should also review the Writing Guidelines on Canvas which will give you
suggestions about how to write in an anthropological style suitable for this class. Finally, on the
website you will also find an Evaluation Rubric which will give you an idea of what I am looking
for when I read and grade your work.
The final paper should be 3-4 pages (double-spaced, 1-inch margins, Times New Roman 12
point font) in length and be uploaded to Canvas by 12 pm midnight on the day it is due. Points
will be deducted for late papers unless a doctor or dean’s note accompanies them. There are
no make-ups for missed assignments.
•
final 7-8 page take-home exam – Question/s will be distributed in class and via Canvas on
Monday August 4 and essays must be must be uploaded to Canvas by 7 PM on Thursday
August 7) (25%)
Required Books and Reading
There is no single textbook for this course. The majority of readings will be articles and chapters from
books available as pdf files online through our course site and the library’s Online Course Reserves
(OCRA). You can log-in to OCRA via this link: https://library.brown.edu/reserves/ or via our course
site on Canvas, by clicking the ‘E-Reserves’ button on our course page. To access readings for this
course you just choose Anth 0100 and enter the password: anthro. If you login through Canvas you
will automatically be taken to our reserves and will not need to enter the password. In addition to the
shorter readings we will be reading three books this semester—two ethnographies and a collaborative
volume on the politics of food. These books are available for purchase at the bookstore, or wherever
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
you prefer to buy books, and are on physical reserve at the Rockefeller Library. At the Rock you can
check the books out for 3-hour intervals for in-library use.
The three required books are:
Bourgois, Philippe. 2003. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Foxen Patricia. 2007. In Search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities. Nashville: Vanderbilt
University Press.
Gottlieb, Robert and Anupama Joshi. 2013. Food Justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
Detail Schedule & Readings (all available through Canvas or OCRA, password:
“anthro”)
Week 1: Introduction, What is Anthropology?
Key Questions: What is cultural anthropology? What is ethnography? What are the core philosophical
orientations of cultural anthropology? What are the main strands of intellectual thought in the history of
anthropology?
M 22 June: Introductions—to each other, this class, and to anthropology
Song: Si el Norte Fuera el Sur by Ricardo Arjona
W 24 June: Cultural Relativism: The Mysterious Case of the Nacirema
Miner, Horace. 1956. “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema.” American Anthropologist, 58:3, 503-507.
Thompson, Neil B. 1972. “The Mysterious Fall of the Nacirema.” Natural History, 81, 11-18.
Th 25 June: Culture: Trying to Define a Slippery, but Crucial, Concept
Williams, Raymond. 1976. “Culture,” in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York:
Oxford University Press. Pp. 87-93.
Kuper, Adam. 1999. “Introduction: Culture Wars,” in Culture, The Anthropologists’ Account. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press. Pp. 1-22.
Geertz, Clifford. 1984. “Distinguished Lecture: Anti Anti-Relativism.” American Anthropologist, 263-278.
Week 2: Concepts, Methods, and Politics
Key Questions: What is ‘culture’ and how do we study it? What are the core concepts and methods of cultural
anthropology and how has thinking about them changed over time? How do anthropologists represent ‘the
other’ in their work?
M 29 June: Culture Continued
Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” in The
Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. Pp. 3-30.
Sahlins, Marshall. 1999. “Two or Three Things I Know About Culture.” Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute. 5:3, 399-421.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. 1991. “Writing Against Culture,” in Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present.
Santa Fe: School of American Research Press. Pp. 137-154.
In-class Film Screening: Them and Me (Eux et Moi)
W 1 July: Methods: Ethnography, Fieldwork, Fieldnotes
Bohannan, Laura. 1966. “Shakespeare in the Bush.” Natural History. 75:7, 28-33.
Wallace, David Foster. 2006. “Big Red Son,” in Consider the Lobster And Other Essays. New York:
Back Bay Books. Pp. 3-50.
Th 2 July: What is at Stake? Representation, Ethics, and Fieldwork
Rosaldo, Renato. 1989. “Introduction: Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage,” in Culture and Truth: The
Remaking of Social Analysis. Boston: Beacon Press. Pp. 1-21.
Warren, Kay B. 2001. “Telling Truths: Taking David Stoll and the Rigoberta Menchú Exposé Seriously,”
in The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy, Arturo Arias, ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press. Pp. 198-218.
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
Sun 5 July: Fieldnote Assignment due, must be uploaded to Canvas by 12pm midnight.
Week 3: Race, Inequality & Marginality in the United States: In Search of Respect and the Cultural
Construction of Gender
Key Questions: How are ideas about race and ethnicity culturally constructed and perpetuated? What are the
fault-lines of inequality in US society…how do they play out along cultural, institutional, and economic lines?
How are ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ different? What does it mean to say that ‘gender’ is culturally constructed?
M 6 July: Race in the United States
“Introduction” through Chapter 3: “Crackhouse Management” in Bourgois, Philippe. 2003. In Search of
Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.
Listen to Fresh Air on NPR from May 14, 2015 (35 minutes): “Historian Says Don’t Sanitize How Our
Government Created Ghettos” http://www.npr.org/2015/05/14/406699264/historian-says-dontsanitize-how-our-government-created-the-ghettos
W 8 July: Race, Economics, and Gender on the Streets of East Harlem
Chapter 4: “’Goin’ Legit’” through Chapter 6: “Redrawing the Gender Line on the Street”
In-Class Film Screening: Off and Running
https://brown-kanopystreaming-com.revproxy.brown.edu/node/110219
Th 9 July: The (Re)Production of Inequality and Thinking Anthropologically about Sex and Gender
Chapter 7: “Families and Children in Pain” through Chapter 9: “Conclusion” and the epilogues
Gender
Caitlyn Jenner interview with Diane Sawyer clips: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/fullpage/bruce-jenner-theinterview-30471558
Rachel Dolezal on Caitlyn Jenner, is there such a thing as trans-racial identity?:
http://www.today.com/news/rachel-dolezal-caitlyn-jenners-story-resonated-me-t26651
In-Class Film Clip: Paper Flowers about gender and sexual identity among Indian Hijras
Recommended Reading: Reddy, Gayatri. 2006. Chapter 3: “Cartographies of Sex/Gender,” in With Respect to
Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. Pp. 44-71. New York: Yoda Press.
Sun 12 July: Reaction Paper to In Search of Respect due, uploaded to Canvas by 12pm midnight.
Week 4.1: Economic Anthropology
Key Questions: What is capitalism? What is the “market”? Where does ‘value’ come from? What are some of
the unwritten socio-cultural rules of exchange and gift-giving and how do they function in society?
M 13 July: Gift Exchange and Socio-Political Obligations
Selections from Mauss, Marcel. 1990. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic
Societies. New York: Norton.
Graeber, David. 2012. Chapter 5: “A Brief Treatise on the Moral Grounds of Economic Relations,” in
Debt: The First 5000 Years. Brooklyn: Melville House. Pp. 89-126.
Film: Inside Job
W 15 July: Negotiating the Minefield of Inter-cultural Gift Giving
Lee, Richard Borshay. 1969. “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari,” Natural History. Pp. 14-22.
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
Durham, Deborah. 1995. “Soliciting Gifts and Negotiating Agency: The Spirit of Asking in Botswana,”
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, pp. 111-128.
Week 4.2: Environmental Anthropology
Key Questions: What is ‘natural’ about nature? How do people relate to the natural environments?
Th 16 July: Nature and Culture: Ideas of ‘nature’ over time and across cultures
Williams, Raymond. 1980. “Ideas of Nature,” in Problems in Materialism and Culture. London: Verso.
Pp. 67-85.
Week 5: Movements and Migration
Key Questions: What socio-economic forces work to impulse large movements of people? Is migration a
choice? What are the cultural dynamics and challenges of working and living in an entirely new place with a
different history, language, customs etc?
M 20 July: From Highland Guatemala to Providence
Preface, Chapter 1 “Entering the Field”, and Chapter 2 “Mayan Identities Through History”: in Foxen,
Patricia. 2007. In Search of Providence: Transnational Mayan Identities. Nashville: Vanderbilt
University Press.
W 22 July: History, Work, Identity
Chapter 3 “The K’iche’ of Xinxuc” and Chapter 4 “La Costa del Norte, Transnational Social Practices”
T 23 July: Identity & Migration
Chapter 5 “A Dialogue on Indianness, Maya or Mojado” and Chapter 6 “Memory and Guilt” and
Epilogue
Sun 26 July: Critical Response Paper on In Search of Providence due, uploaded to Canvas by 12 pm
Week 6: Food, the Environment & Social Justice
Key Questions: What is an industrialized food system? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the
dominant global food system? How are different forms of inequality crystalized through the distribution of food?
What are alternative ways of organizing our food system?
M 27 July: Dialogue with K’iche’-Maya Immigrants in Providence
First Half of Class:
Special Panel with K’iche’-Mayas from highland Guatemala living in Providence. Come with questions based
on your reading of In Search of Providence.
Second Half: Food Systems: Production and Consumption in the Modern Industrialized Food System
Introduction and Part I (Chapters 1-5) in Gottlieb, Robert and Anupama Joshi. 2013. Food Justice.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
In-class Film Screening: King Corn
W 29 July: Food Systems: Imagining and Practicing Alternatives
Part II (Chapters 6-10) in Food Justice.
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
Th 30 July:
Sun 2 August: Critical Response Paper on Food Justice due, uploaded to Canvas by 12 pm midnight.
Week 7 Reading and Exam Period
M 3 August: Wrap Up and Review—We’ll go back over the main themes from this semester and you should
come with any questions you might have ahead of the final paper.
W 5 August: No class meeting, work on your final papers!
Fri 7 August: Final Papers due by 7pm via Canvas course website.
Anth 0100: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Summer 2015, Brown University
Course Policies
Communicating with me by email
I will do my best to respond to all emails as quickly as possible. However any email sent in the evening will
probably not get a response until the morning so please try and plan ahead and avoid last minute emergency
emails about anything.
Attendance
Attendance is required and is factored in to your participation grade. Absence will only be excused
accompanied by a note from a doctor or a dean. Whenever possible please notify me (in person or via email)
well ahead of time if you know you are going to miss a class or part of a class. I am willing to meet with you to
discuss what you missed during an excused absence.
Academic Integrity
Students are expected to complete their own work and to cite others’ work as appropriate. In all of your
assignments you may use a combination of your ideas and ideas or words written by others – but only with
proper attribution, when in doubt it is better to cite. In class we will go over how to correctly cite but don’t
hesitate to ask me for guidelines or visit this website: http://www.aaanet.org/publications/style_guide.pdf
Proper attribution means that you have fully identified the original source and extent of your use of the images,
research, words or ideas of others that you reproduce in your work for this course. You can do this with
footnotes or parenthetical citations. Using another’s images, research, words or ideas without proper attribution,
in other words, is plagiarism and a violation of the academic code. For additional information about academic
integrity and Brown’s academic code please visit this website:
https://www.brown.edu/academics/college/degree/policies/academic-code
Use of laptops and phones
Please silence and put away your phone before class begins. Really, it is just about basic respect that you owe
to each other and to me in the classroom. You can use your laptop to take notes and occasionally look-up
information online. However, please do not chat with friends online, log into Facebook or any other such site.
This will obviously distract you and detract from your ability to engage and learn in the classroom. Again, it is
about having respect for me and your fellow students to create a positive learning environment in the class.
Overwhelmed? Lost? Need help?
Come see me! If you feel lost or need extra support please talk to me after class, during office hours, or via
email as soon as possible.
You can also take advantage of the resources that the Office of Student Life makes available to support
students. They provide same-day appointments and evening, weekend, and holiday services through the
Administrator On-Call program. http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Office_of_Student_Life/
You can also visit the Writing Center for help with, well, writing.
http://www.brown.edu/academics/college/support/writing-center/
Students with Disabilities and Other Special Needs
Students who, by nature of a documented disability, require academic accommodations should contact the
instructor during office hours. Students must also speak with Student and Employee Accessibility Services at
401-863-9588 to discuss the process for requesting accommodations. http://www.brown.edu/campuslife/support/accessibility-services/