Schedule of Readings
Note: All readings are either from required course texts or on reserve in the Bailey-Howe Library or the Anthropology Department office (509 Williams Hall)
Seeking tips on reading for this course? See my 'Reflections on Reading for this Anthropology Class'
PART 1: Modernity, Development and Globalization
Introduction: The Unbinding of Nations, Cultures and Environments
Course Introduction
Tues. 1/16: Introduction to the course, instructor's expectations, requirements, etc.
No reading
Thurs. 1/18: The Necessity for a Cultural Analysis of 'Globalization'
Reading: 1. Tsing, A. (2000) 'The Global Situation' Cultural Anthropology 15(3): 327-60.
Tues. 1/23: Cultures and/of Modernity
Reading: 1. Modernity at Large, Ch. 1 (pp. 1-23).
2. Begin reading Hannerz, U. (1992) 'The Global Ecumene.' In Cultural Complexity: Studies in the Social Organization of Meaning. NY: Columbia University Press, pp. 217-67.
Thurs. 1/25: 'Global Flows'
Film: 'The Global Assembly Line'
Reading: 1. Modernity at Large, Ch. 2 (pp. 27-47).
2. Finish reading Hannerz, 'The Global Ecumene.'
Tues. 1/30: Concerning 'Tradition'
Reading: 1. The Post-Development Reader, Part One (pp. 3-62).
Thurs. 2/1: Toward a Holistic Anthropology of Globalization and Localization
Reading: 1. Modernity at Large, Ch. 3 (pp. 48-65).
Recommended: 1. Friedman, J. (1997) 'Simplifying Complexity: Assimilating the Global in a Small Paradise.' In Olwig and Hastrup, eds. Siting Culture: The Shifting Anthropological Object. NY: Routledge. pp. 268-91.
2. Ingold, T. (1993) 'Globes and Spheres: The Topology of Environmentalism,' In Milton, ed. Environmentalism: The View from Anthropology. NY: Routledge. pp. 31-42.
[Discussion Paper #1 due]
Concerning 'Modernization:' Development Paradigms, Vehicles, and Practices
Tues. 2/6: Problems of Progress
Special Evening Class and potluck, 7-9pm 'Sergeant Ola and his Followers' (Note: no class during usual daytime hour)
Reading: 1. The Post-Development Reader, Chs. 6-8 (pp. 65-93)
Thurs. 2/9: Discussion on Sgt. Ola
Reading: 1. The Post-Development Reader, Chs. 9-11 (pp. 94-131)
Tues. 2/13: Vehicles, Part 1
Reading: 1. The Post-Development Reader, Chs. 12-15 (pp. 135-67)
Thurs. 2/15: Vehicles, Part 2
Reading: 1. The Post-Development Reader, Chs. 16-19 (pp. 168-203)
Tues. 2/20: Practices
Reading: 1. The Post-Development Reader, Chs. 20-26 (pp. 207-73)
PART 2: Cultural Hybridity and Strategies for Leaving Modernity
Localizations and Hybridities
Thurs. 2/22-Tues. 2/27: The Production of 'Locality'
Film: 'Incidents of Travel in Chichen Itza' (2/27)
Reading: 1. Modernity at Large, Chs. 7 and 9 (pp. 139-57, 178-99).
2. The Post-Development Reader, Chs. 27-28 (pp. 277-301)
[Discussion Paper #2 due 2/22]
Thurs. 3/1: Cultural Hybridity
Reading: 1. Hybrid Cultures, Foreword and Entrance, pp. xi-xvii, 1-11.
2. Gupta and Ferguson, (1992) 'Beyond Culture:' Space, Identity and the Politics of Difference.' In Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Anthropology, pp. 131-46.
Tues. 3/6: Town Meeting Day (no class)
Thurs. 3/8: Between Tradition and Modernity
Reading: 1. Hybrid Cultures, Chs. 1-2 (pp. 1-65)
[Paper topic prospectus due]
Tues. 3/13: Staging Traditional Culture
Film: 'In and Out of Africa'
Reading: 1. Hybrid Cultures, 5-6 (pp. 145-205)
Thurs. 3/15: Hybridity and Democratization
Reading: 1. Hybrid Cultures, Ch. 7 and Exit (206-81).
Tues. 3/20 Thurs. 3/22: Spring Break (no class)
'Think Locally, Act Locally:' The Cultural Politics of Peripheries and Regenerating the Grassroots
The Politics of the Periphery
Tues. 3/27: Rethinking Marginality
Reading: 1. In the Realm of the Diamond Queen, Opening and Part One (pp. 3-120).
Thurs. 3/29: Perspectives on Traveling Culture
Guest Speaker: TBA
Reading: 1. In the Realm of the Diamond Queen, Chapters 4-5 (pp. 123-77)
Tues. 4/3-Thurs. 4/5: The Cultural Importance of Transgression
Reading: 1. In the Realm of the Diamond Queen, Chapters 6-9 and Reprise (pp. 178-301)
[Discussion Paper #3 due Thurs. 4/5]
Reconstructing Environmentalism and Civil Society
Tues. 4/10-4/12: The Cultural Politics of Environmentalism
Reading: 1. Escobar, A. (1997) 'Cultural Politics and Biological Diversity: State, Capital, and Social Movements in the Pacific Coast of Colombia.' In Fox and Starn, eds. Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest. New Brunswick: Rutgers U. Press, pp. 40-64.
2. Guha, R. (1997) 'The Environmentalism of the Poor.' In Fox and Starn, eds. Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protest. New Brunswick: Rutgers U. Press, pp. 19-39.
3. Brosius, P. (1999) 'Green Dots, Pink Hearts: Displacing Politics from the Malaysian Rain Forest.' American Anthropologist 101(1): 36-57.
Recommended: 1. Grove-White, R. ŒEnvironmentalism: A New Moral Discourse for Technological Society?¹ In Milton, Environmentalism: The View from Anthropology, pp. 18-30.
2. Ellen, R. (1992) 'What Black Elk left unsaid: on the illusory images of Green Primitivism.' in Anthropology Today 2(6): 8-12.
Tues. 4/17: The Zapatista Challenge...and the Environmental Challenges to the Zapatistas
Reading: 1. Start reading First World, Ha Ha Ha!
2. The Post-Development Reader, Ch. 29-32, pp. 302-28.
3. Simon, J. (1997) 'Jungle Warfare.' In Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge. Sierra Club Books, pp. 91-125.
[Discussion Paper #4 due]
Thurs. 4/19: Film: 'Zapatista'
Reading: 1. Continue reading First World, Ha Ha Ha!
Tues. 4/24: (Re)generating Civil Society in the South
Reading: 1. Finish reading First World, Ha Ha Ha!
2. Esteva and Prakash (1998) 'People¹s Power: Radical Democracy for the Autonomy of their Commons.' In Grassroots Postmodernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures, Zed Press, pp. 152-91.
Recommended: 1. Kothari, S. (1996) ŒRising from the Margins: The Awakening of Civil Society in the Third World.¹ Development 3: 11-19.
Thurs. 4/26: Exercise/Practicum
Reading: 1. The Post-Development Reader, Ch. 33-37, pp. 329-76.
Tues. 5/1: Toward a Post-Development World
Reading: 1. The Post-Development Reader, Afterword, pp. 377-403.
Research Paper and Exercise Response due Mon. 5/7, Anthro Dept. Office (509 Williams Hall)