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'
Introduction: "Culture" and its (Re)Contextualizations
Course Introduction
Mon. 8/30: Introduction to the course, instructorıs expectations, requirements, etc.
Exercise: If the shoe fits
No reading
Wed. 9/1: Musings on "Culture"
Reading: 1. Kuper, A. (1999) "Introduction: Culture Wars." In Culture: The Anthropologistsı Account, pp. 1-20.
Fri. 9/3: Some Moments in Intellectual History Regarding "Culture"
Reading: 1. Kuper, A. (1999) "Culture and Civilization: French, German, and English Intellectuals, 1930-58." In Culture: The Anthropologistsı Account, pp. 23-46.
2. Kuper, A. (1999) "The Social Science Account: Talcott Parsons and the American Anthropologists." In Culture: The Anthropologistsıs Account, pp. 47-72
Mon. 9/6: Labor Day (no class)
Wed. 9/8: E-P and the Nuer
Reading: 1. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, Introductory and Chapter I
2. Handout from first day: "Introduction" in Reading Ethnography, D. Jacobson, SUNY Press, 1991, pp. 1-25.
Fri. 9/10: E-P and Meaning
Film: "Strange Beliefs"
Reading: 1. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, Chapters II and III
Mon. 9/13: Nuer Political and Lineage Systems
Reading: 1. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, Chapters IV and V
Wed. 9/15: Nuer Age-Sets
Reading: 1. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, Chapter VI
Fri. 9/17: (Re)contextualizing Evans-Pritchard
Reading: 1. Geertz, C. (1988) "Slide Show: Evans-Pritchardıs African Transparencies." In Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author, pp. 49-72.
2. Johnson, D. (1982) "Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, and the Sudan Political Service." African Affairs 8(323): 231-46.
Optional: 1. Marcus and Fischer (1986) "A Crisis of Representation in the Human Sciences" Chapter One from Anthropology as Cultural Critique, Chicago: U Chicago Press, pp. 7-16.
** Mon. 9/20: (Re)contextualizing "The Nuer"
Reading: 1. McKinnon, S. (2000) "Domestic Exceptions: Evans-Pritchard and the Creation of Nuer Patrilineality and Equality." Cultural Anthropology 15(1): 35-83.
2. Free, T. (1991) "The Politics and Philosophical Genealogy of Evans-Pritchardıs The Nuer." Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford 22(1): 19-39.
Optional: 1. Karp, I. and K. Maynard (1983) "Reading The Nuer." Current Anthropology 24(4): August-October 1983, pp. 481-503.
** Wed. 9/22: Nuer Dilemmas
Reading: 1. Hutchinson, S. (1996) "Orientations" In Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War, and the State, pp. 21-55.
Optional: 1. Jok and Hutchinson (1999) "Sudanıs Prolonged Second Civil War and the Militarization of Nuer and Dinka Ethnic Identities." African Studies Review 42(2): 125-45.
Science and/as Culture: Flexible Bodies
Fri. 9/24: Cultures of Science
Reading: 1. Harding, S. (1994) "Is Science Multicultural? Challenges, Resources, Opportunities, Uncertainties." In Goldberg, Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 344-70.
2. Latour, B. (1986) "Visualization and Cognition: Thinking with Eyes and Hands." Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Culture Past and Present. Vol. 6, pp. 1-40.
Mon. 9/27: Methods and Problems for a Cultural Study of Science
Reading: 1. Martin, Flexible Bodies, Part One
Wed. 9/29: Immune Systems and Metaphors
Reading: 1. Martin, Flexible Bodies, Parts Two and Three
Fri. 10/1: Complexity Thinking
Reading: 1. Martin, Flexible Bodies, Part Four
** Mon. 10/4: Training Bodies
Reading: 1. Martin, Flexible Bodies, Part Five
** Wed. 10/6: A New Darwinism?
Reading: 1. Martin, Flexible Bodies, Part Six
Fri. 10/8: Fall Recess (no class)
** Mon. 10/11: Conclusions
Reading: 1. Handout (Latourıs Harperıs article on critique)
Requalifying Ethnography (at the Expense of Theory?): At Home in the World
Wed. 10/13: Reflections on Home
Reading: 1. Jackson, At Home in the World, Chapters One to Three
Fri. 10/15: Walpiri Geographies
Reading: 1. Jackson, At Home in the World, Chapters Four to Six
Mon. 10/18: Walpiri Social Organization
Reading: 1. Jackson, At Home in the World, Chapters Seven to Ten
Wed. 10/20: Representing Aboriginal Lives (and Thinking About Media and Indigeneity)
Film: "Babakiueria"
Reading: 1. Ginsburg, F. (1994) "Embedded Aesthetics: Creating a Discursive Space for Indigenous Media." Cultural Anthropology 9(3): 365-82.
2. Langton, M. (1993) "The Politics of Aboriginal Representation." Well, I Heard it on the Radio and I Saw it on the Television. North Sydney: Australian Film Commission, pp. 22-43.
** Fri. 10/22: Intersubjectivity
Reading: 1. Jackson, At Home in the World, Chapters Eleven to Fourteen
** Mon. 10/25: On the Relevance of John Dewey for Anthropology
Reading: 1. Jackson, At Home in the World, Epilogue and Postscript
** Wed. 10/27: Reprise: On the Search for Intercultural Spaces
No Reading (but bring your book to class)
Between the Global and Local, Tradition and Modernity: Remotely Global
Fri. 10/29: Contexts for an Anthropology of Globalization and Localization
Reading: 1. Tsing, A. (2000) "The Global Situation." Cultural Anthropology 15(3): 327-60.
Mon. 11/1: "Cosmopolitans in the African Savanna"
Reading: 1. Piot, Remotely Global, Chapter One
Wed. 11/3: Kabre Exchange
In class exercise TBA
Reading: 1. Piot, Remotely Global, Chapters Two and Three
Fri. 11/5: Kabre Personhood
Reading: 1. Piot, Remotely Global, Chapters Four and Five
Mon. 11/8: Kabre Communities
Reading: 1. Piot, Remotely Global, Chapter Six
** Wed. 11/10: Rethinking Diapora
Reading: 1. Piot, Remotely Global, Chapter Seven
** Fri. 11/12: A Kabre Modernity?
Reading: 1. Piot, Remotely Global, Chapter Eight
Culture and the Dilemmas of Rights: Who Owns Native Culture?
Mon. 11/15: Life Beyond Anthropologyıs Abstractions of "Culture"
Film: "White Shamans and Plastic Medicine Men"
Reading: 1. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture?, Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1.
Wed. 11/17: Can Culture be Copyrighted?
Guest: Brian Gilley
Reading: 1. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture?, Chapters 2 and 3
Fri. 11/19: Contested Environments
Reading: 1. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture?, Chapters 4 and 5
** Mon. 11/22: Fluid Identities and Land Claims
Reading: 1. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture?, Chapter 6
** Wed. 11/24-Fri. 11/26: Thanksgiving Break (no class)
Mon. 11/29: Dilemmas of Protecting Culture as a Resource
Reading: 1. Brown, Who Owns Native Culture?, Chapters 7-8
Wed. 12/1: "Te Rua," Part One
Film: "Te Rua"
Reading: 1. Barclay, B. (1999) "The Vibrant Shimmer" The Contemporary Pacific 11(2): 390-413.
Fri. 12/3: "Te Rua," Part Two
Film: "Te Rua"
Reading: 1. Handouts on "Whale Rider"
Course Conclusion: Reconsidering Ethnography and Theory
** Mon. 12/6: Discussion and Course Conclusions
No Reading
Wed: 12/8: Discussion and Course Conclusions
No Reading
Final research essay due Mon. 12/14, Anthro Dept. Office (509 Williams Hall)