Syllabus for Cultural Analysis

 

ANTH 316 - Spring 2000

Instructors:

Brian Riedel (riedelbs@rice.edu)

Aimee Placas (placas@rice.edu)

George Marcus (marcus@rice.edu)

Office hours:

Brian Riedel, Monday 12-1, Sewell 125, ext 3893

Aimee Placas, Wednesday 12-1, Sewell 156D, ext 2058

or by appointment

 

This course is specifically intended for lower-level undergraduates as a means of gaining familiarity with the analytical tradition of cultural anthropology, from the beginning of the 20th century. The course is intended to provide students with background for upper-level courses in the department.

Students will be graded on attendance, class participation, and written assignments. The written assignments will be given weekly, and will vary from short responses to the readings, vocabulary definitions, summaries, the collection of outside materials, and so on. Students who are going to miss a class because of illness or other reasons should email Brian Riedel or Aimee Placas before that class begins.

Jan 19

introduction and explanation of the syllabus

Jan 21

Richard and Fernande De George, The Structuralists: from Marx to Lévi-Strauss (1972), Introduction

Jan 24

Charles Lemert, Postmodernism is Not What You Think (1997), Chapter 2

Jan 26

Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology (1963), "Language and the Analysis of Social Laws"

 

Jan 28

Claude Lévi-Strauss, "The Story of Asdiwal" (1967), in Structuralism in Myth, edited by Robert A. Segal (1996), selections

Jan 31

Roland Barthes, Mythologies (1957), "The World of Wrestling," "Soap-Powders and Detergents," "Wine and Milk," and "The Brain of Einstein"

Feb 2

Roland Barthes, Mythologies (1957), "Myth Today" selections

Feb 4

Michel Foucault, "Structuralism and Post-Structuralism" (1983), in Foucault: Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology, edited by James Faubion (1998), selections

Feb 7

Marshall Sahlins, Islands of History (1985), Chapter 5

Feb 9

Tzvetan Todorov, Mikhail Bakhtin (1984), selections

Feb 11

E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer (1956), Introduction

Feb 14

Kenneth E. Read, The High Valley (1965), Introduction

Feb 16

George Marcus and Dick Cushman, "Ethnographies as Texts" (1982), in Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol 11

Feb 18

James Clifford, "Introduction: Partial Truths" (1986), in Writing Culture, edited by James Clifford and George Marcus

Feb 21

Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism (1972), "Like a Novel"

 

Hunter S. Thompson, "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" (1970), in The New Journalism, edited by Tom Wolfe (1972)

Feb 23

Joan Didion, The White Album (1979), "Many Mansions," and "In the Islands"

Feb 25

Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (1972), "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight"

Feb 28

Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (1972), "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture"

Mar 1

James Clifford, Predicament of Culture (1983), "On Ethnographic Authority"

 

Mar 3

discussion and connections

Mar 6 Spring Break

Mar 8 Spring Break

Mar 10 Spring Break

Mar 13

Dorinne Kondo, Crafting Selves (1990), Chapter 1, selections

Mar 15

Ruth Behar, Translated Woman (1993), Introduction

 

Mar 17

Emily Martin, "Body Narratives, Body Boundaries" (1992), in Cultural Studies, edited by Lawrence Grossberg

 

Mar 20

Talal Asad, Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter (1973), selections

Mar 22

Lila Abu-Lughod, "Movie Stars and Islamic Moralism in Egypt" (1997), in The Gender/Sexuality Reader, edited by Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo

Mar 24

Carole Vance, "Anthropology Rediscovers Sexuality" (1991), in Social Science and Medicine, Vol 33, No 8

Mar 27

 Ann Stoler, "Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power" (1997) in The Gender/Sexuality Reader, edited by Roger N. Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo

 

 

Mar 29

 

Cornel West, "The New Cultural Politics of Difference" (1990), in Out There, edited by Russell Ferguson

 

Mar 31 Spring Recess

Apr 3

bell hooks, Black Looks (1992), "Selling Hot Pussy: Representations of Black Female Sexuality in the Cultural Marketplace"

Apr 5

Edward Said, Orientalism (1978), Introduction

 

Apr 7

project day - assignment to be announced

Apr 10

Marco Jacquemet, "From the Atlas to the Alps: Chronicle of a Moroccan Migration" (1996) in Public Culture, Vol 8

Apr 12

Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large (1996), Chapter 2

Apr 14

Kajsa Ekholm-Friedman and Jonathan Friedman, "Global Complexity and the Simplicity of Everyday Life" (1995), in Worlds Apart: Modernity through the Prism of the Local, edited by Daniel Miller

Apr 17

Elvin Hatch, "The Good Side of Relativism" (1997), in The Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol 53, No 3

Apr 19

handouts

Apr 21

John Berger, Ways of Seeing (1972), focus on chapter 1

Apr 24

John Berger, Ways of Seeing (1972), focus on chapter 7

Apr 26

conclusion/catch-up

Apr 28

conclusion/catch-up 

 

 

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