1. Ethnographic Project 30%

2. Class Participation 10%

3. Midterm Exam 30%

4. Final Exam 30% Attendance will be taken. A 70% attendance rate will be required or you will automatically fail the Class Participation component of the grade. No one may enter the class more than ten minutes late.

Note on Films

The films shown in class are a part of the course, and should be considered as required texts. Exams will cover the issues raised in the films.

Assigned Texts

The books are available for purchase at the university book store (though please note that we will only be reading segments of most of them; you may prefer to read the chapters you need at the library). As well as the books, there are a number of articles, and a xerox packet of the articles is available for purchase at Unique Copy Center on Greene Street. Both the books and the articles are on reserve at Bobst Library.

Carter, Stephen L.

1993 The culture of disbelief : how American law and politics trivialize religious devotion. New York: Basic Books

DeVita, Philip R. and James D. Armstrong

1993 Distant mirrors: America as a foreign culture. Belmont: Wadsworth.

Newton, Esther

1979 [1972] Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Trachtenberg, Alan

1982 The incorporation of America: culture and society in the gilded age. New York: Hill and Wang.

Recommended:

Rowling, J.K.

1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: Scholastic.

Week 1: Introduction to the Course: Themes in American Culture (1/20/2000)

No Readings

Film: Ishi, the Last Yahi

Week 2: America as a Foreign Culture (or: why is an Englishman teaching "American Culture?") (1/27/2000)

Readings:

DeVita, Philip R. and James D. Armstrong

1993 Distant mirrors: America as a foreign culture. Belmont: Wadsworth.

(Chapters 4,6,8,15)

Miner, Horace

1956 Body Ritual among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist 58:503-507.

Film: American Tongues

Week 3: God, Sex, and the Jacksonian Revolution (2/3/2000)

Trachtenberg, Alan

1982 The incorporation of America: culture and society in the gilded age. New York: Hill and Wang. (Chapter 1)

Foster, Lawrence

1995 Sexuality and Relationships in Shaker, Oneida, and Mormon Communities. Communities. 87:52-

Egan, Timothy

1999 The persistence of polygyny. New York Times Magazine, February 28 1999: 51-55.

Week 4: Workers and Bosses: Class, Capitalism, and the Corporation (Part 1) (2/10/2000)

Readings:

Trachtenberg, Alan

1982 The incorporation of America: culture and society in the gilded age. New York: Hill and Wang. (Preface, Chapters 2 & 3.)

Parenti, Michael

1999 Affluent class and corporate brass in the make believe media. In Mass politics: the politics of popular culture. Daniel M. Shea (ed.) pp 92-103. New York: St. Martins/WORTH.

Week 5: Workers and Bosses: Class, Capitalism, and the Corporation (Part 2) (2/17/2000)

Readings:

Doukas, Dimitra

1997 Corporate capitalism on trial: the hearings of the anthracite coal strike commission, 1902-1903. Identities 3(3):367-398.

New York Times articles on globalization and the World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle

Film: Roger and Me

Week 6: Race in America (Part 1) (2/24/2000)

Readings:

di Leonardo, Micaela

1997 White lies, black myths: rape, race, and the black "underclass." in The gender sexuality reader. Roger Lancaster and Micaela di Leonardo (eds). NY: Routledge.

Blee, Kathleen M

1991 Women in the 1920s' Ku Klux Klan Movement. Feminist studies17(1):57 -

American Anthropological Association

1998 AAA Statement on Race. Anthropology Newsletter, vol.39:3 (September 1998)

Film: Portrait of the Klansman

Week 7: Race in America (Part 2) (3/2/2000)

Readings:

Sacks, Karen

1994 How did Jews become white folks? in Race. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek (eds). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Fischler, Marcelle S.

1999 Circling the welcome wagons. The New York Times December 5, 1999: LI1, 26

Film: Immigration in the Americas

Week 8: Mid-Term Exam (3/9/2000)

Week 9: Spring Break as an American Institution (3/16/2000)

Enjoy your vacation and watch MTV if you can this week...

Week 10: Drag queens: Gender, Performance, and Professionalism (Part 1) (3/23/2000)

Readings:

Newton, Esther

1979 [1972] Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Preface, Chapters 1-3, 5-6)

Film: Paris is Burning

Week 11: Pro-Wrestling: Gender, Performance, and Professionalism (Part 2) (3/30/2000)

Readings:

Mazer, Sharon

1994 The doggie doggie world of professional wrestling. The Drama Review 34(4):96-122.

Mazer, Sharon

1994 The power team: muscular Christianity and the spectacle of conversion. The Drama Review 38(4):162-188.

Film: TBA

Week 12: Harry Potter and the Believers of Charlotte: Church and State (4/6/2000)

Readings:

Carter, Stephen L.

1993 The culture of disbelief : how American law and politics trivialize religious devotion. New York: Basic Books (Chapters 1,6,9,10)

Xerox packet on the Harry Potter and the Kansas Board of Education controversies

Recommended Background Reading:

Rowling, J.K.

1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: Scholastic.

Week 13: Intersexuality: Sex, Bodies, and God (again) (4/13/2000)

Readings:

Chase, Cheryl

1998 Affronting Reason. In Looking Queer: Image and identity in lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered communities. Dawn Atkins. Binghamton: Haworth.

Xerox packet on the intersexuality debates

Film: Hermaphrodites Speak!

Week 14: Rebirth, Liberation, and Transformation (4/20/2000)

Readings:

Fitzgerald, Frances

1986 Starting over. In Cities on a hill. pp.383-414. Simon and Schuster.

Schneider, David M.

1997 Power of culture: notes on some aspects of gay and lesbian kinship in America today. Cultural Anthropology 12(2):270-274.

Week 15: What's "American Culture?" Course Review (4/27/2000)

Final Exam: 5/4/2000