Lecturer: David Valentine Tuesday 6:20-9:50pm
May 23 - August 15, 2000 Office Hours: by arrangement
Phone: 212.995.4700 x 90397 email: [email protected]
Course Overview
Cultural anthropology is the study of human culture and society. The class is organized into several themes, which reflect some of the major concerns of anthropology in the past hundred years -- language, social change, kinship, and gender -- but we will also look at some of the ways in which these traditional concerns have been challenged and rethought by contemporary anthropologists. A focus on ethnography -- the methodology of cultural anthropology -- and a student ethnographic project will highlight the particular benefits of approaching the study of human society and culture from an anthropological point of view, and will also indicate the major underlying theme of anthropology: that social action and human experiences are organized differently in different societies.
Course Requirements
Attendance at all classes is required, and attendance and participation in class discussion will contribute to your assessment, including the preparation of questions to be asked in class. Course evaluation will be based on class participation, two in-class quizzes, a mini-ethnographic project, and final exam. You will also be assessed on three in-class presentations of your project as it develops. Your grade will be assessed according to the following formula:
Two quizzes 30%
Ethnographic project and presentations: 30%
Final Exam: 30%
Class Participation: 10%
Required texts
We will be using a text book, as well as an ethnography which will be the case study for this class. Books are on reserve at Bobst Library. Copies of the books are available for purchase at the NYU Bookstore. We will also be watching several films during the semester. The films are an integral part of the course, and they will be considered part of the course material for purposes of the quizzes and the final exam. The required texts are:
Serena Nanda and Richard L. Warms
1998 Cultural Anthropology (Sixth Edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Lila Abu-Lughod
1986 Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Week 1: Introduction to the Course (5/23/00)
Outline of the class, an overview of American anthropology, class requirements etc.
Readings: None
Week 2: Asking the Questions You Know How To Ask: More about Anthropology (5/30/00)
Now we have some background, we will look at more recent developments in anthropology, and consider what it means to talk about "culture."
Readings:
Nanda and Warms: Chps. 1 & 3 Film: Ishi, The Last Yahi
Week 3: Methodology: How Do You Go about Doing an Ethnographic Study? (6/6/00)
ETHNOGRAPHIC WALKABOUT!
We will discuss some of the dilemmas faced by anthropologists in doing ethnographic fieldwork. In this class, we will begin to talk about your ethnographic project, how to choose a site, what kinds of sites you could choose, and how to think about being an anthropologist. As part of this week's focus on methodology, we will take a field trip into Washington Square Park and view the natives of this strange environment as anthropologists...
Readings:
Nanda and Warms: Chp. 2
Abu-Lughod: Chp. 1
Week 4: Kinship (Part 1): What Makes a Family? (6/13/00) QUIZ # 1
Kinship has been one of the major concerns of anthropologists. We will look at the variety of ways that humans organize family, and how differences across cultures have been explained by anthropologists.
Readings:
Nanda and Warms: Chp. 8 & 9
Week 5: Kinship (Part 2): Patrilineality (6/20/00) 1ST PRESENTATION OF
ETHNOGRAPHIC PROJECTS
This week we will consider more closely the case of the Awlad 'Ali Bedouins.
Readings:
Abu-Lughod: Chps. 2 & 3 Film: Dadi's Family
Week 6: Gender and Sexuality (Part 1) (6/27/00)
How have anthropologists dealt with gender and sexuality in their studies of culture? In this class we will look at the general trends over the past 100 years.
Readings:
Nanda and Warms: Chp. 10.
Abu-Lughod: Chp. 4
7/4/00 - NO CLASS (Independence Day Holiday
Week 7: Gender and Sexuality (Part 2): Alternative Genders and Sexualities QUIZ # 2
(7/11/00)
In this class, we will look more carefully at Nanda's discussion of the Indian Hijra and look at other cultural examples of gender and sexual difference.
Readings:
None (so you can be well prepared for the quiz!) Film: Paris is Burning
Review Nanda and Warms: Chp 10 (pp. 204-208)
Week 8: Language in Social Life (7/18/00) 2nd PRESENTATION OF
ETHNOGRAPHIC PROJECTS
What role does language play in social life? In this class, we will consider some of the approaches to language in anthropology.
Readings:
Nanda and Warms: Chp. 4
Abu-Lughod: Chp. 5 & 6 Film: American Tongues
Week 9: Language and Social Change (7/25/00)
Looking at language is also useful in considering how societies and cultures change. In this class we will look at different ways that anthropologists have thought about social change.
Readings:
Nanda and Warms: Chp 15
Abu-Lughod: Chp. 7
Week 10: Social Hierarchies, Power, and Resistance 3rd PRESENTATION OF
(8/1/00) ETHNOGRAPHIC PROJECTS
How do the themes of the class so far tie into issues of social hierarchy, power, and resistance to power?
Readings:
Nanda and Warms: Chps. 11 & 12
Abu-Lughod: Chp 8
Week 11: Course Review: The Uses of Anthropology (8/8/00) ETHNOGRAPHIC
PROJECTS DUE
In this class we will review the themes of the classes and look at some of the ways in which anthropology has become a part of broader arguments about social life, cultural relativism, and change.
Readings:
Nanda and Warms: Chp. 16
Week 12: Final Exam (In Class) (8/15/00)