Theories of Culture

Anth 280.01 – Fall 2002

 

 

Lecture:            T/TH:  2:15-4:05                       Instructor:      Monty Roper

Goodnow Hall      Rm 105                         305 Goodnow Hall

Office phone: 269-3017

e-mail: roperjm@grinnell.edu

 

Office Hours: M,T,W & F 10-12  During office hours, you are welcome to stop by without an appointment.  You are also welcome to stop by during non-office hours, though I will often be occupied and unable to meet.  I will, however, be happy to schedule appointments during non-office hours.  If you are having problems with course materials for any reason, I strongly encourage you to come see me.

 

Accommodations for students with disabilities: Any student eligible for and needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability is requested to speak with the professor no later than Oct 13.  You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Associate Dean and Director of Academic Advising, Joyce Stern, located in the lower level of the Forum (x3702).

 

Course Description and Goals

This course provides a survey of major Western theories and theorists in the history of social anthropology.  Beginning in antiquity, we will examine how anthropological ideas about human society, social relations and, in particular, culture have evolved over time.  While the breadth of the material is considerable, it is certainly not exhaustive (despite what your sentiments may be around mid-semester).  There are many persons and theories that we will simply not have time to explore.  Our focus will be primarily on twentieth century theories, particularly those developed prior to the last decade.  In the last two and one-half weeks of the semester we will undertake a brief review of contemporary issues and theories.  Additional coverage of recent theory and issues in anthropology is found in the department's 300-level courses.

A basic goal of the course is to come to recognize and understand a number of central theoretical schools of thought (such as historical particularism, functionalism, cultural ecology, structuralism, postmodernism, etc.), some of the main proponents of these, and how such approaches have informed ethnographic inquiry.  The course is also intended to elucidate a number of key themes and debates that have recurred over the history of social theorizing.  These include questions on the nature of culture, the integration of culture or society, and the role of the individual, as well as the tensions between materialism/idealism, historical/ahistorical approaches; culture/society, emic/etic, particularism/comparativism, and psychological/sociological emphasis.

The goal of the course is not to attempt to judge what theories are “true”.  Knowledge is always tentative and partial in any case, and theories are simply ways to try to expand and order knowledge.  As such, they can be more or less useful, and we will be asking in what ways particular theories are useful for helping us to see or understand something about society and culture.  When we encounter differences of opinion about the usefulness of particular theories, we will ask why such differences of opinion exist.  In particular, by taking a chronological approach, we will examine how ideas develop and unfold out of the matrix of pre-existing ideas and the importance of the social context of the time.

The focus of the course is quite intentional for the department.  We found in the past that students in upper-level seminars experienced difficulty contextualizing, and therefore in comprehending, current approaches in anthropology because they did not understand how current approaches developed, what they were reacting against, and what they were carrying over from the past.  At the request of students, we developed this course in the history of anthropology to better prepare them for developing an overall grasp of the discipline.

 

Required Texts

  1. Paul Bohannan and Mark Glazer, High Points in Anthropology. 2nd ed. (1988)
  2. Jerry D. Moore, Visions of Culture (1997)
  3. E.L. Cerroni-Long, Anthropological Theory in North America (1999)

 

Reserved Readings

There will be a number of readings that will come from R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms’  Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (1996).  While I am not making this a “required text”, some of you might want to go ahead and see if you can find a used copy on the web (try Amazon.com marketplace, or powells.com).  It is certainly a valuable resource for any anthropology major.  Two copies of the text should also be available on reserve in the library.  I will also make copies of the required articles available in the anthropology student project room (304 Goodnow).  There will also be a small number of additional readings.  I will make as many of these as possible (legal) available through the library’s e-reserve system.  Those for which e-reserve is not possible will be available on regular reserve and in 304 Goodnow.

 

A Note on the Readings and Class Preparation

It is imperative that you keep up on the readings for this course and plan your schedule so that you have enough time to do a thorough reading.  The most difficult readings will be the original essays (primarily from Bohannan and Glazer, and McGee and Warms).  A good way to read these is to read them first very quickly to get a general idea of the material, and then read them more carefully, making sure that you understand the main argument, and thinking about how this responds to or relates to other ideas that we have read and discussed.  I strongly recommend that you take notes on what you see as the key points or ideas from the readings.  These will serve in both discussion and in preparation for the exams.  The Moore book can be read more quickly and will help to set the context for the original essays.  It will also provide a set of ideas concerning relations to other theorists and strengths and weaknesses that you might want to consider.

 

Course Requirements

1.       Examinations (55%): There will be 3 examinations over the course of the semester.  The first will cover Historical Foundations and the Early 20th Century (15% of final grade).  The second will cover from about 1950 to the 1990s (20% of final grade), and the final exam (20% of the final grade) will cover the remainder of the material and include some of the earlier material as well.

2.       Paper 1 (15%): Critical theoretical analysis of ethnography and class presentation.  Due dates will be assigned based on the ethnographer chosen.

3.       Paper 2 (15%): Theoretical review for a research proposal.  Final draft due Dec 13th.

4.       Participation (15%): Learning is best done as an interactive process.  In this course it is essential that you keep up with the reading and come to class prepared to answer questions, ask questions, and engage in discussion of materials with the class.  Each class will include a mixture of lecture and discussion.  The best way to participate is to come to class prepared.  Having simply read the materials is rarely sufficient.  You should make notes as you read and, when you are done, make a list of questions that occur to you, connections that strike you from other readings, etc.  You will be required to post questions each week to a blackboard website for consideration by the class and come to class prepared to engage these questions.  Everyone will also be required to lead discussion in at least one class.

5.       Attendance:  Attendance is required and I will take roll.  Any exam or in-class activity that is missed because of an unexcused absence will receive a zero.  An excused absence is given only through prior permission of the instructor, or in the case of medical emergencies (a visit to the health center does not suffice) or death in the family.  In the later two cases, notice must be provided through academic affairs.  The class begins at 2:15pm based on the clock in the classroom.  Please do not make a habit of coming to class late, as this is disruptive to the class.  Anyone that misses more than 4 classes for any reason or is habitually late to class will automatically lose 1/3rd of their participation grade.

 

 

COURSE SCHEDULE

(Subject to modification as necessary)

Date

Topic

Readings

  • B&G: Bohannan and Glazier text
  • C-L: Cerroni-Long text
  • M&W: McGee and Warms
  • RR: Reserved reading
  • ER: E-reserved reading

Section I: Historical Foundations of Anthropological Theory

Aug 29

Intro to course

Main Themes

The Ancient World through the Middle Ages

·         Moore: Introduction

·         B&G: Introduction

·         RR: Malefijt, “Images of Man,” Chps 1-2

Sept 3

The Renaissance, Enlightenment, and the Rise of Positivism

·         RR: Harris, “The Rise of Anthropological Theory,” Ch 2 (Enlightenment) & 3 (Reaction and Recovery)

Sept 5

19th Century Evolutionism

·         B&G: Herbert Spencer

·         B&G: Edward Burnett Tylor

·         B&G: Lewis Henry Morgan

·         Moore: Chapter 1 (Tylor)

·         Moore: Chapter 2 (Morgan)

Sept 10

Dialectical Materialism and Marxism

 

·         M&W #4: K. Marx and F. Engels, “Feuerbach.  Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook”

·         RR: Roberts and Hite: K. Marx and F. Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) and Alienated Labor (1844)”

Sept 12

Foundations of Sociology and European Anthropology

·         B&G: Émile Durkheim

·         Moore: Chapter 4 (Durkheim)

Section II: Cultural Theory in the Early 20th Century

Sept 17

Historical Particularism (Foundations of American Anthropology)

·         B&G: Boas

·         Moore: Chapter 3 (Boas)

·         B&G: Kroeber

·         Moore: Chapter 5 (Kroeber)

Sept 19

Functionalism and the Nature of Society (early British Social Anthropology)

·         B&G: Bronislaw Malinowski

·         Moore: Chapter 10 (Malinowski)

·         B&G: A.R. Radcliffe-Brown

·         Moore: Chapter 11 (Radcliffe-Brown)

Sept 24

Culture and Personality

·         B&G: Ruth Fulton Benedict

·         Moore: Chapter 6 (Benedict)

·         B&G: Ralph Linton

·         Moore: Chapter 8 (Mead)

Sept 26

The Influence of Freud (& catch up day)

·         B&G: Abram Kardiner

Oct 1

Anthropology at Mid-Century

·         B&G: E.E. Evans-Pritchard

·         Moore: Chapter 12 (Evans-Pritchard)

 

Oct 3

 

Exam 1

 

Section III: Anthropology Diversifies (1950-1975)

Oct 8

Neoevolutionism and Cultural Ecology

·         B&G: Leslie A. White

·         Moore: Chapter 13 (White)

·         B&G: Julian Steward

·         Moore: Chapter 14 (Steward)

Oct 10

Ecological Anthropology and Cultural Materialism

·         RR: Roy Rappaport “Ritual Regulation of Environmental Relations Among a New Guinea People”

·         B&G: Marvin Harris

·         Moore: Chapter 15 (Harris)

Oct 15

Cognitive Anthropology

·         Moore Ch 7 (Edward Sapir)

·         B&G Sapir

·         B&G : Benjamin Lee Whorf

Oct 17

Cognitive Anth cont. (& catch up day)

·        M&W: “Ethnoscience and Cognitive Anthropology”;

·        M&W 28: Stephen A. Tyler, “Introduction to Cognitive Anthropology”

Oct 18 – 28

Fall Break!!

Please Have Fun

Oct 29

Structuralism

·         B&G: Claude Lévi-Strauss

·         Moore: Chapter 17 (Lévi-Strauss)

Oct 31

Symbolic Anthropology

·         B&G: Victor Turner

·         Moore Chapter 18 (Turner)

·         M&W #34: Mary Douglas, “External Boundaries”

·         Moore Chapter 20 (Douglas)

Nov 5

Interpretive Anthropology

·         B&G: Clifford Geertz

·         Moore Chapter 19 (Geertz)

Section IV: More Recent Developments: 1975-1995

Nov 7

Sociobiology (Biosocial Studies)

·         M&W, “Sociobiology”

·         M&W #29: Edward O. Wilson, “The Morality of the Gene”

·         M&W #30: Jerome H. Barkow, “The Elastic Between Genes and Culture”

Nov 12

Political Economy and Political Ecology

·         ER: J. Nash Ethnographic Aspects of the World Capitalist System

·         E-R: E. Wolf, Introduction to “Europe and the People without History”

·         RR: Schmink and Wood, “The Political Ecology of Amazonia.  In Lands at Risk in the Third World”

Nov 14

Feminist Approaches

·         M&W, “Anthropology and Gender: The Feminist Critique”

·         M&W #31: Sally Slocum, “Woman the Gatherer: Male Bias in Anthropology”

·         M&W #32: Sherry Ortner, “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?”

·         M&W #33: Melissa Llewelyn-Daves, “Women, Warriors, and Patriarchs”

·         (optional) Moore Chapter 16: Leacock “Feminism, Marxism, and History

Nov 19

Postmodernism

·         McGee and Warms: “Postmodernism”;

·         M&W #37: Renato Rosaldo, “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage”;

·         M&W $38: Vincent Crapanzano, “Herme’s Dilemma: The Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description.”

 

Nov 21– Exam 2

 

Section V: Contemporary Issues and the Future of Cultural Theory

Nov 26

Anthropology at Century’s End

·         C-L: Vesna Godina, “Forward”

·         C-L: Cerroni-Long, “Introduction: Anthropology at Century’s End”

·         C-L: Bohannan, Womack and Saenz, “Paradigms Refound: The Structure of Anthropological Revolutions”

 

Nov 28 – Thanksgiving Break – No Class

 

Dec 3

Critical Issues

·         C-L: Asquith, “The ‘World System’ of Anthropology and ‘Professional Others’”

·         C-L: Edgerton, “Maladaptation: A Challenge to Relativism.”

·         RR: Clifford Geertz, “Anti Anti-Relativism”

·         C-L: Harris, “Science, Objectivity, Morality”

·         C-L: D’Andrade, “Culture is not Everything”

Dec 5

Theoretical Models:

·             Realist Approaches

 

 

 

·             Behaviorist Approaches

 

·         C-L: O’Meara, “Causal Individualism and the Unification of Anthropology”

·         C-L: Maxwell, “A Realist/Postmodern Concept of Culture”

 

·         C-L: Harries-Jones, “Immanent Holism: On Transfer of Knowledge from Global to Local”

·         C-L: Cartledge, “Toward an Anthropological Theory of Natural Resource Management in Indigenous Communities.”

Dec 10
  • Inductive Approaches

·         C-L: Dossa, “Recapturing Anthropology in Marginal Communities”

·         CL: Paul Magnarella, “Human Materialism: A Paradigm for Analyzing Sociocultural Systems and Understanding Human Behavior”

Dec 12

<