Ant 395.01 Seminar: Anthropology of Identity

T-TH 2:15-4:05, Fall, 2002

Mr. Caulkins

Goodnow 109

Goodnow 301

CAULKINS@grinnell.edu

Telephone 269 3136

Office Hours: Office Hours: TTh 10:30-12:00 & MWF 10:30-11:30

SEMINAR: Anthropology of Identity

Anthropology 395.01 "Advanced Special Topic: Anthropology of Identity."  A study of the social construction of identities (class, gender, ethnic, and national) cross-culturally.  The construction of conceptions of "self" and "other" in bounded units within the larger political and economic structure, and the narratization of self in the development of a conception of career. The questions posed by this course include: How are social identities socialized, practiced and embodied by individuals? How are gender, ethnic, and sexual identities created, maintained, and challenged in discourse and practice? How are collective identities based upon racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic distinctions created and recreated?  How do individuals experience these identities?  How do they become institutionalized? How are ethnic, gender, and linguistic identities mobilized in the creation of national identities?  What social collectivities are included and excluded from the nation?

 
Prerequisites: Anthropology 280.  4 + 2 credits.

 REQUIRED BOOKS

Erving Goffman, 1959. Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor

Michael Herzfeld, 1985 (reprinted 1988). Poetics of Manhood: Contest and Identity in a Cretan Mountain Village. Princeton University Press

Lorraine Delia Kenny, 2000. Daughters of Suburbia: Growing Up White, Middle Class, and Female. Rutgers University Press

Rafael L. Ramirez, 1999   What it Means to Be a Man: Reflections on Puerto Rican Masculinity Rutgers University Press

Benedict Anderson 1991 [1983] Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso Books

Gerd Baumann 1999 The Multicultural Riddle: Rethinking National, Ethnic, and Religious Identities. New York: Routledge

Handouts:

2000 Douglas Caulkins, Anna Painter, and Tanya Hedges “Regional Identity and the Prospect of Devolution in Northeast England: A Method for Cross-Regional Comparison.” For World Cultures: Journal of Comparative and Cross-Cultural Research. 11 (2), 121-137.

2001 Douglas Caulkins “Consensus, Clines, and Edges in Celtic Cultures.” Cross-Cultural Research, 35, (2), 109-126.

Course Requirements

1.      Discussion leading, rotated among seminar members, with one page “response note” on the set of readings for the day by the discussion leader(s). (20 points)

2.      Synthesis paper of 7-10 pages at midterm (25 points)

3.      Seminar Paper, preferably involving field data, dealing with some identity issue covered in this course. Alternately, for students particularly interested in archaeology and/or biological anthropology, you might consider writing about controversies or problems in those fields dealing with identity. For example, the interpretation of changes of archaeological cultures as migration vs. indigenous development focuses on identity. Identity also is an issue in the “Neanderthal problem” and in forensic anthropology.  (35 points for paper; 10 points for seminar presentation)

4.      Participation in class discussion (10 points)

READING SCHEDULE

Th 8/29            Introduction

Performing Selves

            Questions: How are social identities socialized, practiced and embodied by individuals?

Tue9/3

The Rise and Fall of the Human Subject

Brian Morris

Man, New Series, Vol. 20, No. 4. (Dec., 1985), pp. 722-742.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28198512%292%3A20%3A4%3C722%3ATRAFOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F

Goffman: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Introduction & Chapter 1, Performances.

Th 9/5                   Goffman: Chapter II, Teams

Tue9/10             Goffman: Chapter III, Regions and Regional Behavior

Th 9/12             Goffman: Chapter IV, Discrepant Roles

Tue 9/17             Goffman: Chapter V, Communication out of Character

Th 9/19             Goffman: Chapter VI, Arts of Impression Management, Conclusion

Negotiating Selves: Performance and Power

Questions: How are gender, ethnic, and sexual identities created, maintained, and challenged in discourse and practice?

Tue 9/24            Herzfeld: Preface and Chapter 1 The Poetics of Manhood        

Th 9/26            Herzfeld: Chapter 2, Lines of Contest

Tue10/1            Herzfeld: Chapter 4, Idioms of Contest

                        http://www.theory.org.uk/giddens.htm  Modernity and Self-Identity; The Reflexive project of the self

Th 10/3            Herzfeld: Chapter 5, 6, Stealing to Befriend; Reciprocity and Closure

Tue 10/8            Herzfeld: Chapter 7, 8, Sin and Self; Transformations

Th 10/10          Ramirez: Chapters 1-3.

Tue 10/15            Ramirez: Chapters 4-5

Th 10/17            Synthesis paper on performance and self

Fall Break

Tue 10/29            Kenny: Daughters of Suburbia, Chapters 1-3

Th 10/31            Kenny: Chapters 4-5

Tue 11/5            Kenny: Chapters 5-6, Conclusion

                        Ortner, Sherry 1998. “Identities: The Hidden Life of Class”. Journal of Anthropological Research. 54 (1) 1-18.

Imagined Communities: National, Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Identities

Questions: How are collective identities based upon racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic distinctions created and recreated?  How do individuals experience these identities?  How do they become institutionalized? How are ethnic, gender, and linguistic identities mobilized in the creation of national identities?  What social collectivities are included and excluded from the nation?

Th 11/7            Baumann: The Multicultural Riddle; Chapters 1-5

                        Debating Identity

Cultural Logic and Maya Identity: Rethinking Constructivism and Essentialism

Edward F. Fischer

Current Anthropology, Vol. 40, No. 4. (Aug. - Oct., 1999), pp. 473-499.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199908%2F199910%2940%3A4%3C473%3ACLAMIR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23

Tue 11/12            Baumann: The Multicultural Riddle; Chapters 6-12

                        Douglas Caulkins “Consensus, Clines, and Edges in Celtic Cultures.” Cross-Cultural Research, 35, ( 2), 109-126.

Th 11/14            Anderson, Imagined Communities: Preface, Chapters 1-5

            Cultural Citizenship as Subject-Making: Immigrants Negotiate Racial and Cultural Boundaries in the United States

Aihwa Ong

Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 5. (Dec., 1996), pp. 737-762.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199612%2937%3A5%3C737%3ACCASIN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8

Tue 11/19            Anderson, Chapters 8, 9.

Th 11/21            Anderson, Chapters 10, 11

Celtic Ethnic Kinship and the Problem of Being English

Maryon McDonaldCurrent Anthropology, Vol. 27, No. 4. (Aug. - Oct., 1986), pp. 333-347.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28198608%2F198610%2927%3A4%3C333%3ACEKATP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W

Tue 11/26            2000 Douglas Caulkins, Anna Painter, and Tanya Hedges “Regional Identity and the Prospect of Devolution in Northeast England: A Method for Cross-Regional Comparison.” For World Cultures: Journal of Comparative and Cross-Cultural Research. 11 (2), 121-137.    

Filming Through the Mists of Time: Celtic Constructions and the Documentary

Angela Piccini

Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 1, Supplement: Special Issue: Anthropology in Public. (Feb., 1996), pp. S87-S111.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199602%2937%3A1%3CS87%3AFTTMOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9

Tue 12/3            Seminar Presentations

Th 12/5            Seminar Presentations

Tue 12/10            Seminar Presentations

Th 12/12            Seminar Presentations

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Potential Resources for students interested in field studies on narrating the self:

Narrating the Self

Elinor Ochs, Lisa Capps

Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 25. (1996), pp. 19-43.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0084-6570%281996%292%3A25%3C19%3ANTS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C

All Made Up: Performance Theory and the New Anthropology of Sex and Gender

Rosalind C. Morris

Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24. (1995), pp. 567-592.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0084-6570%281995%292%3A24%3C567%3AAMUPTA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W

On Acquiring Social Categories: Cognitive Development and Anthropological Wisdom

Lawrence A. Hirschfeld

Man, New Series, Vol. 23, No. 4. (Dec., 1988), pp. 611-638.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28198812%292%3A23%3A4%3C611%3AOASCCD%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4

Some Resources for the study of national/Ethnic identities:

Making National Cultures in the Global Ecumene

Robert J. Foster

Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 20. (1991), pp. 235-260.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0084-6570%281991%292%3A20%3C235%3AMNCITG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V

On Sociocultural Discontinuity: Nationalism and Cultural Objectification in Quebec

Richard Handler

Current Anthropology, Vol. 25, No. 1. (Feb., 1984), pp. 55-71.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28198402%2925%3A1%3C55%3AOSDNAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H

Value Themes of the Native American Tribalistic Movement Among the South Dakota Sioux (in American Indian Action)

Robert A. White

Current Anthropology, Vol. 15, No. 3. (Sep., 1974), pp. 284-303.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28197409%2915%3A3%3C284%3AVTOTNA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K

International Exhibitions and National Identity

Burton Benedict

Anthropology Today, Vol. 7, No. 3. (Jun., 1991), pp. 5-9.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0268-540X%28199106%297%3A3%3C5%3AIEANI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R

Culture and Identity in the South Pacific: A Comparative Analysis

Robert Norton

Man, New Series, Vol. 28, No. 4. (Dec., 1993), pp. 741-759.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28199312%292%3A28%3A4%3C741%3ACAIITS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J

Potential Resources for Students interested in writing on biological anthropology or archaeology:

CA Forum on Anthropology in Public: Complicities and Collaborations: Anthropologists and the "Unacknowledged Tribes" of California

Les W. Field

Current Anthropology, Vol. 40, No. 2. (Apr., 1999), pp. 193-209.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199904%2940%3A2%3C193%3ACFOAIP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I

Archaeologists and Migrations: A Problem of Attitude? (in Critique on Archaeology)

Heinrich Harke

Current Anthropology, Vol. 39, No. 1. (Feb., 1998), pp. 19-45.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199802%2939%3A1%3C19%3AAAMAPO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F

Symbiotic Interaction Between Black Farmers and South-Eastern San: Implications for Southern African Rock Art Studies, Ethnographic Analogy, and Hunter-Gatherer Cultural Identity (in Cultural Representation and the Methodology of Close Reading in Archaeology)

Pieter Jolly

Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 2. (Apr., 1996), pp. 277-305.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199604%2937%3A2%3C277%3ASIBBFA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K

New Models and Metaphors for the Neanderthal Debate

Paul Graves

Current Anthropology, Vol. 32, No. 5. (Dec., 1991), pp. 513-541.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199112%2932%3A5%3C513%3ANMAMFT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2

 

Genetic Affinities of the Balts: A Study of Blood Groups, Serum Proteins and Enzymes of Lithuanians in the United Kingdom

R. G. Harvey, D. Tills, A. Warlow, A. C. Kopec, K. Domaniewska-Sobczak, D. Suter, J. M. Lord

Man, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 3. (Sep., 1983), pp. 535-552.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28198309%292%3A18%3A3%3C535%3AGAOTBA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y

Structure, Event and Historical Metaphor: Rice and Identities in Japanese History

Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 1, No. 2. (Jun., 1995), pp. 227-253.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1359-0987%28199506%291%3A2%3C227%3ASEAHMR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D

Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines (in Cultural Representation and the Methodology of Close Reading in Archaeology)

LeRoy McDermott

Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 2. (Apr., 1996), pp. 227-275.

Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199604%2937%3A2%3C227%3ASIUPFF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X