Introduction to Anthropological Perspectives
Second Semester
Winter 2011 Session
Graduate Diploma in Social Sciences
Nepā School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Instructors: Dr Mukta S. Lama (Tamang) and Dambar Chemjong
Course Description
This is an introductory course in social and cultural anthropology, which may be defined as the study of human cultures in all their various forms. The course is designed to expose the students to some of the key ideas in the discipline by examining select theories and major perspectives. Through readings and lectures, we shall explore how wider socio-cultural processes shape individual lives and how changes that occur around us influence our sense of self and subjectivities. The main rationale of the course is to enable the students to engage with basic anthropological concepts and introduce them to the work of selected anthropologists.
Course Objectives
After successfully completing the course, the students will be able to appreciate the contribution of anthropological perspectives for making sense of different cultures on their own terms and understanding (anthropologically) socio-cultural and political changes around us. The distinguishing features of anthropology are its comparative approach to the study of human society and its use of the ethnographic fieldwork, especially participant observation. Through a critical examination of the debates on the problematics in the notions of the field and ethnography – particularly, the representation of the peoples ‘studied’ – this course will provide a sense of the general approach anthropologists take when they study both culture and contemporary socio-cultural and political issues and changes. The course will thus enable students to analytically pursue anthropological enquiries and questions. By the end of the course, the students will have learnt what anthropology as a discipline is about and gained a necessary background for advanced level courses.
Course Requirements
Class attendance and participation: There will be two classes per week, 90 minutes per class. Classes would be a combination of lectures (half an hour), 10 to 15 minute presentation by a student, discussion and summing up. It is expected that the students would have read the required readings before the lecture in order to understand and participate in the lectures.
Participation in discussions and readings: Students are required to play an active role in the class/lectures. Every week, students are expected to complete the readings required for each week. The main purpose of this assessment is to encourage the students to get habituated to reading. Class participation and readings will account for 10% of the final grade.
Book/article review (500 words): By the third week of the course, the students are required to choose a book/article for review in consultation with their instructor. The students are required to engage critically with the arguments discussed in the book. The main purpose of the book review is to focus on the intensive reading of an anthropological work and give students an opportunity to critically review the book. Book reviews will account for 20% of the final grade.
Essay (2500 words excluding references): Students are required to prepare on original essay in an anthropologically relevant topic. In the essay, the students are required to engage with theoretical ideas and ethnographic case studies on the chosen subject. The main purpose of this essay is to enable the students to engage on theoretical questions on the given subject and will account for 30% of the final grade.
Final paper: Students will be required to submit a final paper of approximately 3000 words, topics to be decided in consultation with the instructor. The paper should be submitted latest by 5 p.m. seven days after the last class and will account for 40% of the final grade.
Detailed Course Outline
Week 1: Introduction to Anthropology
Lecture: What are the objective and requirement of the course? What does it mean to be anthropological, How is anthropology an encounter? The ideas of difference/ comparison/ native/ foreign, ethnography and writing?
Required Readings
Barnard, A. 2000. "Visions of Anthropology," History and Theory in anthropology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-14.
Ortner, Sherry B. 1984. “Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 126-166.
Additional Reading
Malinowski, B. 1961. "Introduction: The Subject, Method and Scope of This Inquiry," Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea, New York: Dutton, pp. 1-25.
Week 2: Evolutionism and Historical Particularism
Required Readings
Spencer, Herbert. 1998. "The Organic Analogy Reconsidered," in Erickson, P. A. and L. D. Murphy (eds.) Readings for a History of Anthropology Theory, Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, pp. 56-62.
Morgan, Lewis. 1998. "Ethnical Periods," in Erickson, P. A. and L. D. Murphy (eds.) Readings for a History of Anthropology Theory, Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, pp. 43-55.
Boas, F. 1988. "The Limitation of the Comparative Method of Anthropology," in Bohannan, P. and M. Glazer (eds.) High Points in Anthropology, New York: Knopf, pp. 85-92.
Additional Readings
White, Leslie A. 1988. "Energy and Evolution of Culture," in Bohannan, P. and M. Glazer (eds.) High Points in Anthropology, New York: Knopf, pp. 337-355.
Steward, Julian. 1988. "The Concept and Method of Cultural Ecology," in Bohannan, P. and M. Glazer (eds.) High Points in Anthropology, New York: Knopf, pp. 322-332.
Kroeber, Alfred. "The Concept of Culture in Science," in Erickson, P. A. and L. D. Murphy (eds.) Readings for a History of Anthropology Theory, Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, pp. 104-123.
Week 3: Functionalism and Structural-Functionalism
Required Readings
Barnard, A. "Functionalism and Structural-Functionalism," History and Theory in Anthropology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61-79.
Malinowski, B. 1984. "The Essentials of Kula," Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Illinois: Waveland Press, pp. 81-104.
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1988. "On Social Structure," in Bohannan, P. and M. Glazer (eds.) High Points in Anthropology, New York: Knopf, pp. 304-316.
Additional Readings
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1940. "Interest in the Cattle," The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 1-50.
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1988. "On the Concept of Function in Social Science," in Bohannan, P. and M. Glazer (eds.) High Points in Anthropology, New York: Knopf, pp. 297-303.
Week 4: Rites of Passage
Required Readings
Gennep, A. V. 1960. "Conclusions," in Gennep, A. V. (ed.) The Rites of Passage. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, pp. 189-194.
Kimball, S. T. 1960. "Introduction," in Gennep, A. V. (ed.) The Rites of Passage, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, pp. v-xix.
Turner, V. W. 1995. "Liminality and Communitas," The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure, New York: Aldinede Gruyeter, pp. 94-130.
Additional Reading
Turner, V. W. 1967. "Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in the Rites de Passage," The Forest of symbols; Aspects of Ndembu Ritual, Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, pp. 93-111.
Week 5: Structuralism
Required Readings
Saussure, F. D. 1966. "Nature of the Linguistic Sign," Course in General Linguistics, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, pp. 65-70.
Levi-Struass, C. 1967. "Structural Study of Myth," Structural Anthropology, New York: Anchor Books, pp. 202-228.
Doughlas, M. 1966. "Secular Defilement," Purity and Danger, London, Boston and Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 29-40.
Dumont, L. 1980. "From the System to Structure: The Pure and the Impure," in Homo Hierarchicus, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 33-64.
Additional Readings
Leach, E. 1998. "Structuralism in Social Anthropology," in Erickson, P. A. and L. D. Murphy (eds.) Readings for a History of Anthropology Theory, Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, pp. 313-331.
Levi-Struass, C. 1967. “Structural Analysis in Linguistics and in Anthropology,” and “Social Structure,” Structural Anthropology. New York: Anchor Books, pp. 31-54 & 277-323.
Week 6: Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology
Required Readings
Ortner, S. B. 1973. "On Key Symbols," American Anthropologist, Vol. 75, No. 5, pp. 1338-1346.
Geertz, C. 1973. "Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture," The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, New York: Basic Books, pp. 3-30.
Geertz, C. 1973. "Deep Play: Notes on Balinese cockfight," The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, New York: Basic Books, pp 412-453.
Additional Readings
Turner, V. W. 1967. "Symbols in Ndembu Ritual," The Forest of Symbols; Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, London, Cornell University Press, pp 19-47.
Tambiah, Stanley J. 1968. “Animals Are Good to Think and Good to Prohibit,” Ethnology, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 423-459.
Week 7: Exchange, Gift and Symbols
Required Readings
Mauss, M. 1990. "Introduction" and "The Exchange of Gifts and the Obligations to Recipocrate (Polynesia)," The Gif : The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, New York: W.W. Norton, pp. 1-7 & 8-18.
Godelier, M. 1999. "Introduction," The Enigma of the Gift, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 1-9.
Bourdieu, P. 1991. "On Symbolic Power," Language and Symbolic Power, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp. 163-170.
Additional Reading
Mauss, M. 1990. "The Extension of this System," The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, New York: W.W. Norton, pp 19-83.
Sahlins, M. D. 1972. "The Spirit of the Gift," Stone Age Economics, New York: Aldine, pp 149-183.
Week 8: Marxist Anthropology
Required Readings
Godelier, M. 1977. "Introduction," Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-11.
Turner, T. 2006. "Marxian Value Theory: An Anthropological Perspective," to appear in Eiss, Paul and David Pedersen (eds.) Values of Value, Cornell University, pp. 1-24.
Graeber, D. 2006. "Turning Modes of Production Inside Out Or, Why Capitalism is a Transformation of Slavery," Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 61-85.
Additional Readings
Marx, K. and F. Engels. 1978. "Theses on Feuerbach," in Tucker, R. C. (ed.) The Marx-Engels Reader, New York: Norton, pp 143-145.
Avineri, Shlomo.1968. "Homo Faber," The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 65-95
Week 9: Historical Anthropology
Required Readings
Cohn, Bernard S. 1987. "An Anthropologist among the Historians: A Field Study," An Anthropologist among the Historians and other Essays, Delhi: New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-17.
Cohn, Bernard S. 1980. “History and Anthropology: The state of play,” Comparative Studies in History and Society, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp.198-221.
Additional Readings
Faubion, James D. 1993. “History in Anthropology,” Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 22, pp. 35-54.
Sahlins, Marshall David. 1985. "Structure and History," Islands of History, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 136-156.
Week 10: Practice and Power in Anthropology
Required Readings
Bourdieu, P. 1990. "Introduction," "The Social Uses of Kinship," and "Irresistible Analogy," The Logic of Practice, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp.145-161, 162-199 & 200-329.
Foucault, M. 1994. "Truth and Power," in Erickson, P.A. and L.D. Murphy (eds.) Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory, Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press, pp. 111-133.
Ortner, S. B. 2006. “Introduction: Updating Practice Theory," and "Chapter Six: Power and Projects,”Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject, Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 3-18.
Additional Reading
Bourdieu, P. 1997. "Structures, Habitus, Power: Basis for a Theory of Symbolic Power," in Dirks, N.B., G Eley and S.B. Ortner (eds.) An Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 159-197.
Week 11: Feminist Anthropology
Required Readings
Ortner, S. 2006. “So Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?,” in Rosaldo, M. Z. and L. Lamphere (eds.) Woman, Culture, and Society, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 68-87.
Additional Reading
Charsley, Katharine. 2005. "Unhappy Husbands: Masculinity and Migration in Transnational Pakistani Marriages," Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 1. pp. 85-105.
Week 12: Colonialism and Postcolonialism
Required Readings
Asad, T. (ed.) 1973. "Two European Images of Non-European Rule," in Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter, London: Ithaca Press, pp.103-118.
Pels, P. 1997. "The Anthropology of Colonialism: Culture, History, and the Emergence of Western Governmentality," Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 26, pp. 163-183.
Cohn, B. S. 1996. “Introduction,” Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-15.
Additional Readings
Wolfe, P. 1997. "History and Imperialism: A Century of Theory, from Marx to Postcolonialism," The American Historical Review, Vol. 102, No. 2, pp. 388-420.
Guha, R. 1988. "On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India," in Guha, R. and G. C. Spivak (eds.) Selected Subaltern Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 37-44.
Week 13: Globalization and Localization
Required Readings
Appadurai, A. 1996. "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy," Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 27-47.
Kearney, M. 1995. "The Local and Global: Anthropology of Globalization and Transnationalism," Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24, pp. 547-565.
Malkki, Liisa. 1992. “National Geographic: The Rooting of People and the Territorialization of National Identity among Scholars and Refugees,” in Cultural Anthropology, Vol.7, No. 1, pp. 24-44.
Additional Readings
Turner, T. 2006. "Class Projects, Social Consciousness and Contradiction of Globalization." unpublished article, Cornell University, pp.1-52.
Mintz, S. W. 1985. "Production," and "Consumption," Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, New York: N.Y. Viking, pp. 19-73 & 74-150.
Week 14: Representation in Anthropology and New Ethnographies
Required Readings
Clifford, J. (1983). "On Ethnographic Authority," Representations, Vol 1, No. 2, pp. 118-146.
Narayan, Kirin. 1993. “How Native is a ‘Native’ Anthropologist?” American Anthropologist, Vol. 95, No. 3, pp. 671-686.
Pigg, S. L. 1992. "Inventing Social Categories through Space: Social Representation and Development in Nepal," Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 491-513.
Gupta, Akhil and James Ferguson. 1997. “Discipline and Practice: ‘The Field’ as Site, Method and Location in Anthropology,” in, Gupta, Akhil and James Ferguson (eds.) Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1-46.
Additional Readings
Fabian, Johannes.1990. “Presence and Representation: The Other in Anthropological Writing,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 16, pp. 753-772.
Marcus, George E. 1995. “Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography,” Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24, pp. 95-117
Peirano, Mariza G. S. 1998. “When Anthropology Is at Home: The Different Contexts of a Single Discipline,”Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 27, pp. 105-128.
Said, E. 1978. "Introduction," Orientalism, New York: Pantheon. pp. 1-28.
Week 15: Review