AnthropologyIntroduction to Anthropological Perspectives
First Semester 2010
Graduate Diploma in Social Sciences
Nepā School of Social Sciences and Humanities
Instructors: Mukta S. Lama (Tamang) and Jeevan Sharma
Course Description
This is an introductory course in social and cultural anthropology - the study of human cultures in all their various forms. The course is designed to expose the students to some of the key ideas of the discipline by examining selected theories and perspectives in anthropology. Through readings and lectures, it explores how wider socio-cultural processes shape individual lives and changes that occur around us influence our sense of self and subjectivities. The main rationale of the course is to engage students with basic anthropological concepts and introduce them the work of selected anthropologists.
Course Objectives
After successfully completing the course, the students will be able to appreciate the contribution of anthropological perspectives to make sense of cultures in their own terms and understand socio-cultural and political changes. The distinguishing features of anthropology are ethnographic fieldwork and especially participant observation; and it is comparative. Through the critical examination of the debate on problems about the field and ethnography – representation of the peoples ‘studied’, this course will provide a sense of general approach anthropologists take when they study culture and contemporary socio-cultural and political issues and changes. The course will thus, enable students to analytically pursue anthropological enquiry and questions. By the end of the course, the students will learn what anthropology as a discipline is about, and gain 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 tutor. 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 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 3 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? difference/comparison/native/foreign, ethnography and writing?
Video: 'An anthropological introduction to you tube' (excerpt from 56-minute video)
Required Readings
Barnard, A. Visions of Anthropology. History and theory in anthropology. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. chapter 1, Pp. 1-14
Ortner, Sherry B. 1984 “Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 26:126-166.
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: 1-25.
Week 2: Evolutionism and Historical Particularism
Required Readings
Spencer, Herbert (1998). "The Organic Analogy Reconsidered." Readings for a History of Anthropology Theory. P. A. Erickson and L. D. Murphy. Peterborough, Ont., Broadview Press. Pp. 26-42
Morgan, Lewis (1998). "Ethnical Periods." Readings for a History of Anthropology Theory. P. A. Erickson and L. D. Murphy. Peterborough, Ont., Broadview Press. Pp. 43-55
Boas, F. "The limitation of the comparative method of anthropology." High points in anthropology. P. Bohannan and M. Glazer. New York, Knopf: 85-92.
Additional Readings
White, Leslie A. (1988). "Energy and Evolution of Culture." High Points in Anthropology. P. Bohannan and M. Glazer. New York, Knopf: 337-355.
Steward, Julian. (1988). "The concept and method of cultural ecology." High Points in Anthropology. P. Bohannan and M. Glazer. New York, Knopf: 322-332.
Kroeber, Alfred. "The concept of culture." Readings for a History of Anthropology Theory. P. A. Erickson and L. D. Murphy. Peterborough, Ont., Broadview Press. Pp. 36-40.
Week 3: Functionalism and Structural-Functionalism
Required Readings
Barnard, A. Functionalism and structural-functionalism. History and Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. chapter 5, Pp. 61-79
Malinowski, B. The Essentials of Kula, In McGee, R. J. and R. L. Warms (2003). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Illinois, Waveland Press.
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1988). On Social Structure. High Points in Anthropology. P. Bohannan and M. Glazer. New York, Knopf: 304-316.
Additional Readings
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1940). The Nuer : A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford, Clarendon Press. Ch. 1 Interest in the cattle 1-50.
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1988). On the Concept of Function in Social Science. High Points in Anthropology. P. Bohannan and M. Glazer. New York, Knopf: Pp. 297-303.
Week 4: Rites of Passage
Required Readings
Gennep, A. v. (1960). The Rites of Passage. University of Chicago Press: Chicago. Pp. 189-194.
Kimball, S. T. (1960). Introduction. The Rites of Passage. A. v. Gennep. 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 Forest of symbols; Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Cornell University Press: Ithaca, N.Y.
Week 5: Structuralism
Required Readings
Saussure, F. D. (1966). Nature of the Linguistic Sign. Course in General Linguistics. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company: 65-70.
Levi-Struass, C. (1967). Structural Anthropology. New York, Anchor Books. (Chapter XI “Structural Study of Myth”)
Doughlas, M. (1966). Purity and Danger. Routledge and Kegan Paul; London, Boston and Henley. Chapter 2.
Dumont, L. (1980). "From the System to Structure: The Pure and the Impure" in Homo Hierarchicus. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. Pp. 72-95.
Additional Reading
Leach, E. (1998). Structuralism in Social Anthropology. Readings for a History of Anthropology theory. P. A. Erickson and L. D. Murphy. Peterborough, Ont., Broadview Press.
Levi-Struass, C. (1967). Structural Anthropology. New York, Anchor Books. (Chapter II “Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology”; Chapter XV “Social Structure”)
Week 6: Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology
Required Readings
Ortner, S. B. (1973). On Key Symbols. American Anthropologist 75(5): 1338-1346.
Geertz, C. (1973). Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture. The Interpretation of Cultures : Selected Essays. New York, Basic Books. and Deep Play: Notes on Balinese cockfight. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York, Basic Books. Pp 3-3.
Additional Readings
Turner, V. W. (1967). The Forest of Symbols; Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, London, Cornell University Press. Pp 19-47.
Stanley Tambiah (1968) “Animals Are Good to Think and Good to Prohibit”. Ethnology, 8(4): 423-59.
Week 7: Exchange, Gift and Symbols
Required Readings
Mauss, M. (1990). The Gift : The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. New York, W.W. Norton. (Introduction, and Chapters 1)
Godelier, M. (1999). Introduction. The Enigma of the Gift. Polity Press, Cambridge. Pp. 1-9.
Bourdieu, P. (1991). On Symbolic Power. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press: 163-170.
Additional Reading
Mauss, M. (1990). 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). Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology. Cambridge ; New York, Cambridge University Press. Introduction.
Turner, T. (2006). Marxian Value Theory: An Anthropological Perspective, to appear in Paul Eiss and David Pedersen, eds., Values of Value.
Graeber, D. (2006). Turning Modes of Production Inside Out Or, Why Capitalism is a Transformation of Slavery. Critique of Anthropology 26(1): 61-85
Additional Readings
Marx, K. and F. Engels (1978). Theses on Feuerbach. The Marx-Engels Reader. R. C. Tucker. New York, Norton. Pp 143-145.
Avineri, Shlomo (1968). "Homo faber" in 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 and other Essays. Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press. “History and Anthropology: The state of play” Comparative Studies in History and Society, 1980, 22 (2): 198-221
Additional Readings
James D. Faubion “History in Anthropology” Annual Review of Anthropology, 1993 22: 35-54.
Sahlins, Marshall David (1985). Islands of History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Chapter 5 Structure and history Pp. 136-156)
Week 10: Practice and Power in Anthropology
Required Readings
Bourdieu, P. (1990). The Logic of Practice. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press. (Chapter II Practical logic)
Foucault, M. (1994). Truth and Power. Michel Foucault: Essential Works of Foucault (1954-1984) Vol 3, (Ed) James D. Faubion, Penguin Books 2000, London. Pp 111-133.
Ortner, S. B. (2006). Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Durham, Duke University Press. “Introduction: Updating Practice Theory and Chapter Six: Power and Projects”
Additional Reading
Bourdieu, P. (1997). Structures, habitus, power: Basis for a Theory of symbolic power. An Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Week 11: Feminist Anthropology
Required Readings
Ortner, S. (2006). “So Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” In M. Z. Rosaldo 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.
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.
Pels, P. (1997). "The Anthropology of Colonialism: Culture, History, and the Emergence of Western Governmentality." Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 163-183.
Cohn, B. S. (1996). Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge : The British in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. “Introduction” Pp 3-15
Additional Readings
Wolfe, P. (1997). "History and Imperialism: A Century of Theory, from Marx to Postcolonialism." The American Historical Review 102(2): 388.
Guha, R. (1988). On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India. Selected Subaltern Studies. R. Guha and G. C. Spivak. New York, Oxford University Press.
Week 13: Globalization and Localization
Required Readings
Appadurai, A. (1996). 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 Transnationlaism." Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 547-65.
Malkki, Liisa (1992) “National Geographic: The Rooting of People and the Territorialization of National Identity among Scholars and Refugees” in Cultural Anthropology 7 (1):24-44.
Additional Readings
Turner, T. (2006). "Class projects, social consciousness and contradiction of globalization." unpublished article Cornell University.
Mintz, S. W. (1985). Sweetness and power : the place of sugar in modern history. New York, N.Y. Viking. (Chapter 2 and 3 on Production and Consumption)
Week 14: Representation in Anthropology and New Ethnographies
Required Readings
Clifford, J. (1983). "On Ethnographic Authority." Representations 1(2): 118-46.
Kirin Narayan: “How Native is a ‘Native’ Anthropologist?” American Anthropologist 1993, 95 (3): 671-686.
Pigg, S. L. (1992). "Inventing Social Categories through Space: Social Representation and Development in Nepal." Comparative Studies in Society and History 34(3): 491-513.
Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson “Discipline and Practice: “The Field” as Site, Method and Location in Anthropology”. In, Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson (eds.) 1997, 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 1990, 16: 753-772.
George E. Marcus “Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography”. Annual Review of Anthropology, 1995 (24): 95-117 and also one more article (Merry/ etc.)
Mariza G. S. Peirano “When Anthropology Is at Home: The Different Contexts of a Single Discipline”. Annual Review of Anthropology, 1998 (27): 105-128.
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York, Pantheon. Introduction. Pp. 1-28.