Core Course in Socio-Cultural ANth

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course offers a graduate-level introduction to key areas of contemporary theory in socio-cultural anthropology. The class will cover issues of identity, political economy, practice theory, agency, hegemony, power, state violence, resistance, structuralism, and deconstructionism. Emphasis will be placed on techniques of critical thought, such as how to identify paradigmatic statements, read “against the grain,” and uncover underlying assumptions. Students will interact with texts through discussions, presentations, and essays, and will have the opportunity to explore theoretical perspectives of their choice further by writing critical book reviews on works of their own choice.

READINGS

Most class readings are available on WebCT (see below).

Required texts (available at the book store):

Dirks, Nicholas, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, eds.

1994 Culture / Power / History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Ortner, Sherry B.

2006 Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Durham: Duke University Press.

Recommended texts (available at the book store):

Strunk, William and E.B. White

2000 The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Hacker, Diana

2004 A Pocket Style Manual, Fourth Edition. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s.

CLASS REQUIREMENTS

Policy on grades, late work, plagiarism, attendance, emergencies, and extensions:

The final grade will be evaluated based on 2 book reviews (15% each); 3 section essays (20% each); and classroom participation, discussion leadership, presentations, and attendance (10%).

All written work must be completed to receive a passing grade in this class. Email submissions will not be accepted. Please retain for your own records a copy of all the work you submit. Late work will lose one letter grade for each day past due. In the event of severe illness or other emergency, please contact the instructor as soon as possible to arrange an alternative deadline.

Plagiarism (intellectual theft) is a very serious academic offense. Any assignment containing plagiarized material will receive a failing grade. You are responsible for reading and understanding the department handout on plagiarism, which is posted on the class WebCT site. Please ask the instructor if you have any questions.

Unexcused absences count against you, and students who have more than three (3) unexcused absences will receive no points for class participation. Legitimate reasons to miss class are few and dire.

Requests for extensions on deadlines and notification of unavoidable absences should be made in written or electronic media, and should if at all possible be reported to the instructor ahead of the due date and before the start of the class period.

Students with a documented disability needing accommodations in this course should immediately inform the instructor.

WebCT

Class readings, the course syllabus, the plagiarism document, assignment sheets, and discussion questions will be available on WebCT. You may read the materials online or print copies for use during class discussions.

All students can access WebCT with an Odin account. If you do not have an Odin account, you can sign up to get one at https://www.account.pdx.edu. Use your Odin username and password to login to WebCT at http://psuonline.pdx.edu/. Use of WebCT will be demonstrated on the first day of class. Please contact the instructor if you encounter difficulties in accessing this resource.

Three essays (20% each); due dates listed below

You are asked to write three essays. Essay topics will be assigned for sections 2-8 of the class and will focus on readings in that particular section. Choose three sections and write an essay for each. Essays will be due roughly a week after we finish covering the section material. Section 2: due Tues 29 Jan.; Section 3: due Tues 5 Feb.; Section 4: Tues 12 Feb.; Section 5: due Tues 26 Feb.; Section 6: due Tues 4 Mar.; Section 7: due Thurs 13 Mar.; Section 8: Due Thurs 20 Mar.

Two book reviews (15% each), due Tues 26 Feb. and Thurs 20 March. Presentations: Tues 19 Feb. and Thurs 20 March

You are asked to write two 750-word book reviews. Further instructions will be posted on WebCT. Suggested texts for review are listed at the end of each section’s readings. You may choose to review alternative readings, but please consult with the instructor before starting your review. On Tues 19 February and Thurs 20 March, students will briefly present their critical book reviews to the class.

Discussion leadership, presentations, and attendance (10%)

Regular attendance and active participation in class is expected and required (see policy statement above). Students will sign up in advance to lead discussion on particular articles, and will present their critical book reviews to the class (see above).

COURSE OUTLINE:

Section 1: Introduction

Lowie, Robert H.

1935 Chapter 12: Rites and Festivals. In The Crow Indians. Pp. 256-263. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Schweizer, Thomas

1998 Epistemology: The Nature and Validation of Anthropological Knowledge. In Handbook of Methods in Cultural Anthropology. H. Russell Bernard, ed. Pp. 39-87. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Ortner, Sherry B.

1994 [1984] Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties. In Culture/ Power/ History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, eds. Pp. 372-411. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Dirks, Nicholas, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner

1994 Introduction. In Culture, Power, History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, eds. Pp. 3-46. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Ortner, Sherry B.

2006 Introduction: Updating Practice Theory. In Anthropology and Social Theory. Pp. 1-18. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.

Section 2: After Culture: Power, Inequality, and Identity

Williams, Raymond

1985 Culture. In Keywords. Pp. 87-93. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hall, Stuart

1992 The Question of Cultural Identity. In Modernity and Its Futures. Stuart Hall, D. Held, and T. McGrew, eds. Pp. 274-325. Cambridge: The Open University.

Gupta, Akhil and James Ferguson

1992 Beyond ‘Culture’: Space, Identity and the Politics of Difference. Cultural Anthropology 7(1):6-23.

Brubaker, Rogers and Frederick Cooper

2000 Beyond “Identity.” Theory and Society 29:1-47.

Read 3 of the following 5 authors:

Said, Edward

1979 Latent and Manifest Orientalism. In Orientalism. Pp. 201-225. New York: Vintage.

Anderson, Benedict (read both of these pieces)

1991 Introduction. In Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Pp. 1-7. London: Verso.

1991 Census, Map, Museum. In Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Pp. 163-185. London: Verso.

Lynch, Caitrin

2002 The Politics of White Women’s Underwear in Sri Lanka’s Open Economy. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State, and Society 9(1):87-125

Biolsi, Thomas

2004 Race Technologies. In A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics. David Nugent and Joan Vincent, eds. Pp. 400-417. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Ortner, Sherry B. (read one of these two)

2006 Reading America: Preliminary Notes on Class and Culture. In Anthropology and Social Theory. Pp. 19-41. Durham: Duke University Press.

2006 Identities: The Hidden Life of Class. In Anthropology and Social Theory. Pp. 63-79. Durham: Duke University Press.

Suggested review options:

Read the optional articles in this section

Edward Said: Orientalism (rest of the book) or another book by Said

Benedict Anderson: Imagined Communities (rest of the book)

Section 3: Political Economy

Giddens, Anthony

1971 Introduction and Selections on Marx. In Capitalism and Modern Social Theory. pp. xi-xvi, 1-64. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Marx, Karl

1967 Commodity Fetishism. In Das Kapital: A Critique of Political Economy. Abridged version. Friedrich Engels, ed. Pp. 50-63. Chicago: Gateway.

Singer, Merrill

1986 Toward a Political-Economy of Alcoholism: The Missing Link in the Anthropology of Drinking. Social Science and Medicine 23(2):113-130.

Carrier, James G. and Josiah McC. Heyman

1997 Consumption and Political Economy. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3(2):355-373.

Mazzarella, William

2003 Locations: Advertising and the New Swadeshi. In Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in Contemporary India. Pp. 3-36. Durham: Duke University Press.

Recommended:

Miller, Daniel

1995 Consumption and Commodities. Annual Review of Anthropology (24): 141-61.

Suggested review options:

Anthony Giddens: Capitalism and Modern Social Theory (the rest of the book)

Sidney Mintz: Sweetness and Power

Mazzarella: Shoveling Smoke (the rest of the book)

Section 4: Practice Theory, Agency

Ahearn, Laura M.

1999 Agency. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 9(1-2):12-15.

Bourdieu, Pierre

1994 Chapter 4: Structures, Habitus, Power: Basis for a Theory of Syumbolic Power. In Culture/ Power/ History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, eds. Pp. 155-199. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Ortner, Sherry

1989 Introduction and Conclusion. In High Religion: A Cultural and Political History of Sherpa Buddhism. Pp. 3-18, 193-202. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

1996 Making Gender: Toward a Feminist, Minority, Postcolonial, Subaltern, etc., Theory of Practice. In Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture. Pp. 1-20. Boston: Beacon Press.

2006 Power and Projects: Reflections on Agency. In Anthropology and Social Theory, pp. 129-153. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky

1993 Epidemics of the Will. In Tendencies. Pp. 130-142. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Brodie, Janet Farrell and Marc Redfield

2002 Introduction. In High Anxieties: Cultural Studies in Addiction. Janet Farrell Brodie and Marc Redfield, eds. Pp. 1-15. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Recommended:

Ahearn, Laura M.

2001 Language and Agency. Annual Review of Anthropology 30:109-37.

Suggested review options:

Bourdieu: Outline of a Theory of Practice (the rest of the book)

Ortner: Making Gender (the rest of the book)

Section 5: Hegemony & Disciplinary Power

Raymond Williams

1994 [1977] Chapter 20: Selections from Marxism and Literature. In Culture/ Power/ History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, eds. Pp. 585-608. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Foucault, Michel

1979 Panopticism. In Discipline and Punish. Pp. 195-228. New York: Vintage.

1991 Governmentality. In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordor, and Peter Miller, eds. Pp. 87-104. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

1994 Chapter 5: Two Lectures. In Culture/ Power/ History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, eds. Pp. 200-221. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Ong, Aihwa

1988 The Production of Possession: Spirits and the Multinational Corporation in Malaysia. American Ethnologist 15(1):29-42.

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt

1994 From the Margins. Cultural Anthropology 9(3):279-297.

Suggested review options:

Foucault: Discipline and Punish (the rest of the book); The History of Sexuality, Volume I; another book by Foucault (check with instructor)

Raymond Williams: Marxism and Literature.

Section 6: Neoliberalism, State Violence, and Governmentality

Feldman, Allen

1995 Ethnographic States of Emergency. In Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival. Carolyn Nordstrom and Antonius Robben, eds. Pp. 224-252. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Gledhill, John

1999 Official Masks and Shadow Powers: Towards an Anthropology of the Dark Side of the State. Urban Anthropology 28(3-4):199-251.

Blumenthal, Sidney

2007 Bush’s Old-World Disorder. The Progressive Populist 13(21):12.

Amnesty International

2007 Sri Lanka: Amnesty International Condemns Mass Arrests. Press Release, December 4. Electronic document, http://www.amnesty.org.

Agamben, Giorgio

2005 The State of Exception as a Paradigm of Government. In State of Exception. Kevin Attell, trans. Pp. 1-31. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ong, Aihwa

2006 Introduction: Neoliberalism as Exception, Exception to Neoliberalism. In Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty. Pp. 1-27. Durham: Duke University Press.

Suggested review options:

Giorgio Agamben: finish State of Exception

Aihwa Ong: finish Neoliberalism as Exception, or choose another book by Ong

Allen Feldman: Formations of Violence

Section 7: Resistance

Scott, James C.

1992 Domination, Acting, and Fantasy. In The Paths to Domination, Resistance, and Terror. Carolyn Nordstrom and JoAnn Martin, eds. Pp. 55-84. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Gal, Susan

1995 Language and the “Arts of Resistance.” Review of Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, by James Scott. Cultural Anthropology 10(3):407-424.

Guha, Ranajit

1994 Chapter 11: The Prose of Counter-Insurgency. In Culture/ Power/ History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Nicholas B. Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry B. Ortner, eds. Pp. 336-371. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty

1985 Can the Subaltern Speak? Speculations on Widow Sacrifice. Wedge 7/8: 120-130.

O’Hanlon, Rosalind

1988 Recovering the Subject: Subaltern Studies and Histories of Resistance in Colonial South Asia. Modern Asian Studies 22(1):189-224.

Mitchell, Timothy

1990 Everyday Metaphors of Power. Theory and Society 19(5):545-577.

Abu-Lughod, Lila

1990 The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin women. American Ethnologist 17(1):41-55.

Bakhtin, Mikhail M.

1981 [1935]) Discourse and the Novel. In The Dialogic Imagination. Michael Holquist, ed. Pp. 259-422. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Ortner, Sherry B.

2006 Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal. In Anthropology and Social Theory. Pp. 42-62. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.

Suggested review options:

James Scott: choose a book

Abu-Lughod: Veiled Sentiments

Said, Guha, and Spivak (1988): Selected Subaltern Studies

Section 8: Structuralism, Deconstructionism, Critique of Anthropology

Douglas, Mary

1966 Secular Defilement and The Abominations of Leviticus. In Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. Pp. 29-40, 41-57. London: Ark Paperbacks.

Read either Claus or Gusfield:

Claus, Peter

1982 A Structuralist Appreciation of ‘Star Trek.’ In Anthropology for the 1980s: Introductory Readings. Johnneta Cole, ed. Pp. 417-429. New York: McMillan Publishing Co.

Gusfield, Joseph

1987 Passage to Play: Rituals of Drinking Time in American Society. In Constructive Drinking: Perspectives on Drink from Anthropology. Mary Douglas, ed. Pp. 73-90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rothstein, Edward

2001 Attacks on U.S. Challenge the Perspectives of Postmodern True Believers. The New York Times, 22 September 2001.

Fish, Stanley

2001 Condemnation Without Absolutes. The New York Times, 13 October. 2001.

Derrida, Jacques

1977 Signature, Event, Context. Glyph 1: 172-97.

Clifford, James

1986 Introduction. In Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. James Clifford and George Marcus, eds. Pp. 1-26. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Mohanty, Chandra T.

2003 Chapter 8: Race, Multiculturalism, and Pedagogies of Dissent. In Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Pp. 190-217. Durham: Duke University Press.

Suggested review options:

Mary Douglas: Purity and Danger (finish the book).

James Clifford and George Marcus, eds: Writing Culture (finish the book) AND:

Gordon, Deborah

1988 Writing Culture, Writing Feminism: The Poetics and Politics of Experimental Ethnography. Inscriptions 3-4:7-24.

COURSE SCHEDULE:

Week	Day	Date	Month	Readings and assignments
1	T	8	January	Introductions
	R	10		Read: Lowie, Schweizer
2	T	15		Read: Ortner, Dirks, Ortner
	R	17		Read: Williams, Hall, Gupta
3	T	22		Read: Brubaker, 3 of 5 options
	R	24		Read: Giddens, Marx
4	T	29		Read: Singer, Carrier, Mazzarella Due: Section 2 Essay option
	R	31		Read: Ahearn, Bourdieu, Ortner ’89, ‘96
5	T	5	February	Read: Ortner 06, Sedgwick, Brodie Due: Section 3 Essay option
	R	7		Read: Williams, Foucault ’79, ‘91
6	T	12		Read: Foucault ’94, Ong, Tsing Due: Section 4 Essay option
	R	14		Read: Feldman, Gledhill
7	T	19		Student presentations: Book reviews
	R	21		Reading Day (no class meeting)
8	T	26		Read: Blumenthal, Amnesty, Agamben, Ong Due: Section 5 Essay option; Book review #1
	R	28		Read: Scott, Gal, Guha, Spivak
9	T	4	March	Read: O’Hanlon, Mitchell, Abu-Lughod Due: Section 6 Essay option
	R	6		Read: Bakhtin, Ortner
10	T	11		Read: Douglas, 1 of 2, Rothstein, Fish, Derrida
	R	13		Read: Clifford, Mohanty Due: Section 7 Essay option
11	R	20		Student presentations: Book reviews Due: Section 8 Essay option; Book review #2