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Quick Links: Week 1 [return to top] Monday, Sept. 8, 2003: Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2003:
[No required readings for this week] Recommended Reading:
A. Civilized Self, Savage Other: History, Race, and Culture in the Making of European Relations with Indigenous Peoples and Colonial Others [return to top] [Section A focuses on the
colonial roots of many subsequent dominant notions of “self” and “other”
as applied to whole populations. In this vein, we consider the “Eurocentric”
discourse of “civilization” and “savagery” put into practice as Europeans
justified and explained their dominance over other peoples. Accusing certain
groups of practicing cannibalism, of being war-like and irredeemable savages
beyond Christian salvation, and beneath the status of human beings, had
very real political, economic, social and cultural consequences designed
to facilitate European domination and exploitation. Anthropology emerged
during colonialism, and thus we also consider how anthropology dealt with
the colonial other, the “primitive native”, the “cannibal”—and how conceptions
of radical difference between peoples helped to invent anthropology. Doing
fieldwork among such “fierce people” is a self-described practice that
continued until recently. The concept of “race” also emerges from these
five centuries of conquest and domination that entailed the enslavement
of different peoples, and other forms of forced labour that required justification
for Christian audiences that believed themselves to possess a higher civilization
than any known previously. In the late colonial period, Europeans turned
hostile once again towards resilient indigenous minorities that impeded
European and American expansion and settlement, only to again turn nostalgic
once these peoples presumably faced “extinction” or had purportedly disappeared.
Now that some of these same groups claim to have survived (see Section
B), they are confronted with old European myths of their disappearance.
Finally, “cultural relativism” has been one of the key ways that anthropologists
have sought to mediate and reconcile radical conceptions of the differences
between “self” and “other”, trying to inculcate the notion that cultures
ought to be viewed in their own terms and not judged as superior or inferior.
We also consider debates around some of the alleged excesses of “cultural
relativism”]
Week 2
Required Readings:
Lewis, Diane.
1973. “Anthropology and Colonialism”. Current Anthropology 14(5) Dec: 581-602.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28197312%2914%3A5%3C581%3AAAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E
Dozier, Edward P.
1955. “The Concepts of ‘Primitive’ and ‘Native’ in Anthropology”. Yearbook
of Anthropology: 187-202.
Recommended Readings: Horvath, Ronald
J. 1972. “A Definition of Colonialism”. Current Anthropology 13(1)
Feb: 45-56. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28197202%2913%3A1%3C45%3AADOC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B
Hsu, Francis L. K.
1964. “Rethinking the Concept ‘Primitive’”. Current Anthropology 5(3) Jun:
169-178.
Week 3
Required Readings:
Hulme, Peter.
1992. Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Native Caribbean, 1492-1797.
London: Routledge. [Introduction, 1-12; Ch. 1, “Columbus and the Cannibals”,
13-43.]
Todorov, Tzvetan.
1992. The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. New York: Harper
Perennial. [Ch.1, “The Discovery of America”, 3-13; Ch.3, “Columbus and
the Indians”, 34-50; Epilogue, “Las Casas’s Prophecy”, 245-254”.]
OR, you can do the recommended reading instead
for this week. Recommended Reading:
Arens, W.
1979. The Man-Eating Myth: Anthropology and Anthropophagy. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. [Preface, iii-v; 5-80]
Week 4
Required Readings:
Chagnon, Napoleon
A. 1983. Yanomamo: The Fierce People. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and
Winston. [Ch. 1: Doing Fieldwork among the Yanomamo, 4-41]
Lindberg, Christer.
N.d. “The Image of the Native American in the Early Days of Anthropology”.
Conference Paper.
Week 5
Required Reading:
Smedley, Audrey.
1993. Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a World View. Boulder
CO: Westview Press. [Ch.1, “Some Theoretical Considerations”, 13-35; Ch.2,
“The Etymology of the Term ‘Race’”, 36-40; Ch. 13, “New Perspectives on
Human Variation and Some Tentative Conclusions”, 294-310.] » “Smedley.PDF” on
CD
Recommended Reading: Sokefeld, Martin.
1999. “Debating Self, Identity, and Culture in Anthropology”. Current Anthropology
40 (4) Aug.- Oct: 417-447.
Week 6:
Week 7:
Required Readings:
Miner, Horace.
1956. “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema”. American Anthropologist 58(3)
Jun: 503-507.
Herdt, G. 1987. “Masculinity”.
In Guardians of the Flutes. New York: Columbia University Press. [Ch. 7,
203-254]
Week 8
Required Readings:
Handler, Richard.
1986. “Of Cannibals and Custom: Montaigne’s Cultural Relativism”.
Fernandez, James W. 1990.
“Tolerance in a Repugnant World and Other Dilemmas in the Cultural Relativism
of Melville J. Herskovits”. Ethos 18(2) Jun: 140-164.
Geertz, Clifford. 1984.
“Distinguished Lecture: Anti Anti-Relativism”. American Anthropologist
86(2) Jun: 263-278.
Nissim-Sabat, Charles.
1987. “On Clifford Geertz and His ‘Anti Anti-Relativism’”. American
Anthropologist 89(4) Dec: 935-939.
Recommended Readings: Todorov, Tzvetan.
1988. “Knowledge in Social Anthropology: Distancing and Universality”.
Anthropology Today 4(2) Apr: 2-5.
Shweder, Richard A.
1990. “Ethical Relativism: Is There a Defensible Version?” Ethos 18 (2)
Jun: 205-218.
Ginsberg, Morris.
1953. “On the Diversity of Morals”. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 83(2) Jul-Dec: 117-135
Obeyesekere, Gananath.
1966. “Methodological and Philosophical Relativism”. Man 1(3) Sep:
368-374.
B. The Presentation of
Ethnic Selves and Racial Others [return to top]
[Section B extends the previous
section by still focusing largely on indigenous peoples, but this time
in connection with theories of ethnicity in the contemporary world. In
particular, we will deal with indigenous self-representations in situations
of “cultural revival” and the relevance of discussions and debates surrounding
“essentialist” (long-standing and enduring cultural cores of identity)
and “constructionist” perspectives (socially organized and continually
reinvented cultures). We shall see how these debates have been applied
to the question of groups “inventing traditions” as a means of marking
their self-identity in distinction to the identities of others. As with
the previous section, we shall also examine anthropological critiques of
concepts of race, ethnicity, peoplehood, and culture, as analytic and political
constructs. As ethnicity, and its frequent companion nationality, are dominant
ways in which individuals are either organized in or marked as members
of groups or “peoples”, frequently engaged in forms of contestation with
other such groups, this was chosen as a necessary component of this course.
The challenge will be to highlight some of the regular, routine, if not
systematic ways in which ethnic identities are defined and embodied.]
Week 9
Required Readings:
Brass, Paul R.
1976. “Ethnicity and Nationality Formation”. Ethnos 3(3) Sept: 225-241.
Jenkins, Richard. N.d.
“Social Anthropological Models of Inter-Ethnic Relations”. 170-186.
Recommended Readings: Cohen, Ronald.
1978. “Ethnicity: Problem and Focus in Anthropology”. Annual Review of
Anthropology 7: 379-403.
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland.
1991. “The Cultural Contexts of Ethnic Differences”. Man 26(1) Mar.:127-144.
Williams, Brackette F.
1989. “A Class Act: Anthropology and the Race to Nation Across Ethnic Terrain”.
Annual Review of Anthropology 18: 401-444.
Week 10:
Essay #1 due by 5:00pm today
Required Readings:
Langton, Marcia.
1993. “Rum, Seduction and Death: ‘Aboriginality’ and Alcohol”. Oceania
63: 195-205.
Wallerstein, Immanuel.
1991. “The Construction of Peoplehood: Racism, Nationalism, Ethnicity”.
In Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous
Identities. London: Verso. 71-85.
Wolf, Eric R. 1994.
“Perilous Ideas: Race, Culture, People”. Current Anthropology 35(1) Feb:
1-12.
Wolf, Eric R.
1984. “Culture: Panacea or Problem?” American Antiquity 49(2): 393-400
Week 11:
Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003:
Required Readings:
Linton, Ralph.
1943. “Nativistic Movements”. American Anthropologist 45: 230-240.
Friedman, Jonathan. 1992.
“The Past in the Future: History and the Politics of Identity”. American
Anthropologist 94(4): 837-859.
Trigger, Bruce G.
1988. “A Present of their Past? Anthropologists, Native People, and their
Heritage”. Culture 8(1): 71-79.
Week 12:
Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2003:
Required Readings:
Handler, Richard.
1986. “Authenticity”. Anthropology Today 2(1): 2-4.
Hanson, Allan. “The
Making of the Maori: Culture Invention and its Logic”. American Anthropologist
91: 891-902
Handler, Richard and Linnekin,
Jocelyn. 1984. “Tradition, Genuine or Spurious”. Journal of American
Folklore 97(385): 273-290
Week 13:
Required Readings:
Field, Les W.
1999. “Complicities and Collaborations: Anthropologists and the ‘Unacknowledged
Tribes’ of California”. Current Anthropology 4(2) Apr: 193-209.
Warren, Kay B. 1992.
“Transforming Memories and Histories: The Meanings of Ethnic Resurgence
for Mayan Indians”. In Alfred Stepan, Ed., Americas: New Interpretive Essays,
pps. 189-219. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fischer, Edward F. 1999.
“Cultural Logic and Maya Identity: Rethinking Constructivism and Essentialism”.
Current Anthropology 40(4) Aug-Oct: 473-499.
EXAMINATIONS PERIOD: #2. REVIEW ESSAY
ON ETHNICITY, ESSENTIALISM AND CONSTRUCTIONISM...10%…DUE ON MONDAY, DEC.
8, 2003, by 5:00pm
PLEASE NOTE:
YOU WILL HAVE A VERY PLEASANT
HOMEWORK TASK OVER THE HOLIDAYS…READING AN ENGAGING NOVEL IN SCIENCE FICTION
BY URSULA LE GUIN (AVAILABLE IN THE BOOKSTORE)…COME PREPARED TO DISCUSS
IT BY THE FIRST DAY OF THE RESUMPTION OF CLASS IN JANUARY 2004.
C. En-gendered Identities:
Gender, Culture, and Power [return to top]
[Section C is centred on
some of the classic cases of binary opposition played out in human societies
across the globe: the distinction between “male” and “female”. However,
the dichotomous opposition between man and woman, played out in ideologies
and cultural practices, itself involves many other parallel oppositions,
such as culture versus nature, global versus local, and so forth. We will
study these distinctions and how they are made, but then we will also see
ways in which these oppositions are transcended or challenged by certain
role reversals, by those in between genders that had been conceived as
polar opposites. Is gender more of a continuum than a set of contrasts?]
Week 14:
Bring your Journal work to date to submit
in class today, for 10% of the final grade
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2004:
Required Readings:
Ortner, Sherry
B. N.d. “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” 67-87.
Review: Herdt,
G. 1987. “Masculinity”.
In Guardians of the Flutes. New York: Columbia University Press. [Ch. 7,
203-254]
Recommended Readings: Freeman, Carla.
2001. “Is Local : Global as Feminine : Masculine? Rethinking the Gender
of Globalization”. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 26(4):
1007-1037.
Davis, D. L., and Whitten,
R. G. 1987. “The Cross-Cultural Study of Human Sexuality”.
Week 15:
Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2004:
Required Readings:
Seymour-Smith,
Charlotte. 1991. “Women Have No Affines and Men No Kin: The Politics
of the Jivaroan Gender Relation”. Man 26 (4) Dec: 629-649.
Nelson, Diane M. 1994.
“Gendering the Ethnic-National Question: Rigoberta Menchu Jokes and the
Out-Skirts of Fashioning Identity”. Anthropology Today 10 (6) Dec: 3-7.
Week 16:
Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2004:
Required Readings:
Power, Camilla,
and Watts, Ian. 1997. “The Woman with the Zebra's Penis: Gender, Mutability
and Performance”. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3
(3) Sep: 537-560.
Coggeshall, John M.
1988. “ ‘Ladies’ Behind Bars: A Liminal Gender as Cultural Mirror”.
Wikan, Unni. 1977.
“Man Becomes Woman: Transsexualism in Oman as a Key to Gender Roles”. Man
12 (2) Aug: 304-319.
Recommended Reading: Fulton, Robert,
and Anderson, Steven W. 1992. “The Amerindian ‘Man-Woman’: Gender,
Liminality, and Cultural Continuity”. Current Anthropology 33 (5) Dec:
603-610.
Week 17:
Le Guin, Ursula
K. 1991. The Left Hand of Darkness. Reissue edition. Ace Books. [Bookstore] Le Guin, Ursula
K. 1991. The Left Hand of Darkness. Reissue edition. Ace Books. [Bookstore] D. The New Media for Our
Other Selves [return to top]
[Section D invites us to
explore the ways in which new communications technologies such as the Internet
are double-edged in enabling individuals to undermine or move across the
boundaries of identity between self and other, while ironically also providing
new means for enforcing such boundaries. First we begin this section with
a pause in the course, that is, a reconsideration of all of the rigid boundary-making
between self and other that we have encountered thus far, between the colonizer
and colonized, between ethnic selves and racial others, and between genders.
We thus turn our attention to notions of hybridity and what Ulf Hannerz
calls a world increasingly inhabited by “Creoles, Cosmopolitans and Cyborgs”.
In this spirit, we then re-examine issues of race, ethnicity and gender
but this time in the sphere of new media such as the Internet. How does
the interplay between self and other change when it is practiced online?
Are there new selves and others?]
Week 18:
Essay #3: Book Review on Gender and
LeGuin, due at 5:00pm today
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2004:
Required Readings:
Hannerz, Ulf.
2000. “Flows, Boundaries and Hybrids: Keywords an Transnational Anthropology”.
WPTC-2K-02—Paper available online from Transnational Communities Programme,
Working Paper Series, Edited by Ali Rogers:
Hannerz, Ulf. 1987.
“The World in Creolisation”. Africa 57(4): 546-559
Week 19:
Bring your Plan for the write up of your
course Journal today, worth 5% of the final grade
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2004:
Required Readings:
Turkle, Sherry.
1995. Life on the Screen. New York: Simon and Schuster. [Introduction,
“Identity in the Age of the Internet”, 9-26.]
Escobar, Arturo. 1994.
“Welcome to Cyberia: Notes on the Anthropology of Cyberculture”. Current
Anthropology 35(3) June: 211-231.
Recommended Reading: Hess, David J.
1994. “Parallel Universes: Anthropology in the World of Technoscience”.
Anthropology Today 10(2) Apr.:16-18.
16-22 February: READING WEEK…therefore
please read Brooks, Flesh & Machines [bookstore] in time for the last
section of the course.
Week 20:
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004:
Required Readings:
Tsang, Daniel.
1994. “Notes on Queer ‘n’ Asian Virtual Sex”. Amerasia Journal 20 (1).
Nakamura, Lisa. 1995.
“Race in/for Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet”.
Works and Days 13(1-2).
Recommended Reading: Demello, Margo.
1993. “The Convict Body: Tattooing Among Male American Prisoners”.
Anthropology Today 9 (6) Dec: 10-13.
E. Alternate Humans? Our
Intelligence, Their Bodies [return to top]
[Section E really takes us
into an exploration of perhaps some of the ultimate dilemmas affecting
us as a species, in light of some of the newest technological innovations,
or evolutions, of our time: If humans are the selves, who are the others?
What makes us human? How unique and special are we? This section
focuses on Cyborgs, artificial intelligences, and robots, some of the latter
having their own presence on the Internet and interacting daily with human
users, such as yourselves and the course robots which are also online.
Perhaps one of the strangest yet increasingly inescapable questions we
will face is: Are robots human? Are humans not, in many ways, robotic themselves?]
***Be sure to have read
Brooks’ Flesh and Machines prior to these classes (there is some time for
final reviews before classes), and if you have not done so already, start
interacting with the course robots and chart your conversations as indicated
on the assignment pages of the website.***
Week 21:
Essay #4, Summary of Readings on New
Media due 5:00pm today
Wednesday, Mar. 3, 2004:
Required Reading:
Brooks, Rodney
A. 2002. Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us. New York: Vintage
Books. Week 22:
Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2004:
Required Reading:
Brooks, Rodney
A. 2002. Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us. New York: Vintage
Books. Week 23:
Wednesday, Mar. 17, 2004:
Required Readings:
González,
Jennifer. 2000. “Envisioning Cyborg Bodies: Notes from Current Research”.
In C. Gray (ed.) The Cyborg Handbook. London: Routledge.
Pyle, Forest. 1993.
“Making Cyborgs, Making Humans: Of Terminators and Blade Runners”. In J.
Collins, H. Radner and A. Preacher Collins, Eds., Film Theory Goes to the
Movies. London: Routledge.
Tomas, David. 1989.
“The Technophilic Body: On Technicity in William Gibson’s Cyborg Culture”.
New Formations 8.
Week 24:
Essay #5. Review of Brooks’ Flesh and Machines
due today
Wednesday, Mar. 24, 2004:
Required Reading:
Terranova, Tiziana.
1996. “Post-Human Unbounded: Artificial Evolution and High-Tech Subcultures”.
In G. Robertson, M. Marsh, L. Tickner, J. Bird, B. Curtis and T. Putnam,
Eds., Future Natural: Nature, Science, Culture, London: Routledge.
Week 25:
AI Exercise write up (5%) due in class
today
Wednesday, Mar. 31, 2004:
NO READINGS FOR THIS FINAL WEEK
FINAL VERSION OF COURSE JOURNAL AND
FINAL ESSAY DUE ON APRIL 10, 2004. The final version of your Journal will
be worth an additional 10% of the course grade. The essay write up of your
journal will be worth 25% of the course grade.
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Sunday, 16 November, 2003. |
