Matakuliah : G0862/American Culture and Society
Tahun
: 2007
Introduction
Meeting 1
Introduction
Class Business
Advice from the Experts
Absolutely, positively, and without doubt, the best way to achieve
a good grade in this class is to:
1. Read the required text before attending the appropriate lecture. Without
having read the assigned material a student has no context for the class
presentation and therefore misses the important cultural points and
connections.
2. Attend the class – attendance will be counted and will determine your final
grade
3. Do the homework, assignments and all required in the class
4. Be active in class. Feel free to ask questions.
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Expected Student Outcomes
At the completion of this course, students will be expected:
1. To recognize and understand major American cultural concepts, movements, key
figures, periods, and events from the 1670s through the present time.
2. To acquire an appreciation of the diversity of American identities and
experiences, particularly with respect to issues of race, class, gender, and region.
3. To understand a range of cultural artifacts—novels, plays, autobiographies,
memoirs, photography, film, painting, and music—that one can utilize in the study
of the American experience and cultural values.
4. To engage critically this range of cultural artifacts alone and in combination with
one another in an interdisciplinary manner in order to identify and interpret
significant cultural moments and concepts.
5. To link the information they get in class and assignment toward understanding of
most the characters of most Americans
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Evaluation and Grading
Grading Formula and System
30% Exam I
UTS
50% Exam II UAS
20% Assignments, projects
Total possible 100%
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Requirements
•
•
•
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All students are expected to show that they are intellectually engaging the
subject matter of every lecture/presentation. Prohibited behavior includes
sleeping, talking to neighbors, reading magazine, typing SMS or doing your
homework.
PLEASE BE ON TIME to avoid disrupting class, you are expected to stay in class
for the duration of the lecture/ presentation. You are not allowed to enter class
if you late more than 10 minutes of the scheduled time. The teacher has the right
to ask you to leave if you are insisted to come to class.
Pagers and cell phones are strictly prohibited in this class.
Readings and Screenings
Readings
Kearney, M (1997), The American Ways an introduction to American
Culture, Longman: New York
Berkin, C, (2006), Making America : a history of the United States.
Volume II : since 1865. Houghton Mifflin, USA
E-book as mentioned in the URL – look at BINUSMAYA
Screenings
DVD and Movies as mentioned in SAP/MP and BINUSMAYA.
Contact SALLC administrators to schedule for movie viewing.
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Mayflower
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MayflowerHarbor.jpg
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Puritans
Beginning in 1630 as many as 20,000 Puritans emigrated
to America from England to gain the liberty to worship God
as they chose. Most settled in New England, but some
went as far as the West Indies. Theologically, the Puritans
were "non-separating Congregationalists."
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Puritans
Puritans were English Protestants who wished to reform
and purify the Church of England of what they considered
to be unacceptable residues of Roman Catholicism. In the
1620s leaders of the English state and church grew
increasingly unsympathetic to Puritan demands. They
insisted that the Puritans conform to religious practices
that they abhorred, removing their ministers from office
and threatening them with "extirpation from the earth" if
they did not fall in line. Zealous Puritan laymen received
savage punishments. For example, in 1630 a man was
sentenced to life imprisonment, had his property
confiscated, his nose slit, an ear cut off, and his forehead
branded "S.S." (sower of sedition).
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continued
Unlike the Pilgrims, who came to Massachusetts in 1620,
the Puritans believed that the Church of England was a
true church, though in need of major reforms. Every New
England Congregational church was considered an
independent entity, beholden to no hierarchy. The
membership was composed, at least initially, of men and
women who had undergone a conversion experience and
could prove it to other members. Puritan leaders hoped
(futilely, as it turned out) that, once their experiment was
successful, England would imitate it by instituting a church
order modeled after the New England Way
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Mayflower Route
http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/voyage3.php
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American History
The Pilgrim and the Puritans
Source: http://www.mayflowerhistory.com
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The Puritans
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Puritan Leader
Richard Mather
Richard Mather (1596-1669), minister at
Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1636-1669, was a
principal spokesman for and defender of the
Congregational form of church government in
New England. In 1648, he drafted the Cambridge
Platform, the definitive description of the
Congregational system. Mather's son, Increase
(1639-1723), and grandson, Cotton (1663-1728),
were leaders of New England Congregationalism
in their generations.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html
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Puritan leader
Cotton Mather
Cotton Mather (1663-1728), the best-known New
England Puritan divine of his generation, was a
controversial figure in his own time and remains
so among scholars today. A formidable intellect
and a prodigious writer, Mather published some
450 books and pamphlets. He was at the center
of all of the major political, theological, and
scientific controversies of his era. Mather has
been accused, unfairly, of instigating the Salem
witchcraft trials.
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html
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Religious Belief in the US
• Religion brought by the Puritans:
Christian (see the Protestant Ethics on the next meeting)
Christian denominations (Quaker, Mennonites, Amish, Mormons, etc)
• Indigenous Religions:
- worship the nature (mostly the Indians)
- shamanisms (beliefs on spirit)
Movie Preview:
“The Crucible” a movie based on Arthur Miller’s drama about the
Salem Witchcraft trial.
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