Dr. Erin Moore
Department of Anthropology
Fall 2012
University of Southern California
Classroom: GFS 220 T,Th. 12:30 - 1:50
Office: GFS 229A epm@usc.edu,
Hours: Before and After my classes, e-mail for appointment
Anthropology 370
Family and Kinship in Cross-Cultural Perspective
The purpose of anthropology is to open our eyes to the wide array of what it means to be
human. We do not all see the world with the same eyes. Come along for the fun of the
discovery of other ways of being. This is not brain surgery, being open-minded is even harder.
The study of kinship is a cross-cultural look at sex, courtship, marriage and family -- and the
homogenizing effects of modernity.
Kinship refers to whom we consider family: blood, marriage, cultural rules and personal
choices. We will examine: What is a marriage? Do you need the state or a church, or the
agreement of both partners? Who chooses your mate and how many and what gender? Do the
rules of your culture say you must marry your mother’s brother’s daughter or that you can never
marry a cousin? Another set of questions asks why? Why are some families organized around
men and others around women or men and women? Why are families arranged in a certain way
with certain rules?
The purpose of this course is to explore a wide variety of human relationships in our own
society and other cultures around the world. Through the study of specific cultures we will
explore how kinship is related to other aspects of culture, particularly gender roles, economic
activities, and political systems. In this class we will discuss the major concepts, controversies,
and theoretical issues related to the study of kinship, marriage, the family and the formation of
social groups -- including gay couples, adoption, birth control and the new reproductive
technologies.
We will visit: South Asia (India, Nepal, Pakistan), Africa, New Guinea, Egypt, China, Native
Americans and the modern United States.
Required Texts: Bring the materials that we are currently reading to class with you.
Buy on-line or in the bookstore -- note dates we use each.
Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women’s Worlds (1993/ 2008) (Egyptian Bedouin patriliny,
polygyny)
1
Shanshan Du, “Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs, ” Gender Unity and Gender Equality Among
the Lahu of Southwest China, (2002) Columbia University Press, New York.
Dan Savage, The Commitment, Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family 2006 (gay marriage)
Linda Stone, Kinship and Gender, An Introduction (2010) 4rd edition
There is a course reader available at the USC bookstore, Rhonda Bonstein
<bonstein@usc.edu>.
There are some items on electronic reserves: https://usc.ares.atlas-sys.com/
Get familiar now.
Click to open the article you need. “View This.” It is sideways. Save to your desktop
(under file at top of computer, “Save As…..”), once on your desktop you can open in acrobat
reader or just under view, “Rotate View” (counter clockwise) to see it straight.
Course Requirements:
1. Participation in class: In dialog (active attendance is required), 10%
This is a book group. I want to read and discuss the materials with
you. The class will be held as part lecture and part seminar format.
Be prepared to read to me a part of any of the texts that you enjoyed or questioned.
Please be on time. There is no food, drink or chewing gum in the class.
2. Written reflections sent by computer to the professor, 15%
All students must write a one-page response to a reading assigned for EACH
class. Give your response to all the readings: relate to other classes, what you like
or did not like, how does this relate to your life, etc. approx.. 300 words, doublespaced.
NOTE: E-mail to me, epm@usc.edu, WRITE 370 in the subject line.
Send by 7 am the day of the class. Late responses are not accepted. (I print them
up and read them before class).
Paste it into the e-mail, no attachments. You may e-mail your timely response to me
even if you are not in class. If your e-mail is “down” place a copy in my mailbox in
GFS 120 by 8 am before class. This will work only once or come see me.
3. a. Draw your own Kinship Chart (15%), Due Nov. 20th
Keep the generations on the same line.
b. write 6 pages, typed and double-spaced comment. In your paper you MUST:
1. state your methods, ¼ page: who gave you information, did you meet or talk on the
2
phone
2. discuss patterns that you found in your kinship research (health, jobs, education, risk
taking, names, etc.)
3. relate this to historical movements (with dates), migrations, wars, famines, religious
persecutions….. what caused your relatives to come to the U.S., or to act the way they do.
4. relate this to our course materials and use specific comparative examples, employ the
vocabulary of kinship studies (early chapters), notions of endogamy, incest, what is a
marriage…. Islamic marriages, Hindu marriages, Chinese issues, and matrilineal kinship.
Compare and contrast your family to the others we have studied. Use cites: for example (Stone
pg. 20)
5. keep a copy
Do not write about names and birth order, etc. in the paper. I can see this on the chart.
I will give you more information on the paper in class. Turn it in on big wide paper
(bookstore), folded in a file folder.
The paper will lose one full letter grade per day that it is late. (An A paper would be a D by
the third day late).
4. Two exams and some surprise quizzes. Essay and short answer. (60%)
Bring a bluebook (green) to be reshuffled. Make-up exams will be a different exam, possibly
all essay.
How do I study? In each class I post review questions on Blackboard. Please read
these questions and answer them as we go along. Do not divide up the list with friends
or you may only understand your question. After you study all the material get together
in a group to quiz each other.
___________________________________
I. Descent Theory
8/28 Review of Class Format and Assignments, Introductions
First comment due Thurs. 7 am, but get it in the night before
8/30 What is Kinship
What can we learn from kinship? Why study it?
Reader: Rynkiewich, “Matrilineal Kinship: Coming Home to Bokelab”
Reader: Chagnon, “Doing Fieldwork Among the Yanomamo”
pages 13-29 fieldwork woes and problems collecting genealogies
Write on all the pieces.
Film clip: “A Man Called Bee”
3
9/4 Incest and Doing Kinship : Using the symbolic language.
Gender and Kinship Terms
Stone Chapter 1, 1-22, we will refer to this throughout the semester.
Stone on Incest: pp. 56-61 (4th ed.) pp. 58-62 (3rd ed.)
Reader: Cousin Marriage from Stanford and Allen
The Power of Patrilines, Men managing families
9/6 Stone Chapter 3: Patrilineal Descent (or Agnatic descent) and the Nuer
Stone: 69-93, or 71-96 3rd ed.
Electronic Reserves: (https://usc.ares.atlas-sys.com/) Nuer Journeys pg. 72-95
Nuer: Film clips
9/11 The Middle East, another variation of patrilineality.
Introduction to Writing Women’s Worlds: Islam, Writing vs. Culture, Patrilineality
Abu-Lughod and the Bedouins: pp. 1-85.
Reader: See Kinship chart on Migdim’s family, from Abu-Lughod
9/13 Patrilineality and Polygamy, "Without co-wives a woman's work is never done."
Abu-Lughod pp. 85-125
Read to me in class the parts you liked best of the first two chapters.
Masaii film clip, Quiz today
9/18 Reproduction, Abu-Lughod Chapter 3 pp. 127-167
9/20 Patrilineal Parallel-Cousin Marriage
Abu-Lughod Chapter 4 pp. 167-202
Laura Nader from U.C. Berkeley to talk at Noon today.
9/25 A Different Islamic Marriage in the Middle East
Islamic (Shia) Temporary Marriage, Mut’a Marriage
Reader: “Power of Ambiguity: Cultural Improvisations on the Theme of Temporary
Marriage” (mechanics: how and when) 123-149, these are not my underlines.
Reader/ or Ares Reserve: pages from The Law of Desire (case studies of women) 114 -132
(Through Ninh), 146-152 (discussion).
9/27 What is marriage anyway? Multiple Husbands
Reader: Introduction, History of Marriage pgs. 1-12.
Stone Ch. 6, Polyandry Stone: 189-200 (191-203 3rd ed.)
4
Reader: Levine and Silk, “ Why Polyandry Fails?”
Be prepared to read to me a part of any of these texts that you enjoyed.
10/2 and 10/4 Hindu Patriarchies In India and Nepal
Patriarchy in South Asia; Caste Endogamy, Domestic Development Cycles
Stone: 93-113, or 96-115 3rd ed. , Nepalese Brahmans
Exam review.
10/9 Midterm Exam, Bring a blue book,
10/11 Work on your charts
Film: “Dadi and Her Family”
____________________________________________________________________
10/16 II. Matrilineal Descent (or Uterine descent), What is a Matriarchy? The Navajo
Stone Chapter 4: 117- 138, or 119-141 3rd ed.
Film clip on the Navajo. Mother-in-Law earrings???
10/18 The Nayar of Southern India
Stone Chapter 4: 138-153, (141-156 3rd ed. )
10/23 Walking Marriages: The Na of China
Ares Reserve: A Society without Fathers or Husbands, Intro. 19-24, Furtive Visits 185-232
Film: “A Society without Fathers or Husbands”
III. BILATERAL DESCENT
10/25 Du, Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs , pg. 10-17 (top), 29-47
Gender theory and the Unity of Female-Male, Mythology.
10/30 Du, Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs , pg. 52-71, 79-106, Life Cycles from Birthing to
Funerals.
11/1 Du, Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs, Leadership, Kinship, Reciprocity pg. 107 – 141,
149-161 (just examine the chart on 142)
IV. CHANGES with Modernity. Changes through Technology, the NEW KINSHIP
11/6 Patriarchy in China
5
Reader: The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years
Electronic Reserves: The China Journal, Who adopts girls and Why? Domestic Adoption of
Female Children in Contemporary Rural China, Zhang, Weiguo, 2006
Film: Women as Small Happiness
11/8 Kinship Issues in the Late 20th /early 21st Century
Kinship, Gender and the New Reproductive Technologies
Stone, Chapter 8 pp. 289-312
Reader: Inhorn, The Local Confronts the Global: Infertile Bodies and New Reproductive
Technologies in Egypt
Film clip: “The Baby the Stork Brought Home”
11/13 Guest Speaker: Surrogate Mother Heather Barnhart
After the talk, write me your response to the issues of surrogacy on our class
blog, cite things that Heather discussed. Due by midnight today.
11/20 Kinship Charts due.
Guest Speaker: Maria Lepowsky, Gender and matrilineal kinship in Vanatinai, New
Guinea. Maria is an anthropologist who will describe her own fieldwork in the South
Seas.
Ares Reserves: Fruit of the Motherland, Gender in an Egalitarian Society, Island
Encounters 1-30 (get a feeling of the anthropological journey), Island Lives (life
cycles, Youth and Adults) 97-113. What would your lives be like in Vanatinai?
11/22 Happy Thanksgiving (read ahead)
Gay Marriage
11/27 Dan Savage: The Commitment pp. 3-76
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_California
Gay Marriage Laws. Is Civil Union Enough? What Rights Go With It? Should We Call It
Marriage?
11/29 Guest speakers: Gay Marriage at Home, with Kids
Electronic Reserves, a taste: My Three Sons: The Birth of A New Family, xi-19 (Prologue to A
Death in the Family). See also: http://daddyjohn.wordpress.com/about/
12/4 Savage: The Commitment 99-177
Exam review
12/6 Second Midterm
6
Statement for Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required
to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of
verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be
sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible.
DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through
Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
Statement on Academic Integrity
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of
academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of
others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise
allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic
work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own.
All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus,
the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while
the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/SCAMPUS/gov/. Students will be referred to
the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review,
should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be
found at: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.
7