INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (ANTH 1001)
Baruch College
Fall 2012
Instructor: Elliott Liu
Email: eliu@gc.cuny.edu
Class Meetings: Tue-Thu, 11:10am—12:25pm
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 12:30pm, 4-240-B
Course Overview:
Cultural anthropology emerged as a social science in the 19th and early 20th centuries, describing
itself as the study of human beings in their social and cultural context. Cultural anthropologists
examine how human beings organize themselves in groups and societies, and how they conceive
of themselves and the world around them. They examine how ideologies and power structures
shape people’s lives, and how people both act in accordance with, and resist, these systems.
This course aims to familiarize students with the basics of anthropological fieldwork, revisit
some of the historical debates that have shaped anthropology, and examine aspects of our
contemporary world through an anthropological lens. It stresses the importance of critical
analysis: many of our readings will disagree with one another, and it will be our job to identify
the assumptions and implications of different arguments. Through assignments and discussions,
students will develop these analytical skills, and use social scientific theories to examine the
world around us in terms of class, race and gender.
Course Objectives:
 Develop a basic understanding of culture as an anthropological object;
 Build an understanding of important anthropological concepts and debates;
 Acquire and develop a set of critical analytic skills (i.e., critical thinking, reading, writing)
to explore the relationship between knowledge, power and representation.
Course Requirements:
Classroom Blog
A central part of this course will be participation in a course blog that is designed to help you
synthesize the reading material, and relate it to your own lives through writing. Students are
required to write 3 blog posts over the course of the semester, each at least two paragraphs in
length, on a set of weekly readings.
Responses should be posted to the blog by 9pm Monday night, so that we may draw on them in
discussion the following day. Blog posts are graded on a credit/no credit basis (pass/fail), based
primarily on whether or not you seem to have done the reading: it’s OK to misunderstand an
author; it’s not OK to not do the reading.
Panel Discussions
Students will lead 3 discussion panels over the course of the semester. Discussion panels take
place on Thursdays. The students leading them should: 1) begin with an overview of the
presentation itself; 2) give a brief description and comparison of the arguments and theoretical
frameworks discussed in the assigned texts, and connect them to any significant debates that
emerged in the week’s blog posts or in-class discussions; and 3) end with critical comments
and/or a set of questions the class should consider.
Panelists are responsible for keeping the discussion active, relevant, and interesting—feel free to
either reign in discussions that are off topic and to raise provocative questions if the discussion is
not engaging the class. You may coordinate with the fellow members of your panel in whatever
manner works best for you.
Midterm Exam:
The midterm exam will include a mix of short-answer and essay questions. During most classes,
key concepts will be taken from the day’s topic and written on the board. Knowing the meaning
of these terms and relationships between them will go a long way to answering the short
response questions. Integrating these concepts into your essays is central to getting a good grade.
The questions will include prompts based on course readings, lectures, films, and discussion.
Fieldwork Project:
Over the course of the semester, you will complete a fieldwork assignment, in which you will
conduct participant observation and do background research on a topic of your choice. More
details on this assignment are provided in the project handout. This project will count as your
final exam, and will be presented to the class on Tuesday 12/4 and Thursday 12/6.
Grading:
Blog entries: 20%
Panels and class participation: 20%
Attendance: 10%
Midterm exam: 20%
Fieldwork Project: 30%
Total: 100%
Classroom Norms:
This course covers issues about which people may have strong feelings. One goal of this class is
to develop students’ ability to discuss class readings and contemporary issues in a critical yet
respectful manner. Thus, students should strive to share to their opinions in a constructive way,
and treat each other with respect regardless of whether they agree or disagree on a given topic. It
should be self-evident that slurs and insults of any kind will not be tolerated.
Students with Disabilities:
I will do my best to accommodate students with disabilities. If you feel comfortable doing so,
please inform me as early as possible so that the proper accommodations can be made. I will
certainly respect your privacy. For more information on the services Baruch College offers to
students with disabilities, visit: http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/studentaffairs/disabilityServices.htm
Course Schedule
The dates and readings below are subject to change as the semester progresses.
All other reading assignments will be available on the course blog, unless a URL is posted next
to them, in which case they are available online. Always bring the readings with you to class.
Week 1: Tuesday, 8/28 and Thursday 8/30
Introduction to anthropology
 Malinowski, Bronislaw. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. 1922. Pp. 81-86.
 Sterk, Claire. “Fieldwork on Prostitution in the Era of Aids.” In Spradley and McCurdy.
Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Prentice Hall, 2009. Pp.
33-44.
Week 2: Tuesday 9/4 and Thursday 9/6
Modes of analysis
 Geertz, Clifford. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.” In The
Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, 1973. Pp. 3-10.
 Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. “On Social Structure.” In Structure and Function in Primitive
Society. The Free Press. Pp. 188-204.
 Malinowski, Bronislaw. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Pp. 86-95.
Week 3: Tuesday 9/11 and Thursday 9/13
Anthropology from where, for whom?
 Miner, Horace. “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema.” In Spradley and McCurdy.
Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Prentice Hall, 2009. Pp.
334-339.
 Abu-Lughod, Lila. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological
Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” American Anthropologist 104(3).
2002.
 Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples.
Zed Books, 1999. Pp. 78-88.
Week 4: Thursday 9/20
Change, development, evolution?: Part 1
 Spencer, Herbert. Principles of Sociology. Pp. 481-488.
 Harris, Marvin. “Life Without Chiefs.” In Spradley and McCurdy. Conformity and
Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Prentice Hall, 2009. Pp. 273-280.
 Practice field notes due
Week 5: Thursday 9/27
Change, development, evolution?: Part 2
 Clastres, Pierre. Society Against the State. Zone Books, 1989. Pp. 189-218.
Week 6: Tuesday 10/2 and Thursday 10/4
Gifts and reciprocity



Spradley and McCurdy. Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology.
Prentice Hall, 2009. Pp. 136-138.
Cronk, Lee. “Reciprocity and the power of giving.” In Spradley and McCurdy.
Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Prentice Hall, 2009. Pp.
139-145.
Stack, Carol. All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. Harper & Row,
1974. Pp. 32-44.
Week 7: Tuesday 10/9 and Thursday 10/11
Class and capitalism
 Marx, Karl and Engels, Freidrich. The Communist Manifesto. Section 1.
 Prole.info. Abolish Restaurants. Pp. 1-42.
 Collins, Jane. Threads: Gender, Labor and Power in the Global Apparel Industry.
University of Chicago Press, 2003. Pp. 133-149.
Week 8: Tuesday 10/16 and Thursday 10/18
What is race?
 Boas, Franz. “Race Problems in America.” 1909.
 Buck, Pem. Worked to the Bone: Race, Class, Power and Privilege in Kentucky. Monthly
Review Press, 2001. Pp. 12-27.
 Jackson, John. Harlem World: Race and Class in Contemporary Black America.
University of Chicago Press, 2001. Pp. 181-190.
Week 9: Tuesday 10/23 and Thursday 10/25
Resistance and restabilization in the racial order
 Davis, Gardner and Gardner. Deep South. University of Chicago Press, 1941. Pp. 15-25,
44-49.
 Rawick, George. From Sundown to Sunup: The Making of the Black Community.
Greenwood Publishing, 1972. Pp. 95-119.
 Hale, Charles. “Does Multiculturalism Menace? Governance, Cultural Rights and the
Politics of Identity in Guatemala.” Journal of Latin American Studies. 34(3). 2002. Pp.
485-491.
Week 10: Tuesday 10/30 and Thursday 11/1
Urban poverty
 Midterm exam Tuesday 10/30Bourgois, Phillippe, “Poverty at Work: Office
Employment and the Crack Alternative.” In Spradley and McCurdy. Conformity and
Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology. Prentice Hall, 2009. Pp. 227-239.
 Pardue, Derek. “Hip Hop as Pedagogy: A Look into "Heaven" and "Soul" in São Paulo,
Brazil.” Anthropological Quarterly 80(3). 2007. Pp. 673-688.
Week 11: Tuesday 11/6 and Thursday 11/8
What is gender?
 Mead, Margaret. Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies. Morrow, 1963
[1935]. Pp. 279-289.

Lorber, Judith. “The Social Construction of Gender”. In Women’s Lives: Multicultural
Perspectives, 3rd ed., Gwyn Kirk and Margaret Okazawa Rey, eds. New York: McGrawHill. Pp. 21-24.
Week 12: Tuesday 11/13 and Thursday 11/15
Women’s roles in tumult
 Short research paper due, Tuesday 11/13
 James, Selma. “A Woman’s Place.” In The Power of Women and the Subversion of the
Community. Falling Wall Press, 1972. Pp. 57-79
 Denham, Diana. Teaching Rebellion: Stores from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca.
PM Press, 2008. Pp. 85-96, 131-140.
 Lorde, Audre. “Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface”. In Sister Outsider. The
Crossing Press, 1984. Pp. 60-65.
Week 13: Tuesday 11/20
Sexuality and challenging gender binaries
 Pascoe, CJ. “'Dude, You’re a Fag': Adolescent Sexuality and the Fag Discourse”
Sexualities 8(3). Pp. 329-346.
 Rivera, Sylvia. “Queens in Exile: the forgotten ones”. In GenderQueer: voices from
beyond the sexual binary. Alyson Books, 2002. Pp. 67-85.
Week 14: Tuesday 11/27 and Thursday 11/29
 Complete rough draft of fieldwork project this week
 In-class movie and analysis: Paris is Burning
Week 15: Tuesday 12/4 and Thursday 12/6
 Presentation and discussion of fieldwork projects
Week 16: Tuesday 12/11
Auto-ethnography
 Fieldwork project final draft due in class
 In-class activity: auto-ethnography and material culture
 Fanon, Frantz. A Dying Colonialism. Grove Press, 1965. Pp. 69-97.
Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses. The following definitions are based on the
College's Academic Honesty website.
Cheating is the attempted or unauthorized use of materials, information, notes, study aids,
devices or communication during an academic exercise. Examples include but are not limited to:
 Copying from another student during an examination or allowing another to copy your
work
 Unauthorized collaborating on a take home assignment or examination
 Using unauthorized notes during a closed book examination
 Using unauthorized electronic devices during an examination
 Taking an examination for another student
 Asking or allowing another student to take an examination for you
 Changing a corrected exam and returning it for more credit
 Submitting substantial portions of the same paper to two classes without consulting the
second instructor
 Preparing answers or writing notes in a blue book (exam booklet) before an examination
 Allowing others to research and write assigned papers including the use of commercial
term paper services
Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person's ideas, research or writing as your own, such
as:
 Copying another person's actual words without the use of quotation marks and footnotes
(a functional limit is four or more words taken from the work of another)
 Presenting another person's ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging
them
 Using information that is not considered common knowledge without acknowledging the
source
 Failure to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignment