1
Global Encounters: Comparing World Views and Values Cross-Culturally
Ant 185
Fall 2014
Faculty: Susan S. Wadley, Ford Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies, sswadley@syr.edu
Office: 327 Eggers, Office hours M 10:30-11:30, 2-4
Graduate Assistants: Taapsi Ramchandani, taramcha@syr.edu, Sections M 9:30, Tu 8
Fabiola Ortiz Valdez fortizva@syr.edu, Sections W 8:25, W 9:30
Andy Korn anknorn@syr.edu, Sections F 12:45, F 2:15
Alisa Weinstein afweinst@syr.edu, Sections Th 8, F 11:40
This course is writing intensive, fulfills a humanities core requirement, and fulfills an IR core requirement.
Because this is a writing intensive course, your assignments will be essays of various kinds and genres.
Through the dual lenses of culture and globalization, this course explores a range of topics where cultures come
into contact with one another, sometimes accommodating the ‘other’, sometimes resisting the difference and the
values therein, sometimes facing similar issues in very diverse settings, sometimes using power (over
individuals, groups, or cultures) to control the encounter. We will begin by looking at one of the most everyday
cultural encounters—that around food. While seemingly an everyday fact of life, food is also a significant
marker of identity, culture and nation and is actually often contested. But food is also a commodity that
becomes increasingly globalized, so that we no longer eat what we grow but what we buy from across the
globe. And what we eat marks global encounters and our identities in interesting ways.
We will then move on to one of the most contentious of global encounters, war—an encounter where one group
seeks to impose its values on another by force--, looking specifically at the long term effects of war on
communities in Vietnam and the U.S. Here we will look specifically at how the cultures of Vietnam and the US
understood the after-effects of war on local populations.
Our next focus takes us to South Asia: one of the most recent and expanding global encounters, surrogacy. Here
we see the effects of the power structures of First World versus Third World; of rich versus poor; of male versus
female, as well as the commodification of bodies—especially the poor female body.
Our fourth lens on global encounters is tourism—environmental tourism, spiritual tourism, medical tourism, and
more. The tourist encounter is pervasive and complicated as we will learn.
The final week is devoted to a major global encounter, the spread of disease, especially the current Ebola
epidemic and the cultural differences between rural Africans and modern medicine that are linked to the spread
of this disease.
Learning outcomes:



To define and understand key anthropological terms such as culture, society, power
To gain an understanding of the term globalization and its meaning in the 21st century
To learn the meaning and relevance of terms such as structural violence and neo-liberalism to
understanding modern societies
2



To understand some of the ways in which human difference is created, marked and contested as well as
the range of variation found in the world’s cultures
To be able to interview consultants to learn about their cultural patterns and beliefs
To think critically about various encounters that you have with those whose values differ from yours
READINGS
Most of your readings are articles on Blackboard. There are two books ordered at the SU Bookstore:
War and Shadows: the Haunting of Vietnam by Mai Lan Gustaffson. Ithaca: Cornell University Press
Bringing it Back Home: An Oral History of New York City’s Vietnam Veterans by Philip E. Napoli, NY: Hill
and Wang.
SPECIAL EVENT
One of the films on war being shown in the Human Rights Film Festival, Sept. 20 (at 4 pm or 7 pm), is
required.
GRADING:
Discussion grade
Pop quizzes
Papers
Essay 1
Reflection
Essay 2
Essay 3
Essay 4
Essay 5
18 points
10 points
20 points
2 points
16 points
12 points
20 points
2 points
(in sections, unannounced, based on that week’s readings)
Due Sept. 22
Due in sections week of Sept. 22
Due Oct. 13
Due Nov. 3
Due Dec. 1
Due Dec. 3 (to be written in class, 20 minute time period)
Final grades will be based on a standard scale. A is 93-100; A- is 90-92; B+ is 88-89, B is 83-88; B- is 80-82;
etc. Below 60 is an F. Grade points are not rounded off.
All written work should be typed, 1.5 or double spaced, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Bring a hard copy to
class on the due date: put it in the box marked with your TA’s name.
We do not accept late work or incompletes unless extraordinary circumstances develop. It is vital that all your
papers be submitted on time. Your grade for that assignment will be cut 1/3 of a letter grade equivalent for
every ½ day late after it is due. Due means at the beginning of class on the due date!
You are expected to attend all lectures and discussion sections. Material will be covered in both that is NOT in
your readings, so attendance is necessary.
Laptops, phones and other forms of media are not allowed during class, either lecture of discussion. Keep them
in your backpacks or bags, as we will confiscate if we see them. Powerpoint slides from lectures that contain
detailed material (charts and numbers) will be handed out in class or emailed to you, but you are expected to
take notes for the other material. You should take notes on the content of films, as these are important sources
of material for your papers.
3
The Syracuse University Academic Integrity Policy holds students accountable for the integrity of the work
they submit. Students should be familiar with the Policy and know that it is their responsibility to learn about
instructor and general academic expectations with regard to proper citation of sources in written work. The
policy also governs the integrity of work submitted in exams and assignments as well as the veracity of
signatures on attendance sheets and other verifications of participation in class activities. Serious sanctions can
result from academic dishonesty of any sort. For more information and the complete policy, see
http://academicintegrity.syr.edu. If I find that you violated the integrity policy, you will receive an F on that
assignment, possibly for the course. You have a right to appeal the charge of violation.
Students who are in need of disability-related academic accommodations must register with the Office of
Disability Services (ODS), 804 University Avenue, Room 309, 315-443-4498. Students with authorized
disability-related accommodations should provide a current Accommodation Authorization Letter from ODS to
the instructor and review those accommodations with the instructor. Accommodations, such as exam
administration, are not provided retroactively; therefore, planning for accommodations as early as possible is
necessary. For further information, see the ODS website, Office of Disability Services
http://disabilityservices.syr.edu/
Religious holidays: SU’s religious observances policy, found at
http://supolicies.syr.edu/emp_ben/religious_observance.htm, recognizes the diversity of faiths represented
among the campus community and protects the rights of students, faculty, and staff to observe religious holy
days according to their tradition. Under the policy, students are provided an opportunity to make up any
examination, study, or work requirements that may be missed due to a religious observance provided they notify
their instructors before the end of the second week of classes. For fall and spring semesters, an online
notification process is available through MySlice/Student Services/Enrollment/My Religious Observances from
the first day of class until the end of the second week of class. We will adjust oral presentations around any
holidays that you miss, pending your submission through the on-line process.
Please note that some of the materials taught in this course deal with issues that you might find emotionally
difficult. Please talk with myself or your TA if you need to work through these issues.
Readings
Week 1
Aug. 25
Aug. 27
Introduction
What is Culture
What is Globalization?
Global Encounters: Food
Week 2
Sept. 1
Labor Day, no class
Ember and Ember (BB)
Steger 1 (BB)
4
Sept. 3
Week 3
Sept. 8
Sept. 10
Week 4
Sept. 15
Sept. 17
Producing our food: encountering migrant
workers
Smith-Nonini (BB)
Sharpe, esp. pp 147 on (BB)
“Globalization and food, cont.
Cook et al. (BB)
Writing ethnography
Mintz (BB) (intro and chap 7)
A Family’s Food History
Ray (BB)
Food, Nationality and Eating Out
Lozada (BB)
Yan (BB)
Video clip: http://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/advertising-missionaries/clip1/
Paper # 1 Due Sept. 22 to be handed in at 11:40 outside of Maxwell Auditorium.
Special event: you are to see one of the films dealing with war at the Human
Rights Film Festival, Sept. 20 at 4 or 7 pm. See flyer handed out in sections
Global Encounters: War
Week 5
Sept. 22
No class. Hand in papers at 11:40
outside Maxwell Auditorium.
Begin Gustafsson
Sept. 24
Thinking about war as a global encounter
Gustafsson
Sept. 29
The Background of the Vietnam War
Gustafsson cont.
Oct. 1
Wars and their after-effects:
Vietnamese Ghosts
Finish Gustafsson
Oct. 6
Wars and their after effects:
American ghosts
Napoli, pp 3-82
MacLeish (BB)
Oct. 8
Living with the war memory
Napoli, pp. 83-122, 181-209
Messinger (BB)
Week 6
Week 7
Paper # 2 Due Oct. 13 to be handed in at the beginning of class.
5
Global Encounters: Surrogacy
Week 8
Oct. 13
Oct. 15
Week 9
Oct. 20
South Asian Social Organization
Caste and Gender
Wadley (BB)
“Paddy Seeds”
Pondering Poverty and its relationship to
Neoliberalism and Structural Adjustment
Steger 2 (BB)
Surrogacy and its international ramifications
Oct. 22
Surrogacy in India -1
Pande 1 (BB)
Deomango (BB)
Oct. 27
Surrogacy in India - 2
Pande 2 (BB)
Oct. 29
Seeking children: surrogate mothers
Banerjee (BB)
Week 10
Paper # 3 Due Nov. 3 to be handed in at the beginning of class.
Global Encounters: tourism
Week 11
Nov. 3
Thinking about the tourist encounter/ecotourism
Honey (BB)
Salazar (BB)
Nov. 5
Cannibal Tours
Taylor (BB)
Nov. 10
Heritage Tourism: Ghana
Bruner (BB)
Nov. 12
The Personal Encounter: the Guide
Gmelch (BB)
Nov. 17
Spiritual Tourism: India
tba
Nov. 19
Sex Tourism: Thailand
Albuquerque (BB)
Bishop and Robinson (BB)
Week 12
Week 13
6
Paper # 4 Due Dec. 1 to be handed in at the beginning of class.
Global Encounters: Disease
Week 14
Dec. 1
Globalization, Stigma, and Disease:
Ebola, Depression and more…
tba
Dec. 3
Stigma and Disease, cont.
tba
Paper # 5 Final brief reflection to be written in class on Dec. 3