Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
M/W: 1:10-2:30
PAC002
Prof. Rosario
Office: ANTH; Room 26
Email: mlrosario@wesleyan.edu
Skype: Melissa-Rosario
Office Hours: Tuesdays 10:30am-12pm; by appointment
Course Description
This course introduces students to key concepts and methods of cultural anthropology. Anthropology
(anthropos = human; logos = study of) explores human life in all of its complexity. In this course, we are
most interested in understanding how an individual’s actions are shaped by the norms of their society. The
central object of our study—the culture concept—will be a point of departure for examining a range of
challenges we face as social beings in the contemporary world, especially as they relate to difference and
inequality. In sum, students will: (1) learn that all societies—including their own—arbitrarily define
certain (and highly divergent) forms of behavior and thought as “natural” and “moral;” (2) become familiar
with fieldwork as a method which offers unique insights into the different ways people make meaning in
their daily life, (3) gain insight into the ethical implications of the discipline in the past, present and future.
Required Readings
Delaney, Carol. 2011. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. New York: WileyBlackwell Press.
Stout, Noelle M. 2013. After Love: Queer Intimacy and Erotic Economies in Post-Soviet Cuba. Durham: Duke
University Press.
Walley, Christine J. 2013. Exit Zero: Family and Class in Postindustrial Chicago. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press
All other articles, and book excerpts will be available in digital format on the library e-reserves.
Please purchase a clicker and register it to this class using moodle. More information for clickers can be
obtained @ http://www.wesleyan.edu/its/services/teaching/clickers1/forstudents.html
Course Organization
Format: This course is mixture of lecture, active learning exercises and discussion. Class attendance is
mandatory; roll will be taken. While we will discuss each reading in class, we will rarely have time to
consider all issues raised by the course readings. You will, however, be responsible for all course material
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on the exams. If you are having trouble with the amount of material or the pace of the course, I encourage
you to see me in office hours to discuss strategies for managing the workload.
Reading Schedule: We will follow the syllabus as closely as possible, but changes to the schedule are
possible. Please be mindful of this and listen closely for updates mentioned in class or periodically check
the course announcement page on moodle.
Classroom conduct: The classroom is a space for learning. Participating in class exercises and discussions
is crucial to the learning process and counts towards your final grade. To facilitate a vibrant and respectful
classroom environment, I ask that you refrain from all use of electronics, side conversations, and multitasking. Computer use in the classroom will be strictly limited to those who have pre-established special
accommodations at the University. Please put away your cell phones before entering the classroom, even if
class is not yet in session to facilitate a faster and smoother start time each day.
Getting Help: First, try the syllabus! Given the size of the course, I have tried to answer as many questions
as possible here. If you still need assistance, the best way to communicate with me outside of class is via
email or during my regular office hours from Tuesdays 10:30am-12:30pm. When we are approaching an
exam or paper, you should email me to reserve a time-slot so you don’t get stuck in line waiting.
Requirements, Expectations, and Grading
Requirements
1. Daily Attendance
2. Engaged Participation
3. Work submitted on time. There are heavy penalties for lateness; see below.
Expectations
1. Come to each class having read all assigned materials.
2. Write summative notes on each source. This will make studying easier. Keep track of keywords,
points of clarification or questions, or vocabulary words that you may be unfamiliar with.
3. Have an open mind. Learning to interrogate your own lifeworld, the invisible webs of meaning you
(and your loved ones, the media, etc. etc.) have spun around you, is not easy without some
flexibility and willingness to question.
Grading
The breakdown for grading is as follows:
Attendance and Participation (10%): Thoughtful participation includes “stepping up and stepping back,”
using the “I” perspective instead of making generalization, asking questions, refraining from texting and
googling during lecture, and engaging your peers in active learning exercises and small group discussions.
Anthropologists’ Tool Kit (5%): During the semester, I will periodically assign take home tasks to give
you some experience using some basic anthropological tools to examine the Wesleyan campus, culture and
community. During the session, you will discuss the assignment in groups and then I will randomly
distribute anonymous versions of the assignment to your peers who will grade it.
Cultural Analysis Papers (30%): There will be two short papers on ethnocentrism and cultural relativism
and on performativity and power due 9/24 and 11/15 respectively. There are two key dimensions of an
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anthropological perspective you will work on in these assignments: the ability to reflect critically on
personal experience and to explain how the most “common-sensical” ideas or practices are culturally
shaped. Each paper should be a balance of thick description and insightful analysis. Full assignment
descriptions will be distributed two weeks’ ahead of deadline.
Midterm (20%): The midterm exam tests your comprehension of core concepts in anthropology. There
will be definition questions, short answer and one long essay. The midterm will be given in-class on
MONDAY OCTOBER 19, from 1-2:15pm.
Final Exam (30%): This exam will consist of five short essay questions that test your ability to think
systematically about the course as a whole, bringing in concepts and examples from readings, films,
discussions and lectures. Whereas the midterm tested your comprehension of core concepts, the final is a
test in your ability to put on your anthropologist’s hat to critically reflect on the meaning of contemporary
issues with historical understanding and social + cultural sophistication. The final will be given during
finals week on Thursday, December 17 from 2-5pm.
Policies + Accommodations
General
 You must bring a printed copy of all reading materials to class meetings. You may not use a
computer in class unless you have a documented accommodation.
 All students must uphold the Academic Honor Code. Please make sure you understand what
plagiarism is and how to avoid it. All cases of plagiarism and cheating will be reported to the College
and will result in an F on the assignment, possibly the course.
Accommodations
 If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact Dean Patey in Disability
Resources, located in North College, Room 021, or call 860/685-5581 for an appointment to discuss
your needs and the process for requesting accommodations.
Due Dates
 Exams: no makeup exams will be given except in documented cases of illness. The final exam
schedule is not flexible. Please review the date and be sure you can attend. If you cannot, you may
either change your schedule or drop the course.

Papers: If you have a conflict with a deadline, let me know with 7-10 days’ notice and I will work
with you to give you a fair accommodation. I am happy to talk through, or look at drafts if you see
me with at five days’ notice. I will not answer questions about a paper if you send a message within
24 hours of a deadline. I will automatically deduct half a letter grade for late submissions. I will
consider any time after a deadline the next day.
Submitting Writing
 All written work should be word-processed, double-spaced, have 1” margins, be written in 12-point
font
 Please upload digital copies of your papers to blackboard on or before the deadline [please see
course schedule for specifics]. There are a lot of you. Let’s save paper.
 You are responsible for following the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation in all written
work.
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Course Calendar
UNIT 1: FOUNDATIONS
Day 1 (M/9.7) –What does a fish know about water?
Introduction and overview of the course
Day 2 (W/9.9) Making the Familiar Strange
 Delany, Carol. 2011. “Disorientation and Reorientation” in Investigating Culture: An Experiential
Introduction to Anthropology. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 1-28
 Bohannan, Laura “Shakespeare in the Bush” in Investigating Culture. P. 28-33
 Fuentes, Agustin. 2012. “Culture—Problems with What We Believe about Being Human” in Race,
Monogamy and Other Lies They Told You: Busting Myths about Human Nature. Berkeley: University
of California Press. P. 27-41
Day 3 (M/9.14) Native/Ethnographer Relationships
 Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1932 [1922]. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native
Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. London: Routledge and
Sons, pp. 1-25.
 Young, Michael. 2014. Writing his Life through the Other: the Anthropology of Malinowski.
http://publicdomainreview.org/2014/01/22/writing-his-life-through-the-other-theanthropology-of-malinowski/
Day 4 (W/9.16) Fieldwork + the Ethnographic Process: Deciphering Meaning
 Geertz, Clifford. 1973. Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. The
Interpretation of Cultures. New York, Basic Books, pp. 3-30
 Gusterson, Hugh. “Ethnographic Research.”
o Recommended: “Deep Hanging Out”
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1998/oct/22/deep-hanging-out/
Day 5 (M/9.21) Improvisation + Play
 Cerwonka, Allaine and Liisa H. Malkki. 2007. “Nervous Conditions: The Stakes in Interdisciplinary
Research.” Improvising Theory: Process and Temporality in Ethnographic Fieldwork. Chicago and
London: University of Chicago Press, pp. 1-40.
Day 6 (W/9.23): Culture is Embodied Nature
 Delany, Carol. 2011. “Our Bodies, Our Selves” in Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction
to Anthropology, pp. 205-238
 “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” in Investigating Culture, pp. 241-245
Day 7 (M/9.28) Handmaiden of colonialism: Racing the Discipline
 Asad, Talal. 1979. Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. In The Politics of Anthropology. Gerrit
Huizer and Bruce Manheim, eds. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton
 Rosaldo, Renato. 1989. “Imperialist Nostalgia” in Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis.
P. 68-90
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Day 8 (W/9.30) Distorted Times: Evolutionary Theory
 Fabian, Johannes. “Premodern Time/Space: Incorporation” and “Modern Time/Space Distancing” in
Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes it Object. New, ed. New York: Columbia University
Press, 2002. P 27Day 9 (M/10.5) Anthropology on the World Stage
 Escobar, Arturo. 1997. “Anthropology and Development.” International Social Science Journal
49(154): 497-515
 Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. 2003. “Anthropology and the Savage Slot: The Poetics and Politics of
Otherness.” In Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World. Palgrave. P. 7-28
UNIT 2: SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS: BODIES MATTER
Day 10 (W/10.7) The Limits of Postracial Thinking
 Take the implicit association test (understandingpredjucice.org) and post your score anonymously
online
 In Class Film: Race: The Power of an Illusion
 Brodkin, Karen. How Did Jews Become White Folk?
Day 11 (M/10.12) Connections We Can’t Unsee
 Lipsitz, George. 2015. “From Plessy to Ferguson” Cultural Critique 90: 119-139
 In class video: “Ferguson: City Under Siege”
 Wolf, Eric. 1990. “Facing Power, Old Insights New Questions” American Anthropologist 92(3):
586-596
Day 12 (W/10.14) Embodying Clean/Dirty Dualities
 Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindess,
(Introduction + The Rebirth of Caste)
 Listen to this podcast: “We are all Criminals” from Against the Grain
http://www.againstthegrain.org/program/997/tues-82614-we-are-all-criminals
 Then peruse the website for the project: http://www.weareallcriminals.com/
Day 13 (M/10.19)
 IN-CLASS MIDTERM
Day 14( W/10.21) Girls + Boys: Either/Or Myths
 Gottlieb, Alma. 2002.“Interpreting Gender and Sexuality: Approaches from Cultural
Anthropology” in Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines. Chicago: The University of
Chicago, pp. 167-189
 Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes”
No-class M/ 10.26; Fall Break
Day 15 (W/10.28): Families, Marriage + Heteronormativity
 Oboler, “Is the Female Husband a Man?”
 Delaney, Carol. 2011. “Relatives and Relations” only pp. 169-176
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Day 16 (M/11.2) Social Organization –Structuring Spaces + Imaginaries
 Delaney, Carol. “Spatial Locations” in Investigating Culture, pp.35-65
 Turner, Victor. “Liminality and Communitas” in The Ritual Process, p. 95-130
Day 17 (W/11.4): Defining Class, Redefining Ethnographic Subjects
 Exit Zero Introduction and Chapter 1 (pp.1-56)
Day 18 (M/11.9): Families, Gendered Expectations
 Exit Zero Chapter 2-3 (pp. 57-88)
Day 19 (W/11.11) Identity + subjectivity + belonging
 Exit Zero (final chapters)
 Reading on Personhood TBD
UNIT 3: ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY
Day 20 (M/11.16) Globalization and the Culture of Capitalism
 Graeber, David. 2015. “The Iron Law of Liberalism and the Era of Total Bureaucratization” The
Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, p 3-44
 Ho, Karen. 2005. “Situating Global Capitalisms: A View from Wall Street Investment Banks”
Cultural Anthropology 20(1): 68-96
o Recommended: Goldman, Michael. “Tracing the Roots/Routes of World Bank Power”
Day 21 (W/11.18) Love and Intimacy in the Aftermath of Economic Crisis
 Stout, Noelle. 2013. After Love (Chapters 1 + 2; p 33-84)
Day 22 (M/11.23) Commodifying Feelings + Relationships
 Stout, cont. (Chapters 3 + 4; p. 85-144)
THANKSGIVING BREAK, NO CLASS W/11.25
Day 23 (M/11.30) Savage Slot Reprised: Consumption + Tourism in Cuba

Stout, cont. (Chapters 5 + conclusion; p 145-187)
Day 24 (W/12.2) Public Anthropology: Disciplinary Uses Beyond the Ivory Tower


Ulysse, G “Avatar, Vodoo, and White Spiritual Redemption; Why Haiti Needs new Narratives
exercpts?”
TBD
Day 25 (M/12.7) Crafting Worlds Reprised: The Ethics of Anthropology
 Ferguson, J. and A. Gupta (Beyond “Culture”)
 Abu Lughod, L (Do Muslim Women Need Saving?)
 Harrison, F. (Selection from Outsider Within)
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Day 26 (W/12.9) Weaving Interpretations
 In-class fish-bowl
 Review session
 Evaluations
FINAL EXAM, THURSDAY DECEMBER 17, 2-5pm
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