CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
ANT 3305
SPR 2005
GARRETT COOK DRAPER 318A
710- 4433
OFFICE HOURS T, W and Th 11-2
e-mail Garrett_Cook@baylor.edu
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SYLLABUS AND PROSPECTUS
I.
INTRODUCTION
Cultural Anthropology is a nineteenth century invention of European and EuroAmerican culture, an institution which arose in order to classify, explain and often to aid
in the management of the diverse tribal and peasant societies which were confronted
and radically affected by colonialism. Most anthropologists, much like captain Kirk and
Mr. Spock (please don’t be put off by this antiquated reference), subscribed in theory to
a prime directive of non-interference in alien cultures, but like Kirk and Spock they
were frequently caught up in processes in which local and previously isolated
communities were suddenly affected by the economic and political expansion of THE
FEDERATION. Anthropologists thus became cultural brokers, mediators of culture
contact and culture change, rather than simply being observers and documentors of
static isolated cultures. Anthropologists have witnessed and documented dramatic
confrontations between cultures, and the major transformations in ways of life which
have been caused by these confrontations. Cultural anthropology seeks to
comprehend the processes of culture change and intercultural dynamics.
Yet, as anthropologists personally encountered peoples and cultures vastly
different from their own, additional purposes, purposes often at odds with the original
scientific and colonialist missions of the 19th century, developed. These new
purposes have led to attempts to act as translators of cultural realities, as appreciators
and sometimes as evangelists for the world views or institutions of non-western
cultures, as advocates for often disenfranchised "natives," documentors of the
intercultural context and experience and ultimately as quasi-outsider interpreters and
critics of their home societies and cultures.
Two contending traditions then have co-existed within anthropology from its
inception- a scientific school which sees the study of culture as a branch of natural
history and seeks to formulate the laws of cultural behavior and human nature (eg.
Leslie White) and a literary or humanities school which sees the study of culture as
comparative philosophy, comparative literature or even as a specialized form of literary
criticism in which cultures are understood as "texts" (eg. Clifford Geertz). Recently, as
part of an intellectual movement in the humanities known as post-modernism, and
encouraged by the development of an academic discipline called cultural studies, which
largely focuses analysis on popular culture and media in the United States, the literary
school has enjoyed a period of ascendancy and the goal of studying other cultures has
often been the construction of explicit critiques of authority, power and exploitation. We
will investigate all these perspectives, but our focus will be on the limited issue of how
to describe and interpret cultures.
This course will provide you with a rich understanding of the development of the
study of culture, of the findings of cultural anthropology about cultural diversity, and, I
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hope, with a genuine appreciation for the difficulties, challenges and excitement of
studying culture. It will provide you with some key experiences in careful, critical
analytical reading, in understanding and evaluating intellectual controversies, in
observing, investigating and describing cultural phenomena, in reflective selfconscious analysis of your own responses to field work, other cultures and project team
participation, and in utilizing controlled comparisons to analyze institutions in cross
cultural contexts.
Books to Purchase:
Asking and Listening Paul Bohannon and Dirk van der Elst Waveland
1998
Bridges to Humanity
Bruce Grindal and Frank Salamone Waveland 1995
Distant Mirrors
Philip DeVita and James D. Armstrong West/Wadsworth 2002
Annual Editions Anthropology Elvio Angeloni Dushkin/McGraw Hill
Field Ethnography Paul Kutsche. Prentice Hall. 1998.
II.
TOPICAL OUTLINE OF THE COURSE
A.
CULTURE General introduction. What is culture? The concept of cultural
relativism and its critique. The concept of wholism (holism) and models for cultural
integration. Major theoretical orientations in cultural anthropology are critically
reviewed.
Applications: Critically evaluate the concepts and limits of applicability of
cultural determinism and relativism by reading classic statements and discussing case
studies. Examine the application of the culture concept to complex pluralistic class
structured society. Identify institutionalized American microcultures. Locate and read
an ethnography to answer questions posed in class. NOTE-This ethnography
may also be used as a source of data to report on an institution in cross cultural
perspective in part C below.
B.
ETHNOGRAPHY How is culture observed and described? What are cultural
facts and how are they collected? Discussion of fieldwork goals, methods and ethics.
Applications: Review and consider analytical descriptions of intercultural
encounters in Bridges to Humanity and of American culture in Distant Mirrors and Field
Ethnography. Utilize Field Ethnography to devise and conduct ethnographic
investigations of local cultural scenes, microcultures, or institutions. Keep and submit a
thoughtful and self conscious journal of your field work. Make team-based
presentations of ethnographic findings to class, or in the event of an approved
individual project, write an individual ethnographic sketch for submission to the
instructor.
C.
ETHNOLOGY What is the comparative method in cultural anthropology?
Explore the idea of the institution and its use in cross cultural analysis and the
formulation of cultural models and generalizations.
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Applications: Cross cultural definition and analysis of selected institutions,
generation of cross cultural comparative research questions, report of findings on how
an institution varies in its form and function in two different cultures.
III.
CLASS WORK AND GRADING
Required and graded class work will include exams or brief position papers in each of
the 3 units (25%), participation in an ethnographic research project resulting in a
journal (25%) and a project team presentation of research findings to the class (with
performance and written components) (25%), and an individual 6 to 10 page critical
study of an institution in cross cultural perspective worked out in consultation with the
class instructor due as the final exam (25%).
The instructor will assign one additional point to the final grades of those who
are present for at least 80% of random roll calls, and zero to two points to final grades
based on his impressions of exemplary conduct- egs. active class participation based
on sound preparation, group leadership, and creative ideas and comments.
Letter grades will be asssigned as follows:
90 and above: A
86-89: B+
80-85: B
76-79: C+
70-75: C
60-69: D
59 and below: F
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