Dr. Erin Moore
Department of Anthropology
Fall 2015 University of Southern California
Classroom: VKC 200, T,Th. 12:30 - 1:50
My Office: KAP 340
Hours: Before and After my class, e-mail for appointment, epm@usc.edu, or 8:50-9:20
am T Th,
Freshman Seminar
Syllabus GESM – 130g, 8/23/15
Seminar in Social Analysis, Category GE-C
Section 35432R, 001
“All Our Kin,” Family and Kinship in Cross-Cultural Perspective, (4 units)
Welcome to USC! What is anthropology anyway?
Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human – across time and cultures
(geography). We get to study people’s traditions in other cultures. The purpose of anthropology
is to open our eyes to the diversity of human cultures. We do not all see the world with the same eyes.
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 (your pets, a lover?). It is not all biology. We will examine:
What is a marriage? Do you need the state or a church, or even 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 these rules make any sense? 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 gender, economic activities, and political systems. In this class we will discuss the
major concepts, controversies, and theoretical issues related to marriage, the family and the formation
of social groups -- including gay couples, adoption, birth control and the new reproductive technologies
(surrogacy).
We will visit: South Asia (India, Nepal, Pakistan), Africa, New Guinea, Egypt, China, Native
Americans and the modern United States. Just for fun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy6SAg5mOOw
Student Learning Goals:
1. Students will see the application of anthropological concepts, theory and methodology to
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their own lives.
2. “We all see with our own eyes.” This is a constant refrain in our classroom. Students
will learn that our cultures provide only one perspective on the right way to court, marry or
parent. Through discussion in class, films, the research project and our texts, students will be
introduced to a wide variety of perspectives and appreciate the differences in family structure
across time, space, and culture.
3. Students will practice their critical thinking, reading and writing skills through the daily
responses due to the professor. They will continue this practice through analyzing their
research in the context of the classroom materials in the final paper.
4. Students will practice ethnographic research either within their own family or in a local
family through constructing their kin charts. They will learn how the charts can be useful in a
medical, sociological, or historical context as well as in anthropology.
5. Students will practice their oral communication skills through presenting the charts in
class.
Required Texts: Bring the materials that we are currently reading to class with you.
1. Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women’s Worlds (2008) (Egyptian Bedouin patrilines, polygyny)
2. Shanshan Du, “Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs, ” Gender Unity and Gender Equality Among the
Lahu of Southwest China, (2002) Columbia University Press, New York.
3. Dan Savage, The Commitment, Love, Sex, Marriage and My Family 2006 (gay marriage)
4. Linda Stone, Kinship and Gender, An Introduction (2013), 5th edition
PLUS: There are 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:
Grades: Participation: 10%
Written reflections: 15%
Kin Chart 15%
Exams 20% ea.
4 Quizzes 20%
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.
Please be on time. No food, drink, or chewing gum.
Electronic devices: Turn off your phone at the start of class and stow it away. If you
are surfing the web on your computer, I will ask you to permanently switch to pen and paper
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notes. This is distracting to you, to your neighbors and to me – we sit in a circle.
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, double-spaced.
NOTE: E-mail to me, epm@usc.edu, WRITE GESM in the subject line.
Send by midnight the day before the class. Late responses are not accepted. (I read
them before class). You can always send them early.
Paste it into the e-mail, no attachments. You may e-mail your timely response to me even if
you are not in class.
This homework is not graded but will be recorded as either adequate or not. I will communicate
to you by email if your responses are not adequate.
3. Ethnographic project (15% total): Write about your family and
A. Draw your own Kinship Chart with a key.
You are the EGO (write this on chart). Put names and dates of birth and death as best you can.
Add birth order, marriage order. You may choose to do a chart of someone else’s family (check with
me first).
Put father’s family on one side and mother’s family on the other side. Make a consistent key on
both sides.
Keep the generations on the same line. Include at least 4 generations.
N.B. You will need to spend hours getting the information. This is fieldwork. Talk to your family;
look at what they have already collected; and, review old photo albums.
Color code 5 patterns not visible on the chart (health issues, jobs, education, risk-taking, hobbies,
military service, etc. Not the patrilineal names.) Discuss this material in your narrative. Color the
shapes boldly so that the patterns are obvious.
Do not COLOR the girls pink and the boys blue – that is already marked with shapes, save colors
for patterns. Do not color the number of children (this too is obvious, though you can talk about it).
Turn in the chart on big wide paper (art section of the bookstore), folded in a file folder.
B. THE PAPER : Write 8 pages, typed and double-spaced comment. Number the pages. I will
stop reading after 8 pages (editing is an art). In your paper you MUST:
1. Introduction should say what you learned most. Be specific to your culture. Not vague
generalizations. Begin with a quote from an interview that caught your attention.
2. State your methods, ¼ page: who gave you information, where did you meet. You should talk
to at least two people in person (you can talk to others over the phone, see me if this is a problem)
#1 and #2 above should be just one page total.
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3. History: relate your family 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. What were the most significant stories and patterns. You will need to generalize, don’t list what
I can see on the chart. I want to hear some good family stories.
5. Throughout your narrative relate the rules of kinship in your family to our course materials.
Use specific comparative examples with citations from the text (Abu-Lughod 20). How is your
family similar or dissimilar to the cultures that we studied. This is what makes the A paper.
Employ the vocabulary of kinship studies notions of endogamy, incest, what is a marriage….
Islamic marriages, Hindu marriages, Chinese issues, and matrilineal kinship.
6. Discuss patterns that you found in your kinship research and marked on the chart.
7. Short Conclusion (1/2 page max.): What did you learn about your family, be specific.
Do not write about names and birth order, etc. in the paper. I can see this on the chart.
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). Papers are due at the start of class, they go down part of a grade when they walk in later
in the class hour.
I will give you more information on the paper in class.
Chart Due: 10/27
Paper Due: Dec. 1 at 12:30, the start of class. Or it will be considered late and loses one grade per
day.
4. Exams: Essay and short answer (20% ea.)
Bring a large bluebook (or green) to be reshuffled. The exams are not cumulative and they are not
graded on a curve.
How do I study? Go over the Power Points (posted on blackboard:
https://blackboard.usc.edu/webapps/login/?new_loc=%2Fwebapps%2Fportal%2Fframeset.jsp), your
notes on class and films. After you study all the material get together in a group to quiz each other.
If you need to make up the final for an officially recognized reason, the exam will be
different and may be all essay.
The goal of the exam: is to test not only your knowledge of the cultures (compare and
contrast) that we studied and where they are located geographically (map) but also your
ability to apply anthropological concepts to new situations.
5. 4 Quizzes 20%: If you get 100% on the quiz you do not need to do the responses until the next
quiz.
Students with special accommodations, please advise me during the first week of school.
Special help: USC has a variety of options if you need special help. If you need special help
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for this class or any other, pls. see the Center for Academic Support
(http://sait.usc.edu/academicsupport/) and the Writing Center
(http://dornsife.usc.edu/writingcenter/) or the Counseling Office at the Student Health Center
(http://engemannshc.usc.edu/counseling/).
Come talk to me in my office as well.
___________________________________
I. Descent Theory
8/25 Reviews of Class Format and Assignments, Introductions
First comment due tomorrow midnight (remember, one before each class)
8/27 What is Kinship? Doing Anthropology
What can we learn from kinship? Why study it? Write on both pieces.
1. Rynkiewich, “Matrilineal Kinship: Coming Home to Bokelab”
On-line: For Rynkiewich's "Matrilineal Kinshup: Coming Home to Bokelab":
http://huberb.people.cofc.edu/www/Readings/201%20Readings/Rynkiewichs%20Matrilineal_Kinship_
Bokelab.pdf
2. Chagnon, “Doing Fieldwork Among the Yanomamo”
1-12 vignette: http://www.anthroprof.org/documents/Docs102/102articles/yanomamo1.pdf
fieldwork woes and problems collecting genealogies (if you are unfamiliar with this work, you
might want to skim the book by Chagnon on reserves in Leavey Library):
In class: Film clip: “A Man Called Bee”
9/1 The Power of Patrilines, Men Managing families
Kin charts: directions on blackboard for your paper, samples in class see Stone pg. 8-11.
Stone Chapter 3: Patrilineal Descent (or Agnatic descent) and the Nuer
1. Stone: 61-82, (69-93 4th ed.)
2. Ares Reserve NWSA Journal, Revisiting “Woman-Woman Marriages” Gikuyu Women (East
Africa)
In class: Film clips in class, “Nuer” and “Strange Beliefs” Part 2.
9/3 The Middle East, another variation of patrilineality.
1. Introduction pgs. 6-42 (skip the footnotes) Chapter 1, Patrilineality pgs. 45-75
9/8 Polygyny, "Without co-wives a woman's work is never done."
Abu-Lughod pp. 87-125
QUIZ 1 today – on anything up through today’s reading.
Read to me in class the parts you liked best of the first two chapters.
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In class: Masaii film clip
9/10 Reproduction, Abu-Lughod Chapter 3 pp. 127-167
9/15 Patrilineal Parallel-Cousin Marriage
Abu-Lughod Chapter 4 pp. 167-202
9/17 A Different Islamic Marriage in the Middle East
Islamic (Shia) Temporary Marriage, Mut’a Marriage
Ares Reserve: Iranian Studies: “Power of Ambiguity: Cultural Improvisations on the Theme of
Temporary Marriage” (mechanics: how and when) 123-149.
Ares Reserve: The Law of Desire (case studies of women) 114 -132 (Through Ninh), 146-152
(discussion).
9/22 What is marriage anyway? Multiple Husbands
Ares Reserves: Introduction, History of Marriage pgs. 1-12.
Stone Ch. 6, Polyandry Stone: 175- 185, (189-200 4th edition).
Be prepared to read to me a part of either of these texts that you enjoyed.
9/24 Hindu Patriarchies In India and Nepal, Quiz 2
Patriarchy in South Asia; Caste Endogamy, Domestic Development Cycles
Stone: pg. 83-100, (93-113 4th edition), Nepalese Brahmans
9/29 Class: “Dadi and her family.” (Breaking Bread)
10/1 Exam Review
10/6 Exam BRING A BLUEBOOK, The exam will take up the entire session. There will be
no extra time, but you may begin as soon as the classroom is empty.
10/8 II. Matrilineal Descent (or Uterine descent), What is a Matriarchy? The Navajo
Stone Chapter 4: 105-124, (117- 138, 4th edition)
Film clip on the Navajo. Mother-in-Law earrings???
10/13 The Nayar of Southern India and the Mosuo/ also called NA from China
Stone Chapter 4: 124-140, (138-153 4th edition, the Mosuo readings are lacking in the 4th addition
but on Ares reserve)
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10/15 Walking Marriages: The Na of China
Ares Reserve: A Society without Fathers or Husbands, Intro. 19-24, Furtive Visits 185-232, skim
the end part of this section.
In class Film: “A Society without Fathers or Husbands”
III. BILATERAL DESCENT (how is this different from matrilineal descent)
10/20 Du, Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs , pg. 10-17 (top), 29-47
Gender theory and the Unity of Female-Male, Mythology.
Guided fantacy in class.
10/22 Work at home on your charts, due in the next class.
10/27 Dads as Midwives?
Du, Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs , pg. 52-71, 79-106, Life Cycles from Birthing to Funerals.
Charts due in Class, 12:30 or they are late.
10/29 Du, Chopsticks Only Work in Pairs, Leadership, Kinship, The Breakdown of the Ideal –
Love-Pact Suicide pg. 107 – 135, 162-184 QUIZ 3
11/3 IV. CHANGES with Modernity. Changes through Technology, the NEW KINSHIP
Kinship Issues in the Late 20th /early 21st Century,
Kinship, Gender and the New Reproductive Technologies
Stone, Chapter 9 pg. 265-286, (289-312 4th edition)
Ares reserve: Inhorn, The Local Confronts the Global: Infertile Bodies and New Reproductive
Technologies in Egypt
11/5 Guest Speaker: Surrogate Mother Heather Barnhart
After the talk, write me your response to the issues of surrogacy, cite things that
Heather discussed. Due by midnight today.
11/10 Patriarchy in China
Ares Reserve: The New England Journal of Medicine: The Effect of China's One-Child Family
Policy after 25 Years
Ares 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
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Gay Marriage Issues
11/12 Dan Savage: The Commitment Ch. 1-4, pp. 3-51,
What does it feel like to be a gay parent in Seattle, in other states? Gay consciousness raising.
11/17 Savage: The Commitment 51-122, What do various family members think about
Marriage? Guest speaker: Gay Marriage at Home with Kids, John Sonego
11/19 Dan Savage, The Commitment: 123-177, QUIZ 4
Laws and issues, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex marriage
11/24 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.
Dan Savage, The Commitment: 181-246, I will have you finish Savage though we may have
a guest today.
Optional Ares Reserves background on the guest: 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?
11/26 THANKSGIVING (read to the end of Savage, if you have not).
12/1 Exam Review and present your kin chart/papers to class.
Papers due in class today.
12/3 Second Midterm (not cumulative), BRING A BLUEBOOK
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