ANTH 262H/WS 262H
WEEKLY READING SCHEDULE
(subject to change)
PART 1: INTRODUCTIONS
Jan. 18--Introducing the Class
Jan. 20--Women’s Lives: Anthropology vs. Common Sense
READ: James Ito-Adler, "Cultural Relativism," in Dictionary of Anthropology, ed. Thomas Barfield
(Blackwell, 1996), p. 98. (ER)
Clifford Geertz, “Common Sense as a Cultural System,” in Local Knowledge (Basic Books,
1983), pp. 73-93. (ER)
Jan. 25—Growing up a Girl in the U.S.
FILM: “Dear Lisa: A Letter to My Sister” (45 min.).
PART 2: MENSTRUATION
Jan. 27—Periods in the U.S.
READ: Karen Houppert, The Curse (TC), Part 1.
Feb. 1--Periods in the U.S.
READ: TC, Part 2.
FILM: “Period Piece” (30 min.).
DUE: Film reaction to “Dear Lisa.”
ANTH 262H/WS 262H—Spring 2005
UIUC/Prof. A. Gottlieb
Feb. 3--Periods in the U.S.
READ: TC, Part 3.
Feb. 8--Periods in the U.S.
READ: TC, Part 4.
Feb. 10--Periods around the World
READ: Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb, “A Critical Appraisal of Theories of Menstrual
Symbolism,” in Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation, ed. T. Buckley and A.
Gottlieb (U. of California Press, 1988), pp. 1-50. (ER)
Feb. 15—Periods in Bali and Native California
READ: Lena Pederson, “Ambiguous Bleeding: Purity and Sacrifice in Bali,” Ethnology 42 (2003). (ER)
Thomas Buckley, “Menstruation and the Power of Yurok Women,” in Blood Magic, pp. 187209. (ER)
Feb. 17—Wrapping up Part 2
DUE: Film reaction to “Period Piece.”
WORK in class on preparing for body history interviews.
PART 3: BEAUTY AND SEXUALITY
Feb. 22—Ideas of Beauty in America
READ: Susan Bordo, "Introduction…," in Unbearable Weight (UW).
FILM: “Slim Hopes: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness” (30 min.).
Feb. 24--Beauty and Thinness in America
READ: Susan Bordo, “Reading the Slender Body” and “Hunger as Ideology,” in UW.
FILM: “Barbie Nation: An Unauthorized Tour” (53 min.).
Mar. 1—Ideas of Beauty and the Female Body in the U.S.
READ: Susan Bordo, “Material Girl: The Effacements of Postmodern Cultures” and “The Body and
the Reproduction of Femininity,” in UW.
Mar. 3—An Anthropology of Beauty Contests
READ: Colleen Cohen et al., "Introduction," in Beauty Queens on the Global Stage (BQGS).
Jehanne Teilhet-Fisk, "The Miss Heilala Beauty Pageant…," ch. 11 in BQGS.
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ANTH 262H/WS 262H—Spring 2005
UIUC/Prof. A. Gottlieb
Mar. 8—The Politics of Beauty I. Africa and the (Afro-)Caribbean
READ: Colleen Cohen, "Contestants in a Contested Domain: Staging Identities in the British Virgin
Islands," ch. 8 in BQGS.
Mary Moran, “Carrying the Queen: Identity and Nationalism in a Liberian Queen Rally," ch. 9
in BQGS.
Mar. 10—The Politics of Beauty II. Asia
READ: Carole McGranahan, “Miss Tibet, or Tibet Misrepresented? The Trope of Woman-asNation in the Struggle for Tibet,” ch. 10 in BQGS.
Penny Van Esterik, “The Politics of Beauty in Thailand,” ch. 12 in BQGS.
Mar. 15—Female Genital Operations (FGOs): Facts, Misconceptions, Risks
READ: Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund, “Female ‘Circumcision’ in Africa: Dimensions of the
Practice and Debates,” ch. 1 in Female “Circumcision” in Africa (FCA).
Deborah Balk, “To Marry and Bear Children? The Demographic Consequences of
Infibulation in Sudan,” ch. 3 in FCA.
DUE: Film reaction to “Barbie Nation” or “Slim Hopes.”
Mar. 17--FGOs: Values
READ AT LEAST ONE OF THESE TWO ARTICLES:
Michelle Johnson, “Becoming a Muslim, Becoming a Person: Female ‘Circumcision,’ Religious
Identity, and Personhood in Guinea-Bissau,” ch. 11 in FCA.
Ylva Hermlund, “Cutting without Ritual and Ritual without Cutting: Female ‘Circumcision’ and
the Re-ritualization of Initiation in the Gambia,” ch. 12 in FCA.
DUE: Personal ethnography/”Mirror” paper.
Mar. 22, 24—No Class (spring break!)
Mar. 29—FGOs: Persistence or Eradication?
READ: Mairo Usman Mandara, “Female Genital Cutting in Nigeria: Views of Nigerian Doctors on the
Medicalization Debate,” ch. 5 in FCA.
Bettina Shell-Duncan et al., “Women without Choices: The Debate over Medicalization of
Female Genital Cutting and Its Impact on a Northern Kenyan Community,” ch. 6 in FCA.
Lynn Thomas, “‘Ngaitana (I Will Circumcise Myself)’: Lessons from Colonial Campaigns to Ban
Excision in Meru, Kenya,” ch. 7 in FCA.
Ledama Olekina, et al., “Maasai Women Speak out: FGM—Why International Attempts to
Stop Female Circumcision Are Putting Maasai Women at Even greater Risk,” Cultural
Survival Quarterly (Winter):21-23 (2005). (ER)
Fuambai Ahmadu, “Rites and Wrongs: An Insider/Outsider Reflects on Power and Excision,”
ch. 14 in FCA.
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ANTH 262H/WS 262H—Spring 2005
UIUC/Prof. A. Gottlieb
Mar. 31—Student Debate on FGO
DUE: Debate notes or paper about FGO issue.
PART 4: PREGNANCY, CHILDBIRTH & MOTHERHOOD
Apr. 5--Anthropological Approaches to Pregnancy and Childbirth
READ: Robbie Davis-Floyd and Carolyn F. Sargent, “Introduction: The Anthropology of Birth,” in
Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge (CAK).
Brigitte Jordan, “Authoritative Knowledge and Its Construction,” ch. 1 in CAK.
Apr. 7—Pregnancy and Childbirth in Southern Africa
READ: Megan Biesele, “An Ideal of Unassisted Birth: Hunting, Healing, and Transformation among
the Kalahari Ju/’hoansi,” ch. 18 in CAK.
Betty-Anne Daviss, "Heeding Warnings from the Canary, the Whale, and the Inuit," in CAK.
FILM: “Nyamakuta: 'The One Who Receives'--An African Midwife" (32 min.).
Apr. 12—Pregnancy, Childbirth and Birth Control in Italy and Eastern Europe
READ: Jane Szurek, “Resistance to Technology-Enhanced Childbirth in Tuscany,: The Political
Economy of Italian Birth,” ch. 11 in CAK.
Beverly Chalmers, “Changing Childbirth in Eastern Europe: Which System of Authoritative
Knowledge Should Prevail?” ch. 10 in CAK.
Apr. 14—Pregnancy and Birth in the U.S.
READ: Ellen Lazarus, “What Do Women Want? Issues of Choice, Control, and Class in American
Pregnancy and Childbirth,” ch. 5 in CAK.
OPTIONAL: Carol Browner and Nancy Press, “The Production of Authoritative Knowledge in
American Prenatal Care,” ch. 4 in CAK.
Carolyn Sargent and Grace Bascope, "Ways of Knowing about Birth in Three Cultures," in
CAK.
FILM: "Hope Reborn: Empowering Families in the South Bronx” (15 min.).
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ANTH 262H/WS 262H—Spring 2005
UIUC/Prof. A. Gottlieb
Apr. 19--Doulas in the U.S.
READ: Judith Halek, “Labor-Support Doula,” in Gig: Americans Talk about Their Jobs, ed.
John Bowe et al. (Three Rivers Press, 2001), pp. 463-69. (ER)
Sheila Kitzinger, “Authoritative Touch in Childbirth,” ch. 8 in CAK.
Apr. 21--Motherhood in Anthropological Perspective
READ: Sheila Kitzinger, “Learning to Be a Mother” and “Working Mothers,” in Ourselves as
Mothers: The Universal Experience of Motherhood (1995), pp. 195-223. (ER)
Anna Tsing, “Monster Stories: Women Charged with Perinatal Endangerment,” in Uncertain
Terms: Negotiating Gender in American Culture, ed. Faye Ginsberg and Anna Tsing (1990).
(ER)
DUE: Film reaction to "Nyamakuta” or “Hope Reborn”
Apr. 26--Lesbian Mothers in the U.S.
READ: Ellen Lewin, Lesbian Mothers (LM), Prologue, chs. 1-3.
FILM: “Out in Suburbia: The Stories of Eleven Lesbians” (28 min.).
Apr. 28--Lesbian Mothers in the U.S.
READ: LM, chs. 7-9.
DUE: Film reaction to “Out in Suburbia”
May 3—Wrap-up of Course
Due: Research paper based on your body history interviews.
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