Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
1
SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1B
(SCAN08002)
2011/2012
COURSE GUIDELINES, LECTURE PROGRAMME,
READING LIST
THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
*This booklet should be read in conjunction with the 2011-12, Social and Political
Science, Student Handbook - a guide to common information and procedures for
students in first and/or second year courses throughout the School. There you will
find detailed information on a wide variety of topics (including assessment of
coursework, criteria for grading work, plagiarism, study skills, course evaluation,
etc.). www.sps.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/word_doc/0008/72476/SPSYear1_and_2Hbook11-12GoldenCopy1.doc
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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What is Social Anthropology?
Social Anthropology is the comparative study of human conduct and thought in their
social context. Societies around the world vary enormously in their social, cultural
and political forms, and their individual members display an initially overwhelming
diversity of ideas and behaviour. The study of these variations, and the common
humanity which underlies them and renders them intelligible to sympathetic outsiders,
lies at the heart of Social Anthropology. Anthropologists acquire their information
through a distinctive method termed ‘participant observation’. This means that they
spend many months or even years living among the people with whom they are
researching, sharing their experiences as far as possible, and hence attempting to gain
a well-rounded understanding of that society and of the activities and opinions of its
members.
The remainder of this booklet* provides:
*a map detailing the location of Social Anthropology and the lecture theatre
*details concerning the teaching of the course
*details concerning the assessment of the course
*communication between students and teaching staff
* a guide to Reading Materials
* a week-by-week course programme
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
Map
Social Anthropology is located at:
Chrystal Macmillan Building (CMB)
15A George Square
The lectures will be held in:
David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre A
Mondays and Thursdays, 16.10-17.00
The videos will be held in:
David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre C
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Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
I. Aims, Learning Outcomes, Transferable Skills
1. Aims
This semester-long course aims to help students develop a sound basic knowledge and
a critical understanding of the relevance of the academic discipline of Social
Anthropology to developmental challenges worldwide. It emphasises the practical
relevance of Social Anthropology to the challenges of promoting development, social
justice, and well-being. It explores both the actual and potential benefits of
ethnography (of places organizations, and kinds of activity), of analytical and
conceptual anthropology, and of anthropological methods and values. It also explores
the factors that limit or facilitate the potential practical value of anthropology, and
compares the respective contributions of anthropologists working from within and
outside academia.
2. Learning Outcomes
Students will gain an understanding of: ethnography as both process and product; an
historical appreciation of the development of the concepts of fieldwork; and begin to
apply that understanding to ethnographic works. They will become familiar with
more of the basic anthropological concepts and the analysis of cultural materials from
around the world.
3. Transferable Skills
While studying Social Anthropology, students will be encouraged to gain or further
develop a range of other useful skills:

reading and writing skills - exercising and improving their skills in reading
unfamiliar and often complex material, students are expected to order their own
arguments and present them in the form of written essays. Returned with
comments, these essays will form an important part of the overall assessment.

oral skills - developing further their skills in communicating complex material in a
clear and engaging way, students are expected to participate in the tutorial
discussions which are focused on the oral presentation of sophisticated arguments
and debates.

bibliographical skills - in presenting their written and oral work, students are
expected to learn how to use the various libraries at the University and to
familiarize themselves with the ways in which bibliographical information should
be compiled, edited and presented.

word-processing skills - with easy access to computers and a variety of computing
courses, students are expected to word-process their essays and learn to use email
(in order to contact tutors).

using the Web - becoming accustomed to accessing relevant web sites (both in the
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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context of tutorial discussions and the writing of essays) constitutes an important
part of this course.
II. Teaching
1. Lectures
There are two 50 minute lectures every week: Mondays & Thursdays, 16.10 to
17.00.
2. Lecture Outline

Introduction (Dr Joost Fontein & Dr Neil Thin)

Better Living Through Anthropology? Cross-cultural Studies of Wellbeing
(Dr Neil Thin)
Although more commonly associated with the study of harm and its mitigation, social
science can help us understand how people conceptualise and try to achieve good
lives and good societies. The distinctive contributions of anthropology come from
holistic and cross-cultural studies which explore the interplay between universals and
diversity in the ways in which wellbeing is anticipated, experienced, and evaluated,
and in the ways in which it features in ideas about what a good society should be like.
This section of the course invites you to consider not only the contributions
anthropology has made and could make to understanding well-being and the
conceptualisation of individuals and their lives and experiences, but also whether the
study of anthropology could help you lead a better life and help others to do so too.
 Environments, Landscapes & Objects (Dr Joost Fontein)
Stuff matters. We all exist materially and in a material world, and these dimensions of
peoples’ lives are not separate from culture, history or politics but fundamentally
intertwined with them. The lectures in this half of the course will invite you to
consider how anthropology has engaged with three important and inter-related aspects
of what we might loosely call material culture; these are landscapes, environments
and objects. We begin by considering environmentalism by focusing particularly on
questions of nature & culture, the cultural construction of nature & gender and the
politics of conservation. The next three lectures will explore the anthropology of
landscape, the connection between landscape and memory, and the power inherent in
space and particularly maps. The last three lectures will look at objects, beginning
with an exploration of how political ideologies can be embedded in public and private
spaces, followed by an exploration of the social lives of things, and finishing with a
discussion of how objects do things (ie have agency).
3. Tutorials
Tutorials provide an opportunity for you to discuss your own ideas and your reaction
to the readings and lectures. The tutors will also assist you in the organization of your
essays and preparation for the exam at the end of the year.
Each tutorial consists of 10-15 students. Tutorials meet weekly, starting in the second
week of the course. Thus, your first tutorial takes place in the week starting
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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Monday, 23 January 2012.
Tutorial attendance and the prompt submission of coursework are requirements for all
students. Students who fail to attend at least six out of nine tutorials without good
reason will have their final mark reduced by one percentage point for each
unapproved absence above the threshold, and will not have their final marks raised if
their performance overall is borderline.
Please note that pressure of work or problems of time management are not
considered an acceptable reason for non-attendance at tutorials or for late
submission of work.
 How to sign up
By the time you read this you should (if pre-registered for the course) have received
an email asking you to sign up for a tutorial online using MyEd
https://www.myed.ed.ac.uk. Don’t forget to make a note of the time and day, name of
your tutor, and room in which your tutorial will take place. Once you have signed up
for a specific tutorial group, you will usually stay with it for the rest of the semester.
During Lecture 1 (Monday 16 January), the Course Organizer will be able to answer
queries about tutorials, and thereafter if you have a query about your tutorial time or
place, please contact the course secretary May Rutherford via email
may.rutherford@ed.ac.uk or in the Undergraduate Teaching Office, Chrystal
Macmillan Building, ground floor.

Tutorial Programme: what will we be doing?
The first tutorial will provide you with essentials about the programme and
procedures for the rest of the course, and it is therefore all the more important that
you do not miss it.
Tutorials have a flexible format, but they do follow a pre-defined course of work.
In order to gain a basic understanding of Social Anthropology and to have the
opportunity to discuss the lecture/reading material, tutorial work will closely
follow the discussion topics as specified in this course guide. Attention will also
be paid to developing the necessary writing and bibliographical skills ensuring
that all students can research, write and present essays effectively. In addition,
guided by past years’ final exam papers, tutorials will help you prepare for the
exam.
III. Assessment
The Degree Examination mark for the course will be based on a combination of:

Essay (1) = 40%

Final Exam = 60%
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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1. Essay
You are required to write one essay, with the following task:
Write a review essay focusing mainly on ONE ethnographic monograph, paying
particular attention to whether and how it reveals the quality of people's lives and
experiences.
The essay is to be submitted by 12 noon on Monday 27 February in the essay box on
the ground floor of the Chrystal Macmillan Building.
The essay should be submitted with a cover sheet, which asks for information
including your examination number, the course you are taking and your tutor’s name.
Since all coursework is anonymised, you are identified by your examination number,
and not your name (so don’t put your name on page headers/footers). Cover sheets
can be found on a table beside the Social Anthropology information point on the
Ground Floor CMB.
The essay should be between 1,500 - 2,000 words length. You must provide a word
count on the cover sheet. Please note that the word count does not include the
bibliography. The penalty for excessive word length in coursework is one mark
deducted for each 20 word excess.
As we believe that your time management and organizational skills are part of the
challenge, we will automatically deduct 5 marks per working day an essay is overdue,
unless special permission for late submission has been sought beforehand. Anticipate
computer problems, difficulties in securing readings and ‘pressure’ due to other
essays. These are not valid grounds for an extension. For work handed in later than 5
working days after the due date a mark of ‘0’ will be recorded.
If you have good reason for not meeting a coursework deadline, you may request an
extension from either your tutor (for extensions of up to five working days) or the
course organiser (for extensions of six or more working days), normally before the
deadline. A good reason is illness, or serious personal circumstances, but not pressure
of work or poor time management. You may be asked to provide supporting evidence
(eg. a note from your Director of Studies or your Doctor). DO NOT ask other
members of staff.
If you fail to submit all of your coursework without good reason, you will receive a
coursework mark of zero.
The essay is marked by your own tutor. The course organizer will second-read a
sample of essays from each tutorial group to ensure equal marking standards across
tutorial groups. Your degree exam is anonymously marked by tutors and full-time
teaching staff.
All work submitted for assessment is accepted on the clear understanding that it is the
student’s own work. Every year some students are found copying passages from
books or other students’ work without proper citation. This constitutes plagiarism and
is considered one of the most serious offences in the academic world. It is dealt with
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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accordingly. Do not copy work from other sources, including the internet. See the
link (http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/undergrad/year_1_2/what_is_plagiarism) for further
information on the policy on plagiarism, and how to avoid plagiarism in your work.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ESSAY ELECTRONICALLY
‘Turnitin’
The School is now using the ‘Turnitin’ system to check that essays submitted for first
and second-year courses do not contain plagiarised material. Turnitin compares every
essay against a constantly-updated database, which highlights all plagiarised work.
Instructions for submitting your essay
You must submit one paper copy of your essay in the essay box (Ground Floor
CMB) by 12 noon on Monday 27 February. In addition, you must also submit an
electronic version via WebCT by the same deadline. (Please note penalties will be
incurred if the essay is not submitted on WebCT) The instructions for doing so are as
follows:
1. Log in to WebCT via MyEd and click on Social Anthropology 1B.
2. Go to the ‘Click here to submit your essay’ link to submit your essay to the Turnitin
assignment inbox.
3. To begin the submission process click on the ‘submit’ icon which is found in the
submit column.
4. Your name should be automatically filled in on the form. Type in “Essay” in the
submission title as the form cannot be sent unless all the fields are complete.
5. Next, click on the ‘Browse’ button to open your computer’s file browser and use it
to browse to the document you wish to submit. Make sure the drop down box at the
top of the form still says ‘submit a paper by: file upload’. Before clicking on the
‘submit’ button, make sure that all the fields in the form are complete (if you leave
one blank you will receive an error message and the file upload box will be cleared).
Click the ‘submit’ button when you are happy you are submitting the correct file.
6. At this point, a plain text version of the essay will be displayed to you (it won’t
show any formatting, images, etc.). Review this to ensure you are submitting the
correct document (the document itself will be sent to the system in its original
format). If you are happy, click on the ‘Submit Paper’ button to submit your
assignment. If you have made a mistake you can click on the ‘cancel, go back’ link,
which will take you back to the submission form.
7. You’ve now submitted an assignment! A receipt from the system is displayed.
8. Click on the ‘go to portfolio’ link to return to the assignment inbox.
9. On returning to the assignment inbox, you can view your submission to make sure
everything is as it should be.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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10. Clicking on the title you gave your assignment opens a viewer that displays your
submission and also contains the paper ID which can be used by the administrators of
the system to identify your work if there is a problem.
11. Clicking on the document icon in the contents column allows you to see your
work in its original submitted format.
You can also follow this link for more detailed instructions:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.22364!fileManager/submitturnitinplwebct.pdf
Please note that late submissions are unlikely to be accepted by the Turnitin system
and you should contact the Secretary, May Rutherford, may.rutherford@ed.ac.uk if
you are unable to submit your electronic copy.
Referencing and bibliography
References and bibliography should follow the author-date system. For example, in
the body of an essay:




Single author’s quotation or idea referred to: (Smith 1989: 213)
Two authors, more than one page: (Johnson & Margolin 1990: 245 - 247)
Several authors: (Kennedy et al 1994: 156)
Citation of another author’s work in a secondary text: (Baxter 1982 cited
in Comaroff 1988: 16)
In your bibliography follow these guidelines:
For a book by one author:
Smith, J G 1989 The Anthropologist as Apprentice: Lessons from the Field,
London: Vertigo Press.
For two authors, a chapter in a book:
Johnson, M & P Margolin 1990 'Children at risk' In The Problems of
Children on the Streets in Brazil (ed) J Butterfield. Englewood Cliffs: PrenticeHall.
For a journal article
Simpson, Bob 1994 'Bringing the "unclear" family into focus: divorce and remarriage in contemporary Britain' Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute 29: 831-851.
Long quotations (more than 4 lines) should be indented with no quotation marks;
shorter quotations should be incorporated in the main text with single quotation
marks. Author’s name, etc., should appear at end of quote before the full stop.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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2. The Final Exam Paper
The Examination consists of one paper and takes place at the end of the semester. It
will provide 60% of your Degree Examination mark. In your tutorials, towards the
end of the course, you will have the opportunity to prepare for the exam by reviewing
course materials, considering revision strategies, practising exam questions, and so
on. Details of the exam will be provided at a later date.
Your final grade will be decided between your tutor, the course organizer, and the
Board of examiners. In the course of the tutorials you will have the opportunity to
discuss criteria and processes of assessment. Knowing how you are being assessed
ought to help you produce work that we will be glad to give a high mark!
Note: Registration for degree examinations is handled automatically by the
University’s student record system. You are, however, responsible for checking that
the details against your own name are correct. You should do this via the Edinburgh
Student Portal around the third or fourth week of semester 2 and advise your Director
of Studies if there are any discrepancies.
In order to achieve a Degree Pass in Social Anthropology 1B students must pass
the Examination. The pass mark is 40. See School booklet for details of further
requirements for a course pass.
IV. Communications
If you have any problems, they should be taken first of all to your tutor. The easiest
time to see your tutor is just before or after a tutorial. Messages for the tutors can be
sent through email or left in their individual tutor folders kept in a cupboard in the
Social Anthropology information unit on the ground floor of the Chrystal Macmillan
Building. This is also where you will find a mail slot for depositing your essay.
More serious personal problems are best dealt with by your Director of Studies, who
will let us know, for example, if you have been ill or, for some other serious reason,
unable to keep up with the work for part of the course.
Administrative problems to do with the course can usually be dealt with by your tutor,
but you may if necessary consult the Course Organizer, Dr Joost Fontein, Room 5.25,
CMB, j.fontein@ed.ac.uk, Ph. 651 3861, e.g. about problems to do with tutorial
teaching.
There are various avenues for you to provide us with feedback about the course:

at the end of each section, some tutorial time will be given over to feedback
sessions on various aspects of the course, and the tutors will pass on your
comments to the course organizer.

we will ask each tutorial group to elect a tutorial representative. Some of the
tutorial reps will become the class representatives (their names and contact
addresses will be posted on the Social Anthropology 1B noticeboard and on
WebCT) serving on the Staff-Student Liaison Committee. The Staff-Student
Liaison Committee meets to discuss students’ ideas about the teaching of the
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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course. Make sure you know who is your own tutorial group representative.

at the end of the course, we ask all students to fill in a questionnaire about the
various lecture blocks and other aspects of the course. We do hope you will take
note of what you like and dislike as the course progresses, and that you then take
the time to share your experience with us. We do our best to include your
constructive suggestions into the programme for subsequent years.
Please, check regularly the Social Anthropology 1B Notice Board, located outside
the Undergraduate Teaching Office on the ground floor of the Chrystal
Macmillan Building, for public announcements and individual messages.
V. Reading Materials
All books which are on the reading list for the lectures should be available in the Main
Library’s Reserve Reading section, on the ground floor.
Offprints of many of the articles (including some book chapters) on the list should be
available in the file cabinets there. Reading Materials are in heavy demand, so treat
them kindly, use the reading room at off-peak times whenever possible, and return
readings as soon as you have finished using them.
Course Reserve items may be viewed in the Catalogue by selecting the Course
Reserve search button and by choosing, from any or all of the drop down menus, the
appropriate Course Organizer, Course title or Subject. The items in the lists are
organized by first author.
Students are not required to purchase any particular books, but it will obviously be
more convenient for you if you buy your own copies of books which you intend to use
heavily in writing essays and preparing tutorial assignments.
Do browse through the Social Anthropology books and periodicals in the Main
Library in George Square (mainly GN, 2nd floor), and especially through current, still
unbound periodicals (1st Floor Reading Room). Where possible refer to the
electronic journal versions, and browse electronically – see the various links to
ejournal databases and subject guides at http://www.ed.ac.uk/schoolsdepartments/information-services/services/library-museum-gallery/findingresources/library-databases. The following are some of the periodicals which are
especially useful:








American Ethnologist
Annual Review of Anthropology
Community Development Journal
Cultural Anthropology
Current Anthropology
Ethnos
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute/MAN
Third World Quarterly
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
● Access to lots of
www.anthrosource.net
good
anthropology
texts
12
via
AnthroSource
By way of introduction to the subject, you may find the following books helpful:
Barnard, A. 2000 Social Anthropology: A Concise Introduction for Students.
Somerset: Studymates
Carrithers, M. 1992 Why Humans Have Cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Eriksen, T.H. 2004 What is Anthropology? London: Pluto
Hendry, J. 1999 An Introduction to Social Anthropology: Other People’s Worlds.
London: Macmillan Press
Schultz, Emily A 2005 Cultural anthropology: a perspective on the human condition.
New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press
As a concise overall guide to the ideas, arguments and history of Social
Anthropology, you will also find extremely useful the Encyclopedia of Social and
Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition (Barnard, A. & J. Spencer 2010. London and New
York: Routledge)
In addition, as Social Anthropology 1B focuses on the value of ethnographic work,
you must choose an ethnography for use in your tutorials, on which you will write a
review for your in-course assessment. Here are some examples of suitable books:
Abu-Lughod, L. (1988) Veiled Sentiments: honor and poetry in a Bedouin society.
Berkeley: University of California Press
Adelson, Naomi, 2000, Being Alive Well: Health and the Politics of Cree Well-Being.
University of Toronto Press
Ahmed, Amineh (2008) Sorrow and Joy among Muslim Women: The Pukhtuns of
Northern Pakistan. Cambridge University Press
Becker, Gay (1983) Growing Old in Silence. Berkeley: University of California Press
Becker, Gay (1997) Disrupted Lives: How People Create Meaning in a Chaotic
World. Berkeley: University of California Press
Benedict, Ruth (1935) Patterns of Culture. London: Routledge
Boddy, Janice (1989) Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zār Cult in
Northern Sudan. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press
Bourgois, Philippe (2002) [2nd Edition] In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El
Barrio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Desjarlais Robert (2003) Sensory Biographies: Lives and Deaths Among Nepal’s
Yolmo Buddhists. Berkeley: University of California Press
Desjarlais, Robert (1997) Shelter Blues: Sanity and Selfhood Among the Homeless.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
Du Bois, Cora Alice, 1944, The People of Alor: a Social-Psychological Study of an
East Indian Island. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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Eder, James F (1987) On the road to tribal extinction: depopulation, deculuration,
and adaptive well-being among the Batak of the Philippines. Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press
[FT
online
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5s200701;query=;brand
=ucpress]
Epstein, Arnold L. (1992) In the Midst of Life: Affect and Ideation in the World of the
Tolai. Berkeley: University of California Press
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1937) Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande.
Oxford: Clarendon Press
Fong, Vanessa (2004) Only Hope: Coming of Age under China's One-Child Policy.
Stanford: Stanford University Press
Gardner, Katy (2002) Age, Narrative and Migration: The Life Course and Life
Histories of Bengali Elders in London. Oxford: Berg
Gee, Francis Lim Khek, 2008, Imagining the Good Life: Negotiating Culture and
Development in Nepal Himalaya. Leiden: Brill
Geertz, Clifford (1960) The Religion of Java. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Gregor, Thomas (1985) Anxious Pleasures: the Sexual Lives of an Amazonian People.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Grima, Benedicte (1992) The Performance of Emotion among Paxtun Women. Austin:
University of Texas Press
Hochschild, Arlie R. (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human
Feeling. Berkeley, University of California Press
Howell, Nancy (2010) Life Histories of the Dobe !Kung: Food, Fatness, and Wellbeing over the Life-span. University of California Press
Howell, Nancy (2010) Life Histories of the Dobe !Kung: Food, Fatness, and Wellbeing over the Life-span. University of California Press
Josephides, Lisette (2009) Melanesian Odysseys: Negotiating the Self, Narrative, and
Modernity. Oxford: Berghahn
Kapferer, Bruce, 1983, A Celebration of Demons. Indiana University Press
Kayser-Jones, Jeanie S (1981) Old, Alone, and Neglected: Care of the Aged in the
United States and Scotland. Berkeley: University of California Press [FT online
at http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft1c6003x6]
Lamb, Sarah, (2000) White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender, and Body in
North India. Berkeley: University of California Press [FT online at
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft458006c0;query=mang
oes;brand=ucpress]
Lamb, Sarah, (2009) Aging and the Indian Diaspora: Cosmopolitan Families in India
and Abroad. Bloomington : Indiana University Press
Levy, Robert I., (1973) Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Lim, Gee (2008) Imagining the Good Life: Negotiating Culture and Development in
Nepal Himalaya. Leiden: Brill
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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Lock, Margaret M., (1993) Encounters with Aging: Mythologies of Menopause in
Japan and North America. Berkeley: University of California Press
Low, Setha M., 2004, Behind the Gates: Life, Security, and the Pursuit of Happiness
in Fortress America. Routledge
Mathews, Gordon (1996) What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and
Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press
Mead, Margaret, (1970) Coming of Age in Samoa. New York: Dell
Mentore, George (2005) Of Passionate Curves and Desirable Cadences: Themes on
Waiwai Social Being. University of Nebraska Press
Montgomery, Heather, 2001, Modern Babylon? Prostituting Children in Thailand.
Oxford: Berghahn
Myerhoff, Barbara (1978) Number Our Days. New York: Simon & Schuster
Nabokov, Isabelle (2000) Religion against the self: an ethnography of Tamil rituals.
Oxford: Oxford University Press
Obeyesekere, Ganannath (1981) Medusa’s Hair. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press
Parker, Richard G. (2001) Bodies, Pleasures, and Passions: Sexual Culture in
Contemporary Brazil. Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press
Rodgers, Susan [ed] (1995) Telling Lives, Telling History: Autobiography and
Historical Imagination in Modern Indonesia.
Berkeley: University of
California
Press
FT
online
at
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft867nb5n6;query=;bran
d=ucpress
Rosaldo, Michelle Z., 1980, Knowledge and Passion: Ilongot Notions of Self and
Social Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Ryang, Sonia (2006) Love in Modern Japan: its Estrangement from Self, Sex, and
Society. London: Routledge
Shostak, Marjorie, (1990) Nisa: the Life and Words of a !Kung Woman. London:
Earthscan
Turnbull, Colin M., (1983) The Mbuti Pygmies: Change and Adaptation. London:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston [or: The Forest People, 1961, or The Mountain
People, 1973]
van Willigen, John (1989) Gettin' Some Age on Me: Social Organization of Older
People in a Rural American Community. Lexington: University Press of
Kentucky
Verkaaik, Oskar (2004) Migrants And Militants: “Fun” And Urban Violence In
Pakistan. Princeton: Princeton University Press
Wallman, Sandra et al (1996) Kampala Women Getting by: Wellbeing in the Time of
AIDS. London: James Currey
Weston, Kath (2008) Traveling Light: On the Road with America's Poor. Boston,
MA: Beacon Press
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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Wikan, Unni (1990) Managing Turbulent Hearts: a Balinese Formula for Living.
London: University of Chicago Press
[please note that a large number of excellent ethnographies are available to download
free at http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks]
In addition, you may like to look at some of the following ethnographic monographs
which are relevant to the second half of the course:
Bender Barbara (1998) Stonehenge: Making space, London: Berg
Fontein, Joost (2006) The Silence of Great Zimbabwe: Contested Landscapes and the
Politics of Heritage, London: Ucl Press
Lan, David (1985) Guns & Rain, Oxford James Currey
Latour, Bruno and Steve Woolgar (1979) Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of
Scientific Facts. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications
Moore, Donald (2005) Suffering for territory: Race, Place & Power in Zimbabwe
Duke University press
Reynolds, Pamela 1996 Traditional Healers and Childhood in Zimbabwe. Athens,
OH: University of Ohio Press
Rabinow, Paul (1996) Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press
All information contained in this booklet can also be found on the Social
Anthropology website http://www.san.ed.ac.uk.
Disabled students
The School welcomes students with disabilities (including those with specific learning
difficulties such as dyslexia) and is working to make all its courses accessible. If you
have special needs which may require adjustments to be made to ensure access to
such settings as lectures, tutorials or exams, you should discuss these with your
Director of Studies who will advise on the appropriate procedures.
You can also contact the Student Disability Service, Third Floor, Main Library,
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The Advisor can discuss possible adjustments and specific examination arrangements
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be a recent Chartered Educational Psychologist's assessment. If you do not have this,
the Disability Office can put you in touch with an independent Educational
Psychologist.
WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH ALL OF YOU AND HOPE
YOU ENJOY THE COURSE!
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
Week 1
Monday
16 Jan
16
Course Introduction
Dr Neil Thin & Dr Joost Fontein
BETTER LIVING THROUGH ANTHROPOLOGY? CROSS-CULTURAL
STUDIES OF WELLBEING
Weeks 1-5
Thursday 19 January - Thursday 16 February (9 lectures)
Dr Neil Thin
Social science tends to be associated with social problems – with the study of harm
and its mitigation. But it can also help us understand how people conceptualise and
try to achieve good lives and good societies. To sketch out possibilities for social
progress requires recognition and analysis of both suffering and wellbeing, of
pathologies and social goods. The distinctive contributions of anthropology come
from holistic and cross-cultural studies which explore the interplay between
universals and diversity in the ways in which wellbeing is anticipated, experienced,
and evaluated, and in the ways in which it features in ideas about what a good society
should be like. This section of the course invites you to consider the contributions
anthropology has made and could make to understanding well-being and the
conceptualisation of individuals and their lives and experiences. You are also invited
to think about whether the study of anthropology could help you lead a better life and
help others to do so too.
Thursday
19 Jan
Romanticism and critiques of modernity
A great deal of early ethnography was composed as an antidote to
western ethnocentric smugness and racism. Many seemed to
follow an unwritten rule that you could be critical of western
culture but not of nonwestern culture. Treatment of well-being
was therefore naïvely romantic, even if it also offered some
usefully provocative challenges to western concepts of progress.
Key reading
Sahlins, Marshall D., 1968/1974, 'Notes on the original affluent
society.' In Stone Age Economics. London: Tavistock
http://www.appropriate-economics.org/materials/Sahlins.pdf
Kaplan, David, 2000, ‘The darker side of the "Original Affluent
Society"’. Journal of Anthropological Research 56,3:301-324
Further reading
Wilk, Richard, 1999, ‘Quality of life and the anthropological
perspective.' Feminist Economics 5,2: 91-93
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
17
Lee, Richard B., 1992, ‘Art, science, or politics? The Crisis in HunterGatherer Studies’. American Anthropologist 94, 1: 31-54
Monday
23 Jan
Theoretical approaches to wellbeing
Anthropological treatment of happiness in crosscultural
perspective is only very recently beginning to emerge, although
this theme was prominent in social and moral philosophy in the
19th century. This new trend is introduced, along with some key
debates in the cross-cultural study of psychological well-being and
their implications for policy.
Key reading
Christopher, John C., 1999, ‘Situating psychological well-being:
exploring the cultural roots of its theory and research.’ Journal of
Counseling and Development 77, 2:141-152
Further reading
Thin, Neil, 2008, ‘Good feelings and good lives: why anthropology
can ill afford to ignore well-being’. In G. Mathews and C. Izquierdo
[eds], Pursuits of Happiness: Well-Being in Anthropological
Perspective. London and New York: Berghahn [or: Thin, Neil, 2007,
"Realising the substance of their happiness": how anthropology forgot
about Homo Gauisus.' in A. Corsin Jimenez [ed], Culture and the
Politics of Freedom: the Anthropology of Well-being. London: Pluto
Press; or: ‘Socially responsible cheermongery: on the sociocultural
contexts and levels of social happiness policies.’ In R. Biswas-Diener
(Ed.), 2010, Positive Psychology as Social Change. Netherlands:
Springer– pdfs will be available on WebCT]
Colby, Benjamin N, 1987, ‘Well-being: a theoretical program’,
American Anthropologist. 89:879-95
Wierzbicka, Anna, 2004, ''Happiness' in cross-linguistic & crosscultural perspective' Daedalus 133, 2 [Special issue on happiness]: 34
– 43
Reddy, William M., 1997, 'Against constructionism: the historical
ethnography of emotions. Current Anthropology 38, 3, 327-334
Tutorial
Discussion
Does Sahlins show genuine and plausible interest in the well-being of
hunter-gatherers?
Thursday
26 Jan
Selves, feelings, and lives
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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Discussion of happiness or of the goodness of life requires some
concept of the individual whose well-being is being considered. We
explore here some of the diversity in self-concepts and in
evaluation of the self that need to be considered if we are to
develop cross-cultural understanding of happiness.
Key reading
Mathews, Gordon , 1996, ‘The stuff of dreams, fading: Ikigai and "the
Japanese self”’ Ethos 24,4: 718-747
Wikan, Unni, 1987, 'Public grace and private fears: gaiety, offense and
sorcery in northern Bali'. Ethos 15,4,337-365
Further reading
Heine, S.J., D.R. Lehman, H.R. Markus and S. Kitayama, 1999, ‘Is
there a universal need for positive self-regard?’, Psychological Review
106: 766–794
Hollan, Douglas W., 1992, 'Emotion work and the value of emotional
equanimity among the Toraja'. Ethnology 31: 45-56
Hochschild, Arlie R., 1979, ‘Emotion work, feeling rules, and social
structure’. American Journal of Sociology 85:551-575 [or Hochschild,
Arlie R., 1983, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human
Feeling. Berkeley, University of California Press – esp chs: ‘Feeling as
Clue’ and ‘Managing Feeling’]
Biswas-Diener, R., Vitterso, J. and Diener, E. 2005. ‘Most people are
pretty happy, but there is cultural variation: The Inughuit, the Amish
and the Maasai.’ Journal of Happiness Studies, 6:205-226.
Monday
30 Jan
Wellbeing through the life course 1: Youth
Wellbeing themes have been slightly more prominent in
anthropologies of childhood than in other areas of anthropology.
Discourses of parenting, schooling, and childcare give strong clues
about cultural values. But modern social science and social policy
have introduced new pediatric and pedagogical discourses which
have steered our attention from childhood happiness to suffering
and academic achievement. Childhood is an elusive concept – both
a life stage in its own right and a prelude to adulthood.
Key reading
Panter-Brick, Catherine, 2002, ‘Street children, human rights, and
public health: a critique and future directions’. Annual Review of
Anthropology 31:147–71
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
19
Montgomery, Heather, 2007, ‘Working with child prostitutes in
Thailand: problems of practice and interpretation’. Childhood 14: 415
– 430 [OR Montgomery, H. 2000, ‘Imposing rights? A case study of
child prostitution in Thailand’. in Cowan, J., M. Dembour and R.
Wilson [eds], Culture and Rights: Anthropological Perspectives, pp.
80-101]
Further reading
Moore, Henrietta L., 2004
Quarterly 77,4: 735-746
‘On
being
young’.
Anthropological
Taylor, Lisa Rende, 2005, ‘Dangerous trade-offs: the behavioral
ecology of child labor and prostitution in rural Northern Thailand’
Current Anthropology 46, 3, 1
Mead, Margaret, 1970, Coming of Age in Samoa. New York: Dell
Tutorial
Discussion
Either: Based on the Mathews or the Wikan readings, do you think
that the Western assumption of a distinct and coherent ‘self’ is a sound
basis for universalist conceptions of well-being?
Or: How useful is the concept of the ‘life course’ in crosscultural
studies of wellbeing?
Thursday
2 Feb
Culture and Aspiration
People’s experiences and appreciation of life are strongly
influenced by their culturally-shaped aspirations. Management of
ambition is a key aspect of social policy in every culture. The
freedom to develop and pursue personal ambitions is one of the
hallmarks of modernity and globalization, but it can come at a
very high personal and collective cost. Conversely, cultural
inhibition of individualistic motives, though prosocial and
promotive of sharing, cooperation and egalitarian respect, can
harm everyone if it instils a culture of fear or apathy.
Key reading
Appadurai, Arjun, 2004, ‘The capacity to aspire: culture and the terms
of recognition’. in Rao, Vijayendra, and Michael Walton [eds], Culture
and Public Action. Stanford University Press, pp 59-84 [also available
on Google Books]
Further reading
Foster, George M., 1965 ‘Peasant society and the image of limited
good’ American Anthropologist 67: 293-315
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
20
Radhakrishnan, P. & Chan, D. K-S., 1997, ‘Cultural differences in the
relation between self-discrepancy and life satisfaction: examining
personal and parental goals.’ International Journal of Psychology, 32
387-398
Lutz, Catherine, 1983, 'Parental goals, ethnopsychology and the
development of emotional meaning'. Ethos 11,4,246-262
Monday
6 Feb
Wellbeing through the life course 2: midlife crisis
Life stages and transitions can be approached as biological,
chronological, sociological, or cultural phenomena. This lecture
explores some ethnographies of common midlife crisis and what
they tell us about concepts of life course and wellbeing in different
cultural contexts.
Key reading
Becker, Gay, 1994, ‘Metaphors in disrupted lives: infertility and
cultural constructions of continuity’. Medical Anthropology Quarterly
8,4: 383-41
Further reading
Lock, Margaret, 1986, 'Ambiquities of aging: Japanese experience and
perceptions of menopause' Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 10,1:2346
Kagawa-Singer, Marjorie, et al, 2002, ‘Comparison of the menopause
and midlife transition between Japanese American and European
American women’. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 16,1:. 64-91
Tutorial
Discussion
What are the moral and practical implications of ethnographic studies
of culture and aspiration?
Thursday
9 Feb
Love and empathy
After previous neglect, love has become an important theme in
cross-cultural studies of emotion. This literature makes crucial
contributions to our understanding of how well-being and
aspirations are culturally constructed, as well as to the
appreciation of strong influences of our common evolutionary
genetic heritage. This lecture discusses love in relation to other
themes like sex, marriage, and empathy.
Key reading
Jankowiak, William, and Thomas Paladino 2008 'Desiring
longing for love: a tripartite conundrum'
In W.Jankowiak
sex,
[ed],
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
21
Intimacies: Between Love and Sex Around the World. W. Jankowiak,
ed.
Columbia
University
Press,
pp.
1-36
www.pstc.brown.edu/nmu/intro%20intimacies_WJankowiak.pdf
Hatfield, Elaine, and Richard L. Rapson (2002). ‘Passionate love and
sexual desire: Cross-cultural and historical perspectives.’ In A.
Vangelisti, H. T. Reis, & M. A. Fitzpatrick (Eds.) Stability and Change
in Relationships. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 306-324
www.elainehatfield.com/ch70.pdf
Further reading
Lindholm, Charles, 1998, 'Love and structure' Theory, Culture &
Society 15,3:243-263
Hollan, Douglas, and Jason Throop, 2008, 'Whatever happened to
empathy?: Introduction' Ethos 36,4: 385 – 401
Baumeister, Roy F., and M.R. Leary, 1995, 'The need to belong: desire
for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.',
Psychological Bulletin 117:497-529
Oishi, Shigehiro; Koo, Minkyung; Akimoto, Sharon (2008) 'Culture,
interpersonal perceptions, and happiness in social interactions'
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 34,3:307-320
n.b. Friday
10 Feb
Video: Goddess and the Computer [essential viewing as prelude to
Monday’s lecture]
Monday
13 Feb
Livelihoods, environment, and well-being
For most of humanity, ensuring survival through gathering or
production of food has been the core wellbeing concern. Modern
development initiatives, however, can sometimes underestimate the
extent to which productive activities are intertwined with the social
and cosmological relationships that facilitate good lives. Here,
agricultural examples show how many dimensions of wellbeing
need to be considered when evaluating or changing livelihoods. We
will also look at some of the literature on how evolutionary factors
influence our experience of the natural environment.
Key reading
Lansing, J. Stephen (1987) ‘Balinese water temples and
management of irrigation’. American Anthropologist 89, 326-41
the
Richards, Paul (1993) ‘Cultivation: knowledge or performance?’ in M.
Hobart (ed), An Anthropological Critique of Development. London:
Routledge. Pages 61-78 [e-book accessible via Library Catalogue]
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
22
Further reading
Nesse, Randolph 2004 'Natural selection and the elusiveness of
happiness' Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
Series
B
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~nesse/Articles/NesseEvolElusiveHappiness-ProcRoyalSoc-2004.pdf
Grinde, Bjorn, 1996, ‘Darwinian happiness: biological advice on the
quality of life.’ Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems, 19, 3 [or
Grinde, Bjørn, 2005, 'Darwinian happiness: can the evolutionary
perspective on well-being help us improve society?'. World Futures
61,4:317-329\
Charlton, Bruce G, 2001, ‘What is the meaning of life? Animism,
generalised anthropomorphism and social intelligence’
Buss, David M., 2000, ‘The evolution of happiness’. American
Psychologist 55, 1, 15-23
Tutorial
Discussion
Based on Lansing, Richards, or any other livelihood-related
ethnography, discuss the processes, relationships, and products through
which livelihoods contribute to wellbeing.
Thursday
16 Feb
Wellbeing through the life course 3: ethnogerontology
The study of cultural conceptions of old age gives us important
clues as to the cultural influences on wellbeing. Here we explore
ethnographies and discourses on the achievement of critical
transitions and preparation for death, social re-positioning,
reinvention of the self, and links between body, environment, time,
and wellbeing.
Key reading
Lamb, Sarah, 1997, ‘The making and unmaking of persons: notes on
aging and gender in north India.’ Ethos 25:279–302 [and/or see either
of her ethnographies listed above: White Saris, or Aging and the Indian
Diaspora.]
Further reading
Keith, Jennie, 1980, ‘"The best is yet to be": toward an anthropology
of age.’ Annual Review of Anthropology, 9:339-6
Tsuji, Yohko, 2005, ‘Time is not up: temporal complexity of older
Americans’ lives’. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology 20,1:3–26
Whitaker, Elizabeth D., 2005, ‘The bicycle makes the eyes smile:
exercise, aging, and psychophysical well-being in older Italian
cyclists’. Medical Anthropology 24:1-43
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
23
Luborsky, Mark R., 1994, 'The retirement process: making the person
and cultural meanings malleable', Medical Anthropology Quarterly
8,4:411-429
Fry, P.S. 1984 ‘Positive and negative attributions of longevity: a crosssectional study of the perceptions of the elderly from three
socioeconomic conditions.’ International Journal of Psychology,
19,3:217-233
The week from 20 to 24 February is ‘Innovative Learning Week’ during which
there are no normal classes but there will be several events relating to social
anthropology and social science more generally – see www.sps.ed.ac.uk for more
information.
REMEMBER: THE ESSAY IS DUE ON MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2012 AT 12
NOON. ONE COPY MUST BE SUBMITTED IN THE ESSAY BOX AND ONE
COPY ON WEBCT BY THE SAME DEADLINE!
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
24
ENVIRONMENTS, LANDSCAPES & OBJECTS
Weeks 6 - 10
Monday 27 February - Monday 26 March (10 lectures)
Dr Joost Fontein
Stuff matters. We all exist materially and in a material world, and these dimensions of
peoples’ lives are not separate from culture, history or politics but fundamentally
intertwined with them. The lectures in this half of the course will invite you to
consider how anthropology has engaged with three important and inter-related aspects
of what we might loosely call material culture; these are landscapes, environments
and objects. We begin by considering environmentalism by focusing particularly on
questions of nature & culture, the cultural construction of nature & gender and the
politics of conservation. The next three lectures will explore the anthropology of
landscape, the connection between landscape and memory, and the power inherent in
space and particularly maps. The last three lectures will look at objects, beginning
with an exploration of how political ideologies can be embedded in public and private
spaces, followed by an exploration of the social lives of things, and finishing with a
discussion of how objects do things (ie have agency).
Monday
27 Feb
Environmentalism
The growth of Environmentalist movements on the latter part of
the 20th century has not been ignored by anthropologists. In this
lecture we begin to consider anthropological critiques of
environmentalism that emerged in the 1990s as part of wider
questioning of the presumed universality of the Nature/Culture
distinction, which still lies behind much environmentalist thinking.
Key Reading:
Milton K. 1993 “ Introduction” in Milton K. (ed) Environmentalism:
The view from Anthropology London: Routledge
Further Reading:
Grove-White R. 1993 “Environmentalism: A new discourse for
technological society” in Milton K. (ed) Environmentalism: The view
from Anthropology London: Routledge
Ingold T. 1993 “Globes and Spheres: the Topology of
environmentalism” in Milton K 1993 (ed) Environmentalism: The view
from Anthropology London: Routledge
Bird-David N. 1993 “Tribal metaphorization of human-nature
relatedness” in Milton K 1993 (ed) Environmentalism: The view from
Anthropology London: Routledge
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
25
Descola & Palsson 1996 “Introduction” in Descola & Palsson (eds)
Nature & Society: Anthropological perspectives London: Routledge
Thursday
1 March
Nature, culture & gender
The anthropological critique of the Nature /culture distinction
emerged at key theoretical moment in anthropology, when
structuralist analysis increasingly gave way to poststructuralist
critique. This was also a moment when Feminism had a huge
impact on anthropology, and often the two coincided. This lecture
explores how early feminist anthropology working within or
influenced by a structuralist perspective, was soon subject of
profound anthropological critique on the basis of its problematic
reification of the Nature/Culture distinction.
Key Reading :
MacCormack 1980 “Nature, Culture and Gender: A critique” in
MacCormack & Strathern (eds) Nature, Culture and gender
Cambridge University Press
Further Reading:
Ortner S. 1974. Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture? In Rosaldo,
M. & L. Lamphere (eds) Woman Culture and Society. Stanford:
Stanford University Press. (Also published as chapter 2 in Ortner S.
1996. Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture Boston:
Beacon Press.)
Gillison G. 1980 “Images of nature in Gimi thought” in MacCormack
& Strathern (eds) Nature, Culture and gender Cambridge University
Press
Strathern M. 1980 “No Nature, no culture; the Hagen Case” in
MacCormack & Strathern (eds) Nature, Culture and gender
Cambridge University Press
Tutorial
Discussion
How can anthropology engage with environmentalism?
Monday
5 March
The lie of the land
The ethnocentricities of environmentalist dependence upon the
problematic Nature/Culture distinction have not been the only
cause of anthropological concern. As feminist critique took hold, it
was matched by increasingly self-conscious postcolonial critiques
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
26
of conservation projects in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. These
recognised that not only were colonial and postcolonial
conservation projects often based on ‘bad science’, but also that
they often justified deeply exclusionist policies, which have seen
farmers, herders and indigenous peoples blamed for
environmental degradation, and removed from landscapes they
have long managed and indeed forged.
Key Reading:
Fairhead & Leach 1996 “Rethinking the Forest-Savanna Mosaic:
Colonial Science and its relics in West Africa” in Leach and Mearns
(eds) The Lie of the Land Oxford: James Currey
Further Reading:
Lohman L 1993 “Green Orientalism” in The Ecologist Vol. 23, No. 6
Guha R. 1997 “The Authoritarian Biologist and the arrogance of Antihumanism” in The Ecologist Vol 27 No. 1.
Leach and Mearns 1996 “Environmental Change & Policy:
Challenging Received Wisdom in Africa” in Leach and Mearns (eds)
The Lie of the Land Oxford: James Currey
Thursday
8 March
Representation, being & process: a quick introduction to theories
of landscape
Landscapes are both images and real physical places. It is the
space, tension and movement between these two dimensions which
makes it a productive analytical concept. This lecture discusses
three important approaches to the anthropology of landscape
which still inform much contemporary debate today: social
constructivist, phenomenological and processual.
Key Reading:
Hirsch E. 1995 “Introduction. Landscape: Between Place & Space” in
Hirsch & O’Hanlon 1995 The Anthropology of Landscape Oxford:
Oxford University Press
Further Reading:
Bender 1993 “Introduction. Landscape: Meaning & Action” &
“Stonehenge – Contested Landscapes” in Bender (ed) Landscapes,
Politics and Perspectives Oxford: Berg
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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Daniels S. & Cosgrove D. 1988 “ Introduction” in Daniels & Cosgrove
(ed) The Iconography of Landscape Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press Esp. Introduction & selected chapters
Ingold 1993 “The Temporality of Landscape” in World Archaeology
25 (2) 152-74
Tutorial
Discussion
How is the nature/culture distinction relevant to the anthropology of
landscape?
Monday
12 March
Landscape, Memory & the Past
It is often assumed that places and landscapes act as a repository
for things from the past, and so can trigger memories that are
stored in our minds, much like a computer stores information.
This lecture discusses how the anthropologies of landscape and of
memory have converged to deliver a much nuanced understanding
of the relationship between place and the past. Landscapes do not
simply ‘contain the past’, or act as triggers for memories stored in
our minds, so much as take part in complex, ongoing and always
politicised processes of imagining, reproducing, remembering and
forgetting.
Key Readings:
Morphy H. 1995 “Landscape and the reproduction of the ancestral
past” in Hirsch & O’Hanlon 1995 The Anthropology of Landscape
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Basso K. 1988 “Speaking with Names”: Language and Landscape
among the Western Apache’ in Cultural Anthropology Vol. 3, No. 2
99-130.
Further Reading:
Stewart P. & Strathern A. 2003 “Introduction” in Stewart P. &
Strathern A. (eds) Landscape, Memory & History: Anthropological
perspectives London: Pluto Press
Morphy H. 1993 “Colonialism, History and the Construction of Place:
The Politics of Landscape in Northern Australia” in Bender
Landscape, Politics & Perspectives Oxford: Berg
Fontein, J. 2006 “Great Zimbabwe in Local History-scapes” in The
Silence of Great Zimbabwe: Contested Landscapes and the Power of
Heritage London; UCL Press
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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Simon Harrison 2004 “Forgetful and memorious landscapes” in Social
Anthropology (2004), 12: 135-151
Thursday
15 March
Maps & powerful spaces
Not only are landscapes finely interwoven in complex politics of
the past, they are also fundamentally entangled in the politics of
the present through which the world and movements through it is
ordered, constrained and rendered meaningful. This is best
illustrated through a consideration of the power of maps.
Key Reading:
Harley J.B 1988 “Maps, Knowledge and Power” in Daniels S. &
Cosgrove D. 1988 The Iconography of Landscape Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Further Reading:
Harley J.B 1992b “Rereading the Maps of the Columbian encounter”
in Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82/3 522-42
Bender B. 1999 “Subverting the Western Gaze: Mapping Alternative
Worlds” in Ucko & Layton 1999 The archaeology and Anthropology
of landscape London: Routledge
Worby E. 1995 ‘Maps, Names and Ethnic games’ in Journal of
Southern African Studies 20:371-393
Tutorial
Discussion
How can landscape embody the past?
Monday
19 March
Space & Ideology: Public & domestic
Just as maps present particular representations of the world even
as they constrain our movement and activities within those worlds,
other kinds of spaces and places, both public and private, and the
objects found there in, too are finely implicated in the work of
politics and ideology. This lecture explores the relationship
between space, objects and ideology by looking at how the public
and domestic architecture became the site of Soviet and Nazi
attempts to create particular types of political subjects.
Key Reading:
Buchli, V. 2002 “Architecture and the Domestic sphere” in Buchli V.
(ed) The Material Culture Reader, Oxford: Berg.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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Further Reading:
Macdonald S. 2006 (11) “Words in stone? Agency and materiality in a
Nazi landscape.” in Journal of material culture 2006 (11)
Tom Selwyn “Landscapes of Separation: Reflections on the
Symbolism of By-pass roads in Palestine” in Winer & Bender 2001
Contested Landscape: Movement, Exile, Place
Harrison, M. 1988. “Symbolism, ‘ritualism’ and the location of crowds
in early nineteenth century English Towns” in Introduction” in Daniels
& Cosgrove (ed) The Iconography of Landscape Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Thursday
22 March
Social life of things
If objects can reflect the values, beliefs and politics of a society,
they can also be said to have a social life and historicity of their
own as they move between different social spaces and contexts.
This lecture begins to explore this by looking at the seminal work
of Kopytoff, Appadurai and Marcel Mauss.
Key Reading:
Kopytoff, I. 1986 “The Cultural Biography of things: commoditization
as process” in Appadurai A. (ed) 1986 The Social Life of Things.
Cambridge: Cambridge University press
Further Reading:
Appadurai A. 1980 “Introduction: commodities and the politics of
value” in Appadurai A. (ed) 1986 The Social Life of Things.
Cambridge: Cambridge University press
Mauss, M. 1954 The Gift. Aberdeen: University press
Greary, P. 1986 “Sacred Commodities: the circulation of medieval
relics” in Appadurai A. (ed) 1986 The Social Life of Things.
Cambridge: Cambridge University press
Tutorial
Discussion
how can space be powerful?
Monday
26 March
Objects & agency
Building on the social life of things, more recent anthropology has
begun to explore the possibility that objects to can be said to have
Social Anthropology 1B – 2011-12
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agency, much like human subjects. These new approaches build
upon earlier critiques of the Nature /Culture distinction, and
explore the way in which subjects and objects, people and things
are bound up in mutual relationships which defy common place
understandings that differentiate between active and conscious
subjects/persons and passive objects/things.
Key Reading:
Reed, A. ‘Smuk is king’: the action of cigarettes in Papua New Guinea
prison’ in Henare, A. Holbraad, M. & S. Wastell, 2007 Thinking
Through Things London: Routledge
Further Reading:
Dant, T. 2005 “Agency, affordances and actor-networks” in Dant, T.
Materiality & Society, Open University Press.
Miller, D. 2005 “Introduction” in Miller, D. (ed) Materiality London:
Duke University Press.
Gell, A. 1998 Art & Agency: An Anthropological Theory, Oxford
University Press.
Thursday
29 March
Course revision with Dr Neil Thin & Dr Joost Fontein
Tutorial
Discussion
exam preparation