SANT 309 /
CONCEPTUALIZING SOCIETY:
APPLICATIONS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY
COURSE RESPONSIBLE: PROFESSOR VIGDIS BROCH-DUE
SEMINAR LEADER: FIRST LECTURER LIV HARAM
In this course we will focus on the end-stages of the research process, notably the crafting of
the ethnographic product in its many possible forms; mostly texts, but also films and other
recordings. We will critically explore the history of ethnographic representation and its
reception. We will discuss the theories and experiences that historically have informed
different templates of writing and the analytical controversy they have engendered. We will
look into the ways in which new technologies have influenced and multiplied ethnographic
modes of representation, expanding from print media to include film, sound and lately, the
web.
The backbone of the analytical work we will be doing together in this course rests on a close
reading of three monographies based on ethnographic fieldwork in different parts of the world
and during different periods of time. This, of course, requires the active participation of
students throughout.
The course kicks off with a 3-week readings seminar, in which the subject matter of each
book will be thoroughly discussed between students and the seminar leader. The students will
be divided into reading groups, each of which will be responsible for analyzing and presenting
overviews of chapters, points for discussions etc. in plenum.
The middle stage of the course will consist of a mix of lectures, seminars, group work and
film viewing in which the course leader will place the monographies in a wider analytical
context. We will be teasing out the theoretical perspectives that inform not only the content
but also the form of ethnographic texts and film. In other words, we will scrutinize the
relationship between the observed, the represented and the received, whether the ethnographic
product is a text, a film, or a soundtrack. At the core of this analytical exploration is the
relationship between the anthropologist and her audience; between author and reader, between
filmmaker and spectator, between sound-recorder and listener. Most significantly, it is about
the ways in which these mediations impact on those studied in the first place: The subjects of
our ethnographies.
During the last part of the course we will return to a close engagement with our selected
monographies, this time under the privileged guidance of each of its authors. Steven Feld,
Stephanie C Kane, and Sharon E. Hutchinson will all visit our course in subsequent weeks
and share reflections on their own work and its broader context. By this stage, the students
should be well prepared to critically engage in meaningful discussions about the strengths and
problems of different ethnographic representations – key to the conceptualization of society
by anthropology.
During the course period it is expected that all students attend the regular departmental
research seminar (Thursday 14.15-16.00).
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MONOGRAPHIES
Feld, Steven
1982 Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression”
University of Pennsylvaia Press
Hutchinson, Sharon E.
1996 Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War and the State
University Press of California
Kane, Stephanie C.
2004 The Phantom Gringo Boat: Shamanic Discourse and Development in Panama
Cybereditions
READING RESOURCES:
Abu Lughod, Lila
1991: “Writing against Culture”. Richard Fox, ed: Recapturing Anthropology. School of
American Research Advanced Seminar Series: 137-162 (25 s.)
Anderson, B
1983 “ Cultural Roots” (CH 2) in Imagined Communities. Verso. 9-36 (27 s)
Anderson, B
1998 “El Malhadado Pais” (CH 16) in The Spectre of Comparisons. Verso. 333-359 (26 s)
Asad, Talal.
1986 ”The Concept of Cultural Translation in British Social Anthropology” Writing Culture:
The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. University of California Press. 141-165 (24 s.)
Behar, Ruth
1995. ”Writing in my Father’s Name: A Diary of Translated Woman’s First Year” Women
Writing Culture University of California Press. 65-82 (17 s.)
Brennis, Donald and Feld, Steven
2004. ”Doing Anthropology in Sound” American Ethnologist Vol 31, No. 4 November 2004.
University of California Press. 461-475 (14 s.)
Broch-Due, V,
1993. “ Making Meaning out of Matter: Perceptions of Sex, Gender and Bodies among the
Turkana" in Broch-Due, V., Rudie, I., and Bleie, T. (eds.), Carved Flesh/Cast Selves:
Gendered Symbols and Social Practices. Oxford & Providence: Berg Press.53-82 (29s)
Broch-Due, V.
2000. “The Fertility of Houses and Herds: producing kinship and gender among Turkana
pastoralists” Hodgson, D. L. (ed.) Rethinking Pastoralism in Africa: Gender, Culture & the
Myth of the Patriarchal Pastoralist. James Curry, 165-185 (20s)
Broch-Due, V.
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2005. “Violence and Belonging: Analytical Reflections” in Broch-Due, V. (ed) Violence and
Belonging: The Quest for Identity in Post Colonial Africa. London & New York: Routledge.
1-40 (39 s)
Classen, Constance
1990. ”Sweet colors, Fragrant Songs: Sensory Models of the Andes and the Amazon”
American Ethnologist. Vol 17. No. 4. American Anthropological Association. 722-735 (13 s.)
Classen, Constance
1993. ”The odor of the other: Olfactory codes and cultural categories” Worlds of sense.
London and New York. Routledge. 80-105 (25 s.)
Crawford, P. “ Film as Discourse: the invention of anthropological realities” in in Crawford, P
& Turton, D (eds.) Film as Ethnography. Manchester University Press. 66-84 (18 s).
Feld, Steven and Basso, Keith H.
1996 “Introduction” in Senses of Place. School of American Research Press. (10 s).
Geertz, Clifford
1973. Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture”. The Interpretation of
Cultures. New York: Basic Books, Inc. Publishers: 3-32 (29 s.)
Hastrup, K.
1992. “Anthropological visions: Some notes on visual and textual authority” in Crawford, P
& Turton, D (eds.) Film as Ethnography. Manchester University Press. 8-25 (18 s.)
Hine, Christine
2000.”The Making of a Virtual Ethnography” Virtual Ethnography. Sage Publications. 67-82
(15 s.)
Jackson, Michael
1996. “Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical empiricism and Anthropological critique”
Things as they are: New Directions in phenomenological anthropology. Indiana University
Press. 1-50 (50 s.)
Keesing, Roger
1987. “Anthropology as Interpretive Quest”. Current Anthropology, 28: 161-169
Kuehnast, K.
1992. “Visual imperialism and the export of prejudice: An exploration of ethnographic film”
in Crawford, P & Turton, D (eds.) Film as Ethnography. Manchester University Press.
Kuklick, Henrika
1993. “The Politics of Perception”. The Savage Within. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press: 279-295 (16 s.)
Kuper, Adam
1996 [1973]: “The 1930s and 1040s - From Function to Structure”. Anthropology and
Anthropologists. London: Routledge: 66-93 (27 s.).
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Loizos, P.
1992 “ Admissible evidence? Film in Anthropology” in in Crawford, P & Turton, D (eds.)
Film as Ethnography. Manchester University Press. 50-65 (15 s)
Luktehaus, Nancy C.
1995. ”Margaret Mead and the ’Rustling-of-the-Wind-in-the-Palm-Trees School’ of
Ethnographic Writing” Women Writing Culture. University of California Press. 187-206 (19s)
Marcus, George E.
1998. ”Imagining the Whole: Ethnography’s contemporary efforts to situate itself”
Ethnography through Thick and Thin. Princeton University Press. 33-56 (23 s.)
Marcus, George E. & Cushman, Dick
1982: “Ethnographies as texts”. Annual Review of Anthropology 11: 25-69 (44 s.)
Mascia-Lees, Frances, Patricia Sharpe and Colleen Ballerino Cohen
1989. “The Postmodernist Turn in Anthropology: Cautions from a Feminist Perspective”.
Signs vol.15, 11: 7-33 (26 s.)
Moore, Henrietta
1994. “Master Narratives: Anthropology and Writing”. A Passion for Difference: 107-128.
Cambridge: Polity Press (21 s.)
Sahlins, Marshall
2000. ”Goodbye to Tristes Tropes: Ethnography in the Context of Modern World History”
Culture in Practice: Selected Essays. Zone books. 471-500 (29 s.)
Stocking G.W.
1996: “Center and periphery: Armchair anthropology, missionary ethnography and
evolutionary theory”. I After Tylor. London: Athlone: 15-46 (31s.)
Stoller, Paul
1986. ”The Taste of Ethnographic things” I The Taste of Ethnographic things: The Senses in
Anthropology. University of Pennsylvania Press. 16-34 (18 s.)
Tsing, Anna L.
2005. “Introduction” Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton University
Press. (1-20) (20s)
Van Maanen, John
1998. ”In Pursuit of Culture” Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography The University of
Chicago Press. 13-44 (31 s.)
FILMS AND SOUNDTRACKS
There will be a number of films, soundtracks, fictional texts and handouts which will form an
integral part in our joint exploration of multiple forms of ethnographic representation.
COURSE SCHEDULE
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WEEK 12
ACTIVITY:
RESPONSIBLE:
BOOK:
WEEK 13
ACTIVITY:
RESPONSIBLE:
BOOK:
WEEK 15
ACTIVITY:
RESPONSIBLE:
BOOK:
READING SEMINAR/ GROUP WORK
HARAM
Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War and the State
READING SEMINAR/ GROUP WORK
HARAM
The Phantom Gringo Boat: Shamanic Discourse and
Development in Panama
READING SEMINAR/ GROUP WORK
HARAM
Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in
Kaluli Expression”
WEEK 16
ACTIVITY:
RESPONSIBLE:
READINGS:
LECTURES/FILM
BROCH-DUE
will be specified in advance
WEEK 17
ACTIVITY:
RESPONSIBLE:
READINGS:
LECTURES/FILM
BROCH-DUE
will be specified in advance
WEEK 18*
ACTIVITY:
RESPONSIBLE:
READINGS:
SEMINAR/FILM
BROCH-DUE/FELD
will be specified in advance
WEEK 19*
ACTIVITY:
RESPONSIBLE:
READINGS:
SEMINAR/FILM
BROCH-DUE/KANE
will be specified in advance
WEEK 20
ACTIVITY:
READING WEEK/ GROUP WORK
WEEK 21*
ACTIVITY:
RESPONSIBLE:
READINGS:
SEMINAR/FILM
BROCH-DUE/HUTCHINSON
will be specified in advance
WEEK 22
ACTIVITY:
EXAMS
*During week 18, 19 and 21 students must be prepared for a possible rescheduling of seminar
days to fit the traveling itinerary of our foreign guests. Advance notice will be given.
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