Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
1
SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1B
(SCAN08002)
2012/2013
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 2012-13, 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.).
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/word_doc/0020/71345/SPSYear1_and_2Hbook12-13v2.doc
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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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 – 2012-13
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 – 2012-13
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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 – 2012-13
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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 Neil Thin and Dr Maya Mayblin)

Culture, Religion, and Moral Value
(Dr Maya Mayblin)
This part of the course continues in many ways from Social Anthropology 1a. Each
lecture tours a topic that has been of major concern to anthropologists over the past
century: violence, modernity, religion, and ritual. An interlinking theme to this first
half of the course concerns religion and morality. By exploring the meanings of rituals
and religious practices, we will come closer to understanding both the good and the
bad of peoples' worlds. The literature we shall be engaging with will take us on some
interesting journeys, it should encourage us to work at the very outer limits of our
human and academic imaginations, to conceive the inconceivable, and to be playful
with the results. Investigating moral and religious practice will enable us to appreciate
not only that which is deeply meaningful to people, but that which enables them to
deal with the 'bad stuff'. How do people, through their religions, live with and in the
world? How do they seek to positively transform problems of poverty, illness,
violence, and suffering? These are some of the questions that will concern us in the
first half of Social Anthropology 1b.

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.
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.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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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
Monday, 21 January 2013.
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 14 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 Elaine Khennouf via email 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 – 2012-13
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1. Essay
You are required to write one essay (title optiuons below), to be submitted by 12 noon
on Monday 25th 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 Personal Tutor 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
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.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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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 25 February. In addition, you must also submit an
electronic version via Learn by the same deadline. (Please note penalties will be
incurred if the essay is not submitted on Learn) The instructions for doing so are as
follows:
1. Log in to Learn 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.
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.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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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, Elaine Khennouf v1ekhenn@exseed.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:
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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 – 2012-13
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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 Personal
Tutor 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 Personal Tutor, 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 Neil Thin, Room 5.27,
CMB, n.thin@ed.ac.uk, Ph. 650 3880, e.g. about desired improvements in the course
or in 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
Learn) 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 – 2012-13
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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.

Institute for Academic Development Provision for undergraduate students
The Study Development Team at the Institute for Academic Development (IAD)
provides resources and workshops aimed at helping all students to enhance their
learning skills and develop effective study techniques. Resources and workshops
cover a range of topics, such as managing your own learning, reading, note making,
essay and report writing, exam preparation and exam techniques.
The study development resources are housed on 'LearnBetter' (undergraduate), part of
Learn, the University's virtual learning environment. Follow the link from the IAD
Study Development web page to enrol: www.ed.ac.uk/iad/undergraduates
Workshops are interactive: they will give you the chance to take part in activities,
have discussions, exchange strategies, share ideas and ask questions. They are 90
minutes long and held on Wednesday afternoons at 1.30pm or 3.30pm. The schedule
is available from the IAD Undergraduate web page (see above).
Workshops are open to all undergraduates but you need to book in advance, using the
MyEd booking system. Each workshop opens for booking 2 weeks before the date of
the workshop itself. If you book and then cannot attend, please cancel in advance
through MyEd so that another student can have your place. (To be fair to all students,
anyone who persistently books on workshops and fails to attend may be barred from
signing up for future events.)
Study Development Advisors are also available for an individual consultation if you
have specific questions about your own approach to studying, working more
effectively, strategies for improving your learning and your academic work. Please
note, however, that Study Development Advisors are not subject specialists so they
cannot comment on the content of your work. They also do not check or proof read
students' work.
To make an appointment with a Study Development Advisor, email
iad.study@ed.ac.uk
(For support with English Language, you should contact the English Language
Teaching Centre.)
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
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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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:
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American Ethnologist
Annual Review of Anthropology
Community Development Journal
Cultural Anthropology
Current Anthropology
Ethnos
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute/MAN
Third World Quarterly
Please note that a large number of excellent ethnographies are available to download
free at http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks, and (provided that you are logged
onto the University system) at http://lib.myilibrary.com. You also have access to lots
of good anthropology articles via AnthroSource http://www.anthrosource.net
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.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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London: Macmillan Press
Schultz, Emily A 2005 Cultural anthropology: a perspective on the human condition.
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, Social Anthropology 1B emphasises the value of ethnographic research.
YOU MUST READ AT LEAST ONE ETHNOGRAPHY AND REFER TO THIS IN
YOUR TUTORIALS. If you choose well, this will not only be intrinsically rewarding
but should also help you provide ethnographic examples when writing your course
essay and/or exam essays. 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
Cook, Joanna (2010) Meditation in Modern Buddhism Renunciation and Change in Thai Monastic Life.
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
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]
Edmonds, Alexander. 2010. Pretty Modern. Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
14
Brazil. London: Duke University Press
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
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
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
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds. Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press
Mayblin, Maya. 2010. Gender, Catholicism and Morality in Brazil: Virtuous
Husbands, Powerful Wives. York: Palgrave Macmillan
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
Wikan, Unni (1990) Managing Turbulent Hearts: a Balinese Formula for Living.
London: University of Chicago Press
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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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
Personal Tutor who will advise on the appropriate procedures.
You can also contact the Student Disability Service, Third Floor, Main Library,
George Square (telephone 650 6828) and an Advisor will be happy to meet with you.
The Advisor can discuss possible adjustments and specific examination arrangements
with you, assist you with an application for Disabled Students' Allowance, give you
information about available technology and personal assistance such as note takers,
proof readers or dyslexia tutors, and prepare a Learning Profile for your School which
outlines recommended adjustments. You will be expected to provide the Disability
Office with evidence of disability - either a letter from your GP or specialist, or
evidence of specific learning difficulty. For dyslexia or dyspraxia this evidence must
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!
Week 1
Monday
14 Jan
Course Introduction
Dr Neil Thin & Dr Maya Mayblin
Weeks 1-5 Thursday 17th January - Thursday 14th February (9 lectures)Culture,
Religion, and Moral Value (Dr Maya Mayblin)
Thursday
‘COMMUNITAS’
17 Jan
What are rituals and why do they arouse certain emotions? Why do people chant
songs at football matches and cry at weddings? In this lecture we will explore
‘communitas’ in action – the intuitive human response to the sharing of common
experience, or the sense felt by a group when their life together takes on special
significance.
Key reading
Turner, V. 1969. “Liminality and Communitas” in The Ritual Process: Structure and
Anti- Structure. Pp 94-130.
Van Gennep. A. 1960. “Chapter 1: The Classification of Rites” in The Rites of
Passage. p1-15
Further reading
Eade, J. 1991. ‘Pilgrimage and Cultural Fracture in the Andes.’ Chap 6. In M.
Sallnow and J. Eade (eds.) Contesting the Sacred. The Anthropology of Christian
Pilgrimage. London: Routledge.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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Mentore, G. 2007. Spiritual Translucency and Pornocratic Anthropology: Waiwai and
Western Interpretations of a Religious experience. Anthropology and Humanism
32(2):192-201.
Kapferer, B. 2004. ‘Ritual dynamics and virtual practice: beyond representation and
meaning’ Social Analysis 48(2) pp.33-54.
Monday
POWER
21 Jan
In this lecture we will explore the relationship of ritual to power. What is the
connection between Bloch’s influential theory of ritual and Marxist debate? Is
ritual a mechanism for the assertion of political authority? Is religion just a form
of ideological ‘mystification’?
Key reading
Bloch, M. 1989 ‘Symbol, song, and dance as features of traditional authority’ in
Ritual, History and Power. Berg. Pp. 19-45.
Bloch, M. 1986 Chapter 8 in From Blessing to Violence. Cambridge University Press.
Further reading
DISCUSSION THREAD
Bourdillon, M.C.F. 1978 ‘Knowing the world or hiding it: a response to Maurice
Bloch’ in Man (N.S) 13 (4): 591-599
Bloch, M. 1979. ‘correspondence cont.’ Man (N.S) 14(1): 165-167. . . Bourdillon,
M.C.F. 1979. Man (N.S) 14 (4): 735
Roseberry, W. 1997. ‘Marx and Anthropology’ Annual Review of Anthropology 26:
25-46
Thursday
VIOLENCE
24 Jan
Is it possible to define universally what counts as violent behaviour across
cultures? In this lecture we will look at some ethnographic examples of
violence, and question some of our own most basic assumptions about the
nature and value of human aggression.
Key reading
Bourgois, P. I995. ‘Ch 1: Violating Apartheid in the United States,’ in In
Search of Respect. Selling Crack in El Barrio. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Mayblin, M. 2011. Death by Marriage: power, pride, and morality in Northeast
Brazil. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Further reading
Rosaldo. R. 2004. Grief and the Headhunter’s Rage. In N. Scheper-Hughes and
P.Bourgois (eds) Violence in War and Peace. Wiley-Blackwell.
Riches, D. (ed). 1986. Chapter 1: ‘The Phenomenon of Violence’ pp: 1-27. In
The Anthropology of Violence. Oxford:Basil Blackwell.
Whitehouse, H. 1996. Rites of Terror: emotion, metaphor, and memory in
Melanesian initiation cults. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2(4):
703-715
Bloch, M. 1992. ‘Chapter 2’. In Prey into Hunter: The politics of Religious
Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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Tutorial Discussion, Week 2 :
What is ‘structural violence’?
OR: What might Bloch’s interpretation of ritual reveal to us about his own political
views of the world?
OR: If ‘communitas’ exists, can an academic article ever describe it?]
Monday
28 Jan
WITCHCRAFT AND THE MAGIC OF MODERNITY
Witchcraft and magic might seem the antithesis of modernity. So why do
some anthropologists see it as modern phenomena? In this lecture we will
examine how witchcraft might be connected to capitalist flows of wealth
and the structural violence of poverty.
Key reading
Comaroff, J. and Comaroff, J. 1999. Occult economies and the violence of
abstraction. American Ethnologist 26 (2): 279-303
Green, M. and S. Mesaki. 2005. The birth of the “salon”: Poverty,
“modernization” and dealing with witchraft in Southern Tanzania. American
Ethnologist 26 (2):279-303
Further reading
West, H. 2001. Sorcery of Construction and Socialist Modernization: Ways of
Understanding Power in Postcolonial Mozambique. American Ethnologist 28
(1): 119-150.
Geschiere, P. 1999. ‘Globalization and the power of indeterminate meaning:
witchcraft and spirit cults in Africa and East Asia’. In B. Meyer and P.
Geschiere (eds) Globalization and Identity: Dialectics of Flow and Closure.
Meyer, B. 1995 “Delivered from the Powers of Darkness: Confessions of Satanic
Riches in Christian Ghana”. Africa, 65 (2): 236-256.
Taussig, M. 1980. Chs 1 & 2. The Devil and Commodity fetishism in South America.
The University of North Carolina Press.
Thursday
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF CHRISTIANITY
31 Jan
Why have anthropologists largely avoided studying Christianity in other parts of
the world? And how, in recent years, have anthropologists been dealing with the
growing presence of Christianity in many traditionally non-Christian parts of
the world?
Key reading
Cannell, F. 2005. ‘Introduction; the anthropology of Christianity’ in F. Cannell (ed)
The Anthropology of Christianity. pp: 1-50.
Harding, Susan. 1991. ‘Representing fundamentalism: the problem of the repugnant
cultural other’ Social Research 58 (2): 373-93
Further reading
Robbins, J. 2003. What is a Christian? Notes on the anthropology of Christianity
Religion 33 (3): 191-201
Luhrmann, T. 2004. Metakinesis: How God Becomes Intimate in Contemporary U.S.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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Christianity. American Anthropologist 106 (3): 518–528
Keane, W. 2002. “Sincerity, “Modernity” and the Protestants” Cultural Anthropology
17(1): 65-92
Whitehouse, H. 2005. ‘Appropriated and Monolithic Christianity in Melanesia’. In F.
Cannell (ed.) The Anthropology of Christianity. Durham: Duke University Press.
Pp:273-308
Tutorial Discussion, Week 3:
Why have so many anthropologists been inclined to link ‘witchcraft’ to ‘modernity’?
OR: What is meant by the term ‘World Religion’ and could such a concept make
sense from an anthropological viewpoint?
Monday
CHRISTIAN CONVERSION: CHANGE OR CONTINUITY?
4 Feb
Why would people decide to adopt a new religion and how can we understand
the meaning of Christian conversion? Is converting to a new religion a sudden
one-off event, or must it be understood as a constant, on-going process? What
happens when Christian missionaries and religious converts conceive of the same
event in radically different ways?
Key reading
Robbins, J. 2007. Continuity thinking and the problem of Christian Culture. Current
Anthropology. 48(1): 5-38
Gow. P. 2005. ‘Forgetting Conversion. The Summer Institute of Linguistics Mission
in the Piro Lived World’. In F. Cannell (ed). The Anthropology of Christianity.
Durham: Duke University Press. Pp 211-240.
Further reading
Vilaca, A. and Wright, R. 2009. ‘Introduction’. In Vilaca and Wright (eds) Native
Christians. Modes and Effects of Christianity among Indigenous people of the
Americas. Ashgate Publishing.
Meyer, B. 1998. Make a complete break with the past: memory and post-colonial
modernity in Ghanaian Pentecostal Discourse. Journal of Religion in Africa. 28(3):
316-349
Engelke, M. 2004. Discontinuity and the discourse of conversion Journal of Religion
in Africa 34(1-2): 82-109.
Orta, A. 2008. Syncretic Subjects and Body Politics: Doubleness, Personhood, and
Aymara Catechists. American Ethnologist 26 (4).
Thursday MORALITY
7 Feb
What do anthropologists mean when they talk about ‘morality’? What is the
difference between doing something because it is simply ‘the right way’ to do it,
and the process of deciding between two equally ‘right’ alternatives? In this
lecture we will explore recent debates in the anthropology of morality, and
consider in whether ‘morality’ as a category, is a human universal.
Key reading
Robbins, J. 2007. Between reproduction and freedom: Morality, value, and radical
cultural change. Ethnos 72 (3): 293-314
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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Zigon, J. 2009. Within a Range of Possibilities: Morality and Ethics in Social Life.
Ethnos 74 (2): 251-276
Further reading
Robbins, J. 2009 Value Structure and the range of possibilities: a response to Zigon.
Ethnos 74 (2): 227-285
Laidlaw, J. 2002. For an Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom. Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute 8 (2): 311-332.
Yan,Y. 2011. How far can we move from Durkheim? Reflections on the new
anthropology of morality. Anthropology of This Century Issue 2. (Online open access
journal).
Mayblin, M. 2010. Child Labour as Moral Practice in Northeast Brazil. Ethnos 75 (1):
23 – 48.
Tutorial Discussion, Week 4:
Is it the anthropologist Peter Gow or the Piro people who do not ‘buy into’
Christianity?
OR: Is deciding between two equally compelling courses of action always an act of
‘morality’?
Monday
SECULARISATION
11 Feb
According to Weber, modernity would bring about a decline in religious activity.
In the UK, the rapid conversion of Churches into flats and bars would seem
suggest that such a decline is happening all around us. But what do we mean
when we talk about ‘the secular’? Is secularisation inevitable, or the same kind
of thing, everywhere in the world?
Key reading
Weber, Max. ‘Science as a vocation’ in Gerth and Mills (eds) From Max Weber:
essays in sociology: 129-156
Holston, J. 1999. Alternative Modernities: Statecraft and Religious Imagination in the
Valley of the Dawn
American Ethnologist. 26(3):605-631
Further reading
Taylor, C. 2007. ‘Introduction’ in A Secular Age. Harvard University Press.
Hefner, R. 1998. Multiple Modernities: Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism in a
Globalizing age’ Annual Review of Anthropology 27: 83-104.
Cannell, F. 2010. The Anthropology of Secularism. Annual Review of Anthropology
39: 85-100.
Asad, T. 2003. ‘Introduction’ in Formations of the secular: Christianity, Islam,
Modernity. Pp 1-20.
Thursday
14 Feb
THE ONTOLOGICAL TURN
When we read about radically different realities – just how seriously can we take
them? In this lecture we will look at the outer limits of recent anthropological
thinking, and consider just how far we should go when trying to communicate
something about the radical ‘otherness’ of other peoples’ worlds.
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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Holbraad, M. 2009. Ontography and Alterity: Defining Anthropological Truth.
Social Analysis 53 (2): 80-93
Stoller , P. and Olkes, C. 1987. Ch 22-28. Pages 147-153. In Sorcery's Shadow: A
Memoir of Apprenticeship among the Songhay of Niger. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Further reading:
Stoller, P. 1984. Sound in Songhay cultural experience. American Ethnologist 11 (3):
559-570
Henare, A; Holbraad, M. and Wastell, S. 2007. ‘Introduction’ in Thinking through
Things. Theorizing artefacts ethnographically. London: Routledge.
Vivieros de Castro. E. 2004. Perspectival Anthropology and the Method of controlled
Equivocation. Tipiti (Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South
America) 2(1):3-22 (Online open access journal)
Available at: http://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/cgi?article=1010&context=tipiti
Tutorial Discussion, Week 5:
How ‘Christian’ is secularism?
Is sorcery real?
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. Drawing on the work of Gow and Robbins, discuss the following
statement: ‘Religious conversion amounts to a complete, permanent
reorientation of the self.’
2. Draw on at least two ethnographic examples to discuss how the concept of
violence may vary between cultures.
3. ‘Ritual is nothing more than a system of political domination’. Discuss
using the work of Bloch.
The week from 18-22 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. E.g. on Friday 22nd, Neil Thin will be giving a ‘TEDx’ lecture on
Bhutan, the UN, and happiness-focused development as part of the University
event on "Global Challenges, Grounded Solutions".
REMEMBER: THE ESSAY IS DUE ON MONDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2012 AT 12
NOON. ONE COPY MUST BE SUBMITTED IN THE ESSAY BOX AND ONE
COPY ON LEARN BY THE SAME DEADLINE!
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
22
BETTER LIVING THROUGH ANTHROPOLOGY? CROSS-CULTURAL
STUDIES OF WELLBEING
Weeks 7-11 [n.b. starts after ‘Innovative Learning Week’]
Monday 25th Feb to Monday 25th March (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.
Monday
25 Feb
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
Lee, Richard B., 1992, ‘Art, science, or politics? The Crisis in HunterGatherer Studies’. American Anthropologist 94, 1: 31-54
Thursday
28 Feb
Theoretical approaches to wellbeing
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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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
Mathews, Gordon (2012) ‘Happiness, culture, and context’
International Journal of Wellbeing, Special Issue: Happiness: Does
Culture
Matter?
www.internationaljournalofwellbeing.org/index.php/ijow/issue/view/9
Further reading
Selin, Helaine, and Gareth Davey (Eds.) (2012) Happiness Across
Cultures: Views of Happiness and Quality of Life in Non-Western
Cultures. Dordrecht: Springer [e-book available via library catalogue]
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 Learn]
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, Week 6:
Does Sahlins show genuine and plausible
interest in the well-being of hunter-gatherers?
Friday 1 March Video: Goddess and the Computer at 2pm, venue to be confirmed
Monday
4 March
Livelihoods, environment, and well-being
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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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]
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
Thursday
7 March
Selves, feelings, and lives
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
Thin, Neil (2012) ‘Counting and recounting happiness and culture: On
happiness surveys and prudential ethnobiography.’ International
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
25
Journal of Wellbeing, Special Issue: Happiness: Does Culture Matter?
www.internationaljournalofwellbeing.org/index.php/ijow/issue/view/9
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.
Tutorial Discussion, Week 7: Based on Lansing, Richards, or any
other livelihood-related ethnography, discuss the processes,
relationships, and products through which livelihoods contribute to
wellbeing.
Monday
11 March
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 – 2012-13
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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
Thursday
14 March
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
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
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
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Tutorial Discussion, week 8:
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?
Monday
Wellbeing through the life course 2: midlife crisis
18 March
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
Thursday
21 Mar
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
sex,
longing for love: a tripartite conundrum'
In W.Jankowiak [ed],
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
Social Anthropology 1B – 2012-13
28
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
Tutorial Discussion, Week 9 What are the moral and practical implications of
ethnographic studies of culture and aspiration?
Monday
25 Mar
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 – 2012-13
29
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
Thursday 28th March
Final Lecture: course overview and advice on exam
preparation
Tutorial Discussion, week 10: Start preparing your exam revision by discussing what
the core theoretical themes of the course have been, and how you might use
ethnographic material (including lecture readings plus at least one book-length
ethnographic monograph that you have read).