Graduate Seminar in Socio-Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 511: Fall 2005
MW 2:00-3:50
Dr. Margaret Everett
Office: 141q Cramer Hall
Office Hours: Tues. 10-12 and by appointment
Phone: 725-3319
E-mail: everettm@pdx.edu
Course Description:
The aim of this class is to give graduate students an overview of the history of
anthropological theory, beginning with the classical theorists of the nineteenth century
and moving to contemporary theoretical debates. A close and critical reading of theory in
cultural anthropology should give students the tools to construct their own research
projects.
Readings:
All readings have been scanned and are available on WebCT (see below).
Evaluation
Your grade in this course will be based on two paper assignment (5 pages, 20% grade
each), one final paper (10-12 pages, 40% grade), class attendance and participation (5%),
and leading class discussion (5%).
Papers
Your first paper is due October 12 on the following question: Is cultural relativism good
or bad for anthropology?
Your second paper is due November 7 on the following question: Can anthropological
theory be scientific? Or is the effort to be scientific misguided? Explore this in terms of
the history of anthropological theory.
Facilitating Discussion
Students will lead discussions on one or two subsections of the course. Students should
meet with the instructor before the class you facilitate. Feel free to use handouts, audiovisual aids or other creative techniques as you see fit.
Final Paper
Students will choose a topic for a research paper, or choose from a list of questions
provided by the instructor. You may wish to explore a school of thought or theoretical
debate in more depth, or begin the literature review for your thesis. Your paper may use
outside sources, but you should also engage the readings and discussions from the class.
Students should discuss their paper topics with the instructor by the forth week of the
class.
Policies:
All required work must be completed to receive a grade. Late papers will be penalized,
except in cases of verifiable illness or emergency.
Disabilities Statement:
Any student with a documented disability condition (e.g., physical, learning,
psychological, vision, or hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations
must contact both the instructor and the Disability Resources Center at the beginning of
the term.
WebCT:
Course syllabus, readings, handouts, assignments, and lecture outlines will be available
on WebCT. All students can access WebCT with an odin account. To login, or to find
out how to get a login ID and password, go to www.webct.pdx.edu. For students who
have never accessed WebCT before, your login ID is your odin user ID, and your
password is usually the last 4 digits of your social security number. If you do not have an
odin account, you can find out how to get one at https://www.account.pdx.edu.
SCHEDULE
September 26: Introduction
--“Theory in Cultural Anthropology,” in Robert H. Lavenda and Emily A. Schultz, Core
Concepts in Cultural Anthropology (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 2000), p.185-203.
Part One: Classical Theory
September 28: Marx, Weber, Durkheim
--Karl Marx, “Thesis on Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook”
in R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms, ed. Anthropological Theory: An Introductory
History, 3rd edition (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004), p.67-81.
--Friedrich Engels, “Speech at the Graveside of Karl Marx” in Robert C. Tucker, ed. The
Marx Engels Reader (New York: Norton, 1978), p.681-682)
October 3: Marx, Weber, Durkheim
--Max Weber, “Introduction,” “Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism,” in The
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (New York: Charles Scribners’ Sons, 1958),
p.13-31, 155-183.
--Emile Durkheim, “The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life,” in W. Lessa and E.
Vogt, eds. Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (New York:
Harper and Row, 1979), p. 27-35.
October 5: Cultural Evolution
--E.B. Tylor, “The Science of Culture,” in McGee and Warms, ed. Anthropological
Theory: An Introductory History, p.41-55.
Optional: Lewis Henry Morgan, “Ethnical Periods”
Optional: George W. Stocking, Jr. Victorian Anthropology (New York: Free Press, 1987).
October 10: Franz Boas and Cultural Relativism
--Franz Boas, “The Methods of Ethnology”, in McGee and Warms, ed. Anthropological
Theory: An Introductory History, p.132-139.
--Elvin Hatch, “The Good Side of Relativism,” Journal of Anthropological Research,
v.53, 1997, p371-381.
October 12: Comprehending “the Other”
--Bronislaw Malinowski, “The Subject, Method and Scope of this Inquiry,” from
Argonauts of the Western Pacific (Waveland Press, 1984[1922]), p.1-25.
--E.E. Evans-Pritchard, “Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events,” in Lessa and Vogt,
eds. Reader in Comparative Religion, p.362-366.
--Margaret Mead, “Introduction to Coming of Age in Samoa,” in Paul A. Erickson and
Liam D. Murphy, eds. Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory (Peterborough,
CA: Broadview, 2001), p.155-162.
Optional: Derek Freeman, “Mead’s Misconstruing of Samoa,” in Paul Erickson and Liam
Murphy, eds. Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory (Peterborough, CA:
Broadview, 2001), p.454-465.
October 17 and 19: Society, Culture, Mind: How are We Molded?
--A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, “On Social Structure” in Paul Bohannan and Mark Glazer, eds.
High Points in Anthropology, 2nd edition (McGraw Hill, 1988), p. 304-316.
--Ruth Benedict, “The Integration of Culture” from Patterns of Culture (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1934), p.45-56.
--Claude levi-Strauss, “The Structural Study of Myth” in Structural Anthropology (New
York: Anchor Doubleday, 1967), p.202-228.
Part Two: Contemporary Theory
October 24: Contemporary Cultural Evolution
--Leslie White, “Energy and the Evolution of Culture” in Bohannan and Glazer, eds.
High Points in Anthropology, 2nd edition (New York, Alfred Knopf, 1988), p.337-355.
--Marvin Harris, selections from Cannibals and Kings (New York, Random House, 1977).
--E.O. Wilson, “The Morality of the Gene” in McGee and Warms, ed. Anthropological
Theory, p. 433-439
Optional: Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the
Last 13,000 Years (London, Vintage, 1998).
Optional: Robin Wright, “The Evolution of Despair,” Time Magazine, August 28, 1995,
p. 40-46.
October 31 and November 2: The Turn to Interpretation
--Victor Turner, “Symbols in Ndembu Ritual,” in McGee and Warms, Anthropological
Theory, 536-553.
--Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture” in
Bohannan and Glazer, eds. High Points in Anthropology, p. 531-552.
Optional: Clifford Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” from Clifford
Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), p. 412-454.
November 7 and 9: Postmodernism in Anthropology
--James Clifford, “Introduction: Partial Truths, from Writing Culture, in Paul A. Erickson
and Liam D. Murphy, eds. Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory
(Peterborough, CA: Broadview, 2001), p.598-630.
--Renato Rosaldo, “The Erosion of Classic Norms” in Culture and Truth (Boston: Beacon
Press, 1989), p.25-44.
Optional: James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth Century Ethnography,
Literature, and Art (Harvard, 1988).
November 14 and 16: Culture, Practice, Power
--Pierre Bourdieu, “Structures and the Habitus” in Outline of a Theory of Practice
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), p.72-95.
--Sherry Ortner, “Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties” in Erickson and Murphy,
eds. Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory, p. 642-687.
November 21 and 23: Transnational Cultures and Globalization
--Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson, “Beyond ‘Culture’: Space, Identity, and the Politics
of Difference,” Cultural Anthropology 7(1):6-23, 1992.
--Anna Tsing, “The Global Situation,” Cultural Anthropology 15(3): 327-360, 2000.
Optional: Robert Lavenda and Emily Schultz, “Globalization and the Culture of
Capitalism” in Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield,
2000), p.169-183.
Optional: Gordon Mathews, “On the Meaning of Culture” and “Searching for Home in
the Cultural Supermarket” in Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for Home in
the Cultural Supermarket (London: Routledge, 2000), p1-23, 177-197.
November 28 and 30: Why We Can’t Comprehend the World
--Karl Marx, “The Fetishism of Commodities,” in R. Tucker, ed. The Marx-Engels
Reader (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978), p.319-329.
--Michel Foucault, selections from Discipline and Punish, reprinted in P. Rabinow, ed.
The Foucault Reader (New York: Pantheon, 1984), p.170-238.