Fall 2007
Anthropology/Global Studies 103 *
http://www.globalstudies.uiuc.edu
Anthropology in a Changing World
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-11 a.m., 112 Gregory Hall
http://compass.uiuc.edu
Professor:
Ellen Moodie emoodie@uiuc.edu, 391 Davenport Hall, 244-7849, OH T 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Teaching Assistants:
Karin Berkhoudt berkhoud@uiuc.edu, 309E Davenport Hall, OH F 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Hee Jung Choi chj9884@gmail.com, 309E Davenport Hall, OH W 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
You may also arrange meetings with your professor or teaching assistants by appointment.
Course description
This course will introduce you to sociocultural anthropology through a series of stories,
situations and case studies. You will discover the enormous range of this field of study, from
long-term links across the globe to close contacts among friends. You’ll learn about diverse
people and their ways of engaging with the particular worlds around them. The thrust of the class
is globalization of those worlds. In an increasingly globalized, culturally diverse environment,
anthropology is a good base on which to build careers in law, medicine, business, journalism,
public policy, politics, diplomatic service, public health, social work, international development,
education, activism, adventure travel, novel writing, theater, art … almost anything!
Sociocultural anthropology’s main method for research is ethnographic fieldwork, or
participant- observation. This approach contributes a crucial perspective to discussions of
globalization. It attends to local, often personal, relationships within and among groups of
people. In their analyses, anthropologists consider how actions, interactions and varying
identifications are formed by, and help form, broader structures, whether economic, religious,
political or cultural.
Class readings will expand your own worlds. They move from New Age shops in
Australia to an irregularly heated tenement building in East Harlem, New York; from rural
villages in Cote d’Ivoire to the site of a Coca-Cola plant in India. They ask how gender varies in
different places and reflect on how witchcraft helps explain the world for some people; they
delve into the debate over gay marriage and ponder the role of ideas about culture in the war on
terror. Case studies we will look at this fall include an investigation of the controversy over how
the Yanomami people of the Amazon have been treated by scientists and other outsiders, as well
an exploration of the global and transnational dimensions of identity as lived by gay Filipino
migrants in New York City.
As the weeks pass, we will return again and again to think about the ways global and
local contexts—which aren’t so distinct—merge and move, often resisting change but also
compelling transformations. As we exchange our ideas and compare experiences, the class will
surely compel some transformations in all of our ways of thinking about the world.
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ANTH 103 meets UIUC’s General Education criteria for a UIUC Social Sciences, Non-Western
Cultures, and Western Comparative Cultures course.
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Class themes
There are five parts to this schedule. Each loosely organizes units of knowledge that you
should be able to talk about comfortably by the end of the term.
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The class begins with an introduction to the field of anthropology. It outlines major
concepts and provides historical background to the development of the discipline.
It continues with “Other Knowledge,” a theme drawn from the discipline’s perhaps
sordid origins. Anthropology emerged as people from parts of Europe and North America
who were involved in long-distance trade, conquest, and colonialism began to wonder
about their encounters with so many people who looked different, and had unfamiliar
customs. It started as a “scientific” way to create Knowledge about Others.
The third section, “States and Capital,” should challenge us to think about how any
economic system (any form of exchange) is cultural, rather than “natural” or “scientific.”
It explores effects of the dominant economic system in the world today, capitalism—the
driver behind colonialism —considering how it operates through the dominant social
arrangement in the world today, the state.
“Identification and Experience” examines how categories of identity and difference, of
belonging and exclusion, are structured. It explores the always-interconnected elements
of human experience encompassed in categories of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality,
religion and class. It also investigates classic anthropological interests in kinship and
marriage.
“Anthropology in Action” will show us what sociocultural anthropologists do. It offers an
extended study of particular interactions in a specific space and time—in 1980s and
1990s New York City among gay Filipino migrants.
Course texts
We suggest that you buy the books listed below. All the texts contain required readings.
The books will also be on reserve at the undergraduate library.
Material from all texts will be included in the midterm or final exams, as well as in
quizzes and writing assignments and exercises. You will also be required to read short selections
before the three GSI events (and take an on-line quiz related to the readings). Those texts will be
available on both the Compass and Global Studies web sites.
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Talking About People: Readings in Contemporary Cultural Anthropology (referred to as
Haviland in the syllabus) is a collection of articles that will form the main archive of
course readings.
Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora (Manalansan) offers you a full-fledged
anthropological study of a particular migrant community in the U.S.
Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology (Lavenda) provides valuable background to
help explain class lectures and readings, offering a kind of conceptual support system to
the specific case studies in the syllabus. We will not always refer to everything you read
in the CORE CONCEPTS reading assignments; they have been included like hyperlinks,
for you to go to with questions or when you want to know more. We will always indicate
in class what material will be included on exams and quizzes.
There will be a fourth text, to be purchased on-line as part of the first writing
assignment project. It is an abridged version of Robert Borofsky’s book Yanomami: The
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Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn From It (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2005) (Borofsky). We will give you more details of this book the first week of
class. It will be available through the web site https://www.publicanthropology.net.
Many required readings, listed below in the schedule, are only available through the
library e-reserve system, http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ereserves/querycourse.asp. On the
page that opens up at that address, click on the ANTH 103 link. Some articles will
download with an “.asp” suffix that should be changed to “.pdf.” (Some readings are
accessible through URLs listed on the syllabus). We strongly recommend that you print
out these electronic texts in order to read them carefully. The in-class quizzes will be
open-book, so you will do much better if you have the printed articles with you.
Books to purchase at a local bookstore
W. Haviland, R. Gordon, and L. Vivanco, Talking About People: Readings in Contemporary
Cultural Anthropology, 4th Ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006) [Haviland]
Martin F. Manalansan IV, Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora (Durham, N.C.:
Duke University Press, 2003) [Manalansan]
Robert H. Lavenda and Emily A. Schultz, Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology, 3rd Edition
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006) [Lavenda]
Course schedule
As part of the Global Studies Initiative, Anthropology 103 has an unconventional set-up.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we survey anthropological themes. On three Wednesdays, we will
attend afternoon events—two lectures and a documentary film. These events, each about
globalization from different perspectives, punctuate the course like blue hyperlinks. They
connect to class material by showing us possibilities for broadening ideas about the world.
Course issues and policies
Academic honesty: All students should know and abide by academic ethics. Plagiarism, whether
intentional or not, whether it involves forgetting to cite all your sources of information or turning
in someone else’s work as your own, has serious consequences. Read more about this at the
following web site: http://www.research.uiuc.edu/ethics/plagiarism.asp#students . A student’s
first instance of plagiarism will be turned back with the opportunity for resubmission valued at
half-grade; a second instance will result in failure for the course. We shall electronically screen
suspect out-of-class essays for plagiarism.
Special Needs: Any students with special needs should discuss them with the professor as early
in the semester as possible. We shall arrange for alternative test sites if needed and if specified
seating arrangements are needed, we are happy to accommodate students.
Attendance at all lectures, in ANTH 103 class (T-Th, 9:30-11 a.m., 112 Gregory Hall) in the GSI
lectures (selected Ws, 4-5:30 p.m., Foellinger Auditorium), as well as the LAS 101 classes, for
most of you (W 4-5 p.m.), is crucial to getting the full benefit of the course, especially because
there isn’t one central textbook. Getting to know the professor and/or T.A.’s—talking to them
before or after class, or in office hours—as well as participating in class discussion—will always
help you get more involved in class. It is very important to read the assigned texts at least
once before the date for which they are listed in the schedule. You would do well to keep
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notes on key terms and ideas. You may ask about these issues in class, in office hours, through email, if you happen to run into the professor or a T.A. in the gym or the street, or via the web
page discussion options. Your understanding of reading assignments, lectures and films will be
occasionally checked with the in-class quizzes, on-line exercises, and “short writes.” Grades
from unannounced in-class quizzes or missed exercises cannot be made up.
Grades
Your grade will be based upon a combination of measures.
9 Mid-term exam (20 percent)
9 Final exam (30 percent)
9 Two out-of-class writing assignments (10 percent + 15 percent = 25 percent)
9 Periodic assignments (20 percent)
o in-class quizzes on assigned readings, films, and class lectures
o on-line exercises on assigned readings
9 Three on-line quizzes in connection with the special GSI events (3 percent)
9 Two surveys at the start and end of the semester (2 percent)
No late work will be accepted except under exceptional circumstances. These
circumstances must be discussed with the professor.
Exams (50 percent): The mid-term and final exams are worth 20 percent and 30 percent,
respectively. Most of the grade for each exam will be based on the answers to multiple-choice
questions, identifications, and short questions. The dates of these exams are October 9 (during
regular class time) and December 10 (1:30-4:30 p.m.). There will be review sessions before each
exam. The final exam will focus on material in the second half of the course but will assume
knowledge of material from the entire semester.
Out-of-class writing assignments (25 percent): There will be one on-line letter-writing exercise,
carried out between September 17 and October 3, and one three-page essay, due just before
Thanksgiving break (November 16). Details will be announced closer to the due dates.
Periodic assignments and quizzes (20 percent):
o Quizzes: there will be a number of unannounced quizzes during the semester.
Some will be in the form of short essays. Most will be multiple-choice exercises.
You will be able to drop one low score (10 percent).
o On-line exercises: These will be available on-line to help comprehension on
assigned readings (10 percent).
Special event quizzes (3 percent): Prior to each of the three special speakers’ presentations you
will be asked to go on-line to the Compass course web site to take a quiz based on the assigned
readings for the scheduled speaker. This activity should be completed by 1 p.m. the Wednesday
of the Foellinger Auditorium lecture.
GSI surveys (2 percent): These measures of knowledge must be completed at the start and end of
the semester.
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Reading schedule **
You should have completed the assigned readings by the day listed on this schedule. Often there
will be a reading review exercise available on Compass to help you think through the main ideas
in the reading. You may notice that some weeks have more reading than others; it is up to you to
manage your workloads in order to keep up (reading ahead on the lighter weeks). The readings
from the books are denoted by the surname of the first author (i.e., Haviland stands for Talking
about People). Readings with a URL are available in open links. Readings marked with an
asterisk (*) can be found on e-reserve, http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ereserves/querycourse.asp. As
we have already suggested, electronic readings should be printed out and read with a pen in hand
to write down questions and underline important ideas. Interacting physically with a text aids in
remembering material.
PART I: INTRODUCTION
August
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Theme: Introduction
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Theme: What is anthropology?
Reading: *Luke Eric Lassiter, “Evolution and the Critique of Race: A Short Story.” In
Invitation to Anthropology, 3-32 (Oxford, U.K.: AltaMira Press, 2006).
*Horace Miner, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema.” American Anthropologist
58(3) (1956): 503-507.
CORE CONCEPTS: Lavenda, 2-12
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Theme: What is culture?
Reading: Haviland, 27-29, 42-44, 45-49
“Basic Concepts: What is the Meaning of Culture?”
Sally Engle Merry, “Human-Rights Law and the Demonization of
Culture”
Jane Mulcock, “Ethnography in Awkward Spaces: An Anthropology of
Cultural Borrowing”
CORE CONCEPTS: Lavenda, 16-30
PART II: OTHER KNOWLEDGE
September
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Theme: Culture, self and experience
Reading: Haviland, 72-76, 84-86
“Socialization: How Do People Learn and Experience Their Culture?”
Amparo B. Ojeda, “Growing Up American: Doing the Right Thing”
Alma Gottlieb, “The Anthropologist as Mother: Reflections on Childbirth
Observed and Childbirth Experienced.”
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Subject to change, pending unforeseen events.
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Theme: Ethics and understanding
Reading: Renato Rosaldo, “Of Headhunters and Soldiers: Separating Cultural and
Ethical Relativism.” In Issues in Ethics 11 (1) (Winter 2000).
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v11n1/relativism.html
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Theme: How do we know others/the Other?
Reading: *Rebekah Nathan, “As Others See Us.” In My Freshman Year: What a
Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, 67-89 (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 2005).
Haviland, 24-26
Gregory Starrett, “Culture Never Dies: Anthropology at Abu Ghraib”
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Theme: The long quest for the primitive
Reading: Borofsky, xiii-xv, 3-21
*Napoleon A. Chagnon, “Doing Fieldwork among the Yanomamö.” In One
World, Many Cultures, 5th edition, eds. Stuart Hirschberg and Terry
Hirschberg, 446-460 (New York: Pearson Longman, 2004).
See web site http://www.publicanthropology.net
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ASSIGNMENT: On-line letter-writing exercise to be carried out between September 17
and October 3, 2007, described on web site http://www.publicanthropology.net
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Theme: Power relations (in and out of the field)
Reading: Borofsky, 22-60
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Theme: Ethics and fieldwork practices
Reading: Borofsky, 61-106
See web sites http://www.research.uiuc.edu/ethics/
http://www.research.uiuc.edu/ethics/anthropology.asp
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Theme: Language and culture: Translation and social order
Reading: Haviland, 56-68
Salikoko S. Mufwene, “Forms of Address: How Their Social Functions
May Vary”
Jane H. Hill, “Language, Race and White Public Space”
CORE CONCEPTS: Lavenda 34-51
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Theme: Language and culture: Can global be local?
Reading: *David Crystal, “Why a global language?” In English as a Global
Language, 2nd edition, 1-28 (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2003).
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October
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Theme: Social movements
Reading: *Guillermo Delgado-P., “The Makings of a Transnational Movement.” In
NACLA: Report on the Americas 35 (6) May/June 2002, 36-38.
*Vandana Shiva, “Building Water Democracy: People’s Victory Against Coca
Cola in Plachimada.” In Beyond Borders: Thinking Critically About
Global Issues, ed. Paula S. Rothenberg, 580-583 (New York: Worth
Publishers, 2006).
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GSI Cross-Course Lecture Series:
Activism and the Call of Conscience
Kathy Kelly, Co-founder of Voices in Wilderness, Co-coordinator of Voices for
Creative Nonviolence
On-line quiz must be submitted by 1 p.m., October 3, for full credit.
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Review
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Midterm
PART III: STATES AND CAPITAL
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Theme: Exchange and giving
Reading: *Marcel Mauss, “Gift, Gift.” In The Logic of the Gift, ed. Alan Schrift, 28-32
(New York: Routlege, 1997 [1924]).
CORE CONCEPTS: Lavenda, 132-152
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Theme: Primitive quests?
Reading: *Marshall Sahlins, “The Original Affluent Society.”
http://www.eco-action.org/dt/affluent.html
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Theme: Capitalism
Reading: *Jack Weatherford, “Cocaine and the Economic Deterioration of Bolivia”; and
*Philippe Bourgois, “Office Work and the Crack Alternative.” In Conformity
and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 12th edition,
eds. James Spradley and David W. McCurdy, 143-177 (Boston: Pearson,
2005).
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Theme: Colonialism
Reading: *Jamaica Kincaid, “On Seeing England for the First Time.” In
Anthropology/Annual Editions 00/01, 222-224 (Guilford:
Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, 2000).
CORE CONCEPTS: Lavenda, 188-207
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Theme: States and order
Reading: Haviland, 201-202, 209-217, 191-196
“Politics: How Do People Exercise Power Over Each Other?”
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Pierre L. Van den Berghe, “The Modern State: Nation-Builder or Nation
Killer?”
Alex de Waal, “The Genocidal State: Hutu Extremism and the Origins of
the ‘Final Solution’ in Rwanda”
CORE CONCEPTS: Lavenda, 112-129
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Theme: Intervention and development
Reading: Haviland, 245-257
“Change: What Does It Mean to Modernize?”
James L. Brain, “The Ugly American Revisited”
James Ferguson with Larry Lohmann, “The Anti-Politics Machine:
‘Development’ and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho”
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GSI Cross-Course Event:
Sacred Terror—Theirs and Ours
Pervez Hoodbhoy, Professor of Nuclear Physics at the Quaid-e-Azam University,
Islamabad, Pakistan, and Chairman of Mashal, a non-profit organization.
On-line quiz must be submitted by 1 p.m., October 31, for full credit.
PART IV: IDENTITY AND EXPERIENCE
November
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Theme: Religion: Global history and individual experience
Reading: Haviland, 223-230, 234-241
“Religion: How Do We Make Sense of Peoples’ Beliefs and Ritual
Practices?”
Isak Niehaus, “Witchcraft in Anthropological Perspective”
Sian Sullivan, “On Dance and Difference: Bodies, Movement and
Experience in Khoesaan Trance-Dancing—Perceptions of ‘a
Raver’”
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Theme: Race/ethnicity/class/gender
Reading: *Marisol de la Cadena, “Reconstructing Race: Racism, Culture and Mestizaje
in Latin America.” NACLA Report on the Americas (May/June 2001), 1623.
*Stuart Hall, “Old and New Identities.” In Beyond Borders: Thinking Critically
About Global Issues, 220-224.
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Theme: Class/ethnicity/race/gender
Reading: Haviland, 181-190
Brett Williams, “Owning Places and Buying Time: Class, Culture, and
Stalled Gentrification”
*Karen J. Hossfeld, “Gender, Race, and Class in Silicon Valley.” In
Beyond Borders: Thinking Critically About Global Issues, 264270.
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Theme: Gender and sexuality
Reading: Haviland, 125-129, 134-140.
“Gender and Sexuality: How Do Women and Men Relate to Each Other?”
Roger N. Lancaster, “The Place of Anthropology in a Public Culture
Reshaped by Bioreductivism”
“Gay and Lesbian Marriage: Should Gays and Lesbians Have the Right to
Marry?”
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GSI Cross-Course Event:
Rich Men, Poor Women
Documentary by Bill Moyers discussing the cases of Thailand and Senegal in relation to
market liberalization and how it affects women’s situations in those two countries.
On-line quiz must be submitted by 1 p.m., November 14, for full credit.
PART V: ANTHROPOLOGY IN ACTION
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Theme: Public visibility
Reading: Manalansan, 1-44
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ASSIGNMENT DUE: 3-page essay on topic to be announced.
THANKSGIVING BREAK
27
Theme: Speaking and seeing
Reading: Manalansan, 45-88
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Theme: Drama at home and on stage
Reading: Manalansan, 89-151
December
4
Theme: AIDS and global suffering
Reading: Manalansan, 151-191
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Theme: Wrap-up and review
Reading: *Michael Schwalbe, “Afterword: The Costs of American Privilege.” In Beyond
Borders: Thinking Critically About Global Issues, 603-605.
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FINAL EXAMINATION, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
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