P O L I I T T I I C A L A N T H R O
ANTH 423, 2010
P O L O G Y
Course Coordinator:
Dr. Maximilian C. Forte
Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology,
Concordia University
Office: H-1125-11
Office Hours:
Mondays: 4:30—6:00pm
Contact: mforte@alcor.concordia.ca
Fall Semester, 2010
03 credits
13 September – 07 December, 2010
Meeting days and times:
Mondays: 1:15pm—4:00pm
Campus: SGW, Room: MB-2.255
Course Website: http://politicalanthro.wordpress.com/
“An anthropology that takes cultures to be collective creations, that reifies them into texts and objectifies their meanings, disguises and even mystifies the dynamics of knowledge and its uses [is problematic]…. cultures do not simply constitute webs of significance….They constitute ideologies , disguising human political and economic realities as cosmically ordained. Even in classless societies, cultural ideologies empower some, subordinate others, extract the labour of some for the benefit of those whose interests the ideologies serve and legitimate. Cultures are webs of mystification as well as signification. We need to ask who creates and who defines cultural meanings, and to what ends.”
—Roger M. Keesing (1987: 161-162)
“Each agent, wittingly or unwittingly, willy nilly, is a producer and reproducer of objective meaning.
Because his actions and works are the product of a modus operandi of which he is not the producer and has no conscious mastery, they contain an 'objective intention'...which always outruns his conscious intentions”
—Pierre Bourdieu (1977: 79)
A. OUTLINE OF PROBLEMS
In opposition to what are sometimes exaggerated portrayals of earlier anthropological depictions of local cultures as organic and homogeneous wholes seemingly existing outside of forces such as colonialism, slavery and the world market, anthropologists have argued in recent decades that cultures are not merely local but translocal, and are shaped by unequal access to resources and inequalities in power. In addition, anthropology as a discipline came in for serious critique. Many began to charge that anthropology had neglected not only the impact of Western colonialism but also anthropology’s own fruition in colonial settings, seemingly collaborating with colonialism itself. In summary, anthropologists began to take note that the “remote” and “exotic” communities they had been studying had been subject to, and made dependent on, a global system of unequal development and power relations. Within these same local communities, once portrayed as egalitarian, homogeneous, organic wholes, anthropologists also reexamined internal inequalities in power relations, and the unequal distribution of knowledge and other resources. As a result, the dominant anthropological interest in this particular camp turned squarely to ideology, hegemony, class, political economy and power.
“Power” emerged as critical focus of investigation and theorizing in anthropology and has remained central in various approaches, e.g.: Marxist anthropology, cultural materialism, political anthropology, feminist anthropology, post-structuralist anthropology, and post-modernism. As a result, anthropologists have
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sought to uncover the ideological, cultural, and social organizational means by which some groups seek to attain or assert power as well as the resistance faced by such groups.
On the other hand, we cannot treat any critique as necessarily offering a solution or an incontestable set of counter-propositions. We might thus be wary of overly conspiratorial notions of power as absolute, of institutions exercising total control, of persons as either pawns or all-knowing subjects that master their own destinies, or of all cultures as lacking coherence, intelligibility and affective value to those who share in those cultures. The notion of cultures as unceasingly contested, rife with conflict, unable to achieve stability and consensus might also be one that is sometimes problematic. Therefore given the various positions we will encounter on culture, power and anthropological understandings, you should be most alert and critical, without being inflamed.
In this course we will investigate various sources and expressions of power, as well as the ways in which anthropologists have sought to theorize and study power in ethnographic and theoretical terms.
B. QUESTIONS
These are some of the key questions among the many that this course will raise. We can expect, however, that these questions will recur in the manner of overarching questions binding the course.
1.
What are the key concepts of “power” utilized by anthropologists?
2.
What are the diverse sources and manifestations of power? Cultural? Economic? Political? How do they interrelate?
3.
How do we connect the role of states to the ethnography of power?
4.
How do we theorize the relations between the conditions of material production, class, power and culture, without recapitulating reductionist or determinist theories?
5.
How do we theorize the agency of the individual in light of structures of power?
6.
In which ways have colonialism and globalization structured local power relations?
7.
What are the relationships between colonial power and anthropological knowledge?
8.
What are the theoretical and ethnographic formulations of ethnicity, class and gender in relation to culture and power?
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C. COURSE REQUIREMENTS, GRADING, AND POLICIES
Overview of Graded Course Components
One assignment, that will be permanent for the duration of the course, consists of seminar participation , which is valued at 20% of the final grade for the course. Participation goes beyond regular attendance (attendance, by itself, will count for, at best, a negligible fraction of the participation grade). Participation includes asking questions after lectures, asking questions about the readings, sharing your points of view, engaging in dialogue with other members of the class, critically reviewing the assigned readings, and similar activities. The lectures can only provide a limited a narrow range of course content, and in some cases there are no lectures. Therefore, always come prepared having done the assigned readings for that given date.
At the end of Part One of the course, which is during Week #5 ( Monday, 18 October ), a takehome, mid-term essay exam will be assigned. It will consist of three questions , directly based on assigned readings, and lectures, and other course content. Students will be allowed no more than 750 words in reply to each question , for a total of 2,250 words (at a maximum: 9 pages, typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font, 12 pt.
). This exam will be worth 35% of the final course grade . The questions will be assigned on Monday, 04 October , and the exam will be due in class, at the start of class, on Monday, 25 October . Regular exam conditions apply: no late exams will be accepted .
There is also a short research paper for this course (more details follow later on this page). That paper carries a total value of 30% of the final course grade , consisting of 5% for a prospectus (an outline of what you intend to research, submitted in class on Monday, 04 October ), and 25% for the actual research paper, due in class on Monday, 22 November .
Finally, there will be a final exam , with a single question assigned on Monday, 29 November . It will be due by email by midnight on Friday, 10 December . This final exam carries a value of 15% of the final course grade , and can be no longer than 1,000 words .
Schedule and Grade Breakdown
Here is a list of the graded course components, with assign and due dates where applicable:
SEMINAR
MID-TERM EXAM — ASSIGNED 04 OCT., DUE 25 OCT.
RESEARCH PAPER PROSPECTUS —
— 35%
DUE 04 OCT. — 5%
RESEARCH PAPER —
FINAL EXAM — ASSIGNED 29 NOV.,
DUE 22 NOV. — 25%
DUE 10 DEC. — 15%
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About the Research Paper
Your first task is to pick a significant issue of interest to you, that fits within the parameters of this political anthropology course (and you can tell what the parameters are from an examination of the course overview, our key questions for the course, and the various session topics and readings). You are to use the equivalent of five (5) book chapters or journal articles, which amounts to roughly 120 pages of readings for your paper. Students are not expected to exceed this number of sources, but cannot use less without negatively affecting their grade for the paper. For this course, at least three of those five sources must be written by academics, with an emphasis on works by anthropologists, even better if they are known political anthropologists (for examples, see the course bibliography at http://politicalanthro.wordpress.com/bibliography/).
For your prospectus, what is required is a working title, a description of the topic you will be reading about, a short explanation of how your paper fits into this course, and a provisional list of five sources.
The research paper must be typed, double-spaced, with numbered pages, using Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, with one inch margins on all sides of each sheet. References must be formatted using the style guidelines of the American Anthropological Association
(http://politicalanthro.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/aaastyle_guide.pdf). Students must be careful to closely adhere to Concordia University’s guidelines on how to avoid plagiarism (see: http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/plagiarism/).
In case you are stuck with ideas for a paper, you can consider a range of options, including reading on a particular theory, reading the works of a particular political anthropologist and identifying her or his critical contributions to the field, reading on movements, organizations, or social groups engaged in political processes, and so forth. Here is a list of possible (not required or suggested) research topics:
• “African Tribalism” and the Hutu-Tutsi conflict in Rwanda
• “Third World Feminism”: any different from “First World” Feminism?
• “Third World Marxism”: any different from “First World” Marxism?
• Bolivian Amerindians in national political campaigns
• Challenges to Transactionalist Theory
• Che Guevara in Bolivia: analyses of a revolution that never was
• Conceptual problems with the category of “peasant” in anthropology
• Conceptualizing “passive” and “active” resistance in a historical case study: problems and limitations with the idea of resistance?
• Consumerism as an expression of agency? Anthropological debates on culture, consumption and political economy
• Culture, resistance and the Gramscian concept of “hegemony”
• Ethnic Nationalism and the demise of states such as Yugoslavia and the USSR
• Gandhian philosophies and the politics of transformation in India
• Instrumentalist versus primordialist approaches to ethnic politics, applied to a specific case study
• Inter-ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka
• Kayapo, Xavante or other Amerindians of the Brazilian Amazon, in conflict with the national state
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and/or international development agencies
• Liberation Theology and working class political rebellion in Latin America
• Malcolm X and the movement for African-American civil rights and social transformation
• Messianic leaders
• Millenarian movements
• Movements embodying the principle of “think globally, act locally.”
• Peasant rebellions
• Reformism versus revolution: anthropological analysis of a historical case study
• Religion and grassroots political resistance: e.g. Vodou and politics in Haiti
• Structural functionalism: theoretical problems concerning conflict and change
• The Eurocentricity of Development Theories and Practices
• The politics of decolonization in states which recently gained independence (i.e., post-1960s)
• The politics of national identity in settler societies: i.e., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
• The politics of stabilization: how some political systems seemingly endure with little change
• The symbols of populist politics in Peronist Argentina
• The Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico
• Transformations of traditional chiefdoms under colonial rule
• What are “post-colonial politics”? Theoretical review, applied to a case study
• World-Systems Analysis versus Marxist Theories of Capitalism: anthropological responses
More details on the exams and the research paper requirements will be covered in class, so please make sure to attend regularly.
Useful resources for effective research papers:
All students in the course should invest some time in studying the following resources, some of which are mandatory for this course.
1.
How to Find Research Articles: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/perindex.html
2.
How to Write a Research Paper: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/researchpaper.html
3.
How to Use the Web for Research: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/internethandout.html
4.
Info Research 101 – Interactive Tutorial: http://library.concordia.ca/help/tutorial/#
5.
APA Citation Style Guide - *the mandatory way to cite sources in this course*: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/apa.php
6.
All Concordia Library “How To” Guides: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/
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You might also consider becoming involved with Concordia’s Community University Research Exchange
– see: http://www.qpirgconcordia.org/cure/
Course Policies:
No late work is accepted in this course. Any work that is late is automatically assigned a grade of zero. Only in extreme cases will late work be accepted, pending full and original documentation, and the final decision rests with the instructor.
Students are responsible for acquiring course content. Therefore, if a class is missed, no independent tutorial will be provided by the professor to brief the student on what transpired in the class the student missed.
Students are responsible for getting their assignments in on time. No exceptions are allowed, except in extreme cases, restricted to those situations discussed here. In all cases, precise, original documentation will be required before any extension can be granted, and only in the case of a death in one’s immediate family (i.e. parents, siblings), or the student’s serious illness. In such cases, the illness or death must cover most of the period during which given work has been assigned. Otherwise, in all cases, late papers receive an automatic grade of zero.
If you enter the course with a pre-existing medical condition that will impede you from completing the course, then please speak to the instructor about your ability to successfully complete the course. This is to avoid any requests for late completion, given that in the past, not one single student who has ever asked this professor for an “incomplete” [INC] has ever completed the course, and in all cases their grades were automatically converted to fail.
Arrangements for Late Completion should be negotiated and arranged with the instructor before final grades are due. Only the most compelling reasons, with convincing documentation, can be considered.
Please keep in mind that the instructor will most likely not accept requests for late completion.
There is one major exception to these policies: in the event of a major public health crisis, or events beyond the University’s control, alternative course requirements and grading policies will be developed and used.
Students are responsible for being active learners in class – asking questions, and sharing their viewpoints.
Passive learning leads to mediocre and poor outcomes. If the professor never hears from a given student, and still does not know the name of the given student by the end of the course, then the student is doing something terribly wrong and the participation grade will probably match that performance. The participation grade is not based on regular class attendance – attending class is a prerequisite for participation, much like being alive is a prerequisite for registering in the course, as such no points are awarded for meeting the basic requirements. Students who never ask a question, and are never heard in class, can expect a very low participation grade – but more importantly, it means that such students have not made the necessary personal investment in their own education. Also, students whose behaviour in class is disruptive and abusive can expect a guaranteed grade of zero for participation, in addition to any further penalties imposed by the University.
Students should also understand that grades are not open to negotiation. If a student feels that factual errors
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were made in an assessment, or that the evaluation was manifestly unfair, then of course the student should speak to the professor. Asking for a paper to be reassessed, however, does not mean that a higher grade will be the guaranteed outcome: in fact, the grade could go lower, or stay the same. Students’ performance in other courses is most assuredly not a valid basis for anticipating particular grade outcomes in this course.
There will be no supplemental work.
Do not call the main office for course-related inquiries.
Please avoid coming to class late as other students have regularly complained about the disruptions that this can cause, especially when it is a regular occurrence and students enter the room at all times. Students who are observed to be repeatedly late will likely incur a deduction from their participation grade.
How work is graded:
For all work done in this course you will receive a numerical grade which will be converted to a letter grade when final grades are processed. To translate numbers into letter grades, please consult the following chart, copied directly from a faculty handbook in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. It is vital that you understand that the characterizations below (i.e., “excellent”) are central in guiding the instructor’s evaluation of the quality of a paper.
Work that covers all of the basics, in a reasonably competent fashion, without major flaws, is deemed
“satisfactory.” Work that has few flaws, and shows an advanced understanding, writing and research ability is deemed “very good.” Work that leaves little room for improvement (within the context of expectations of a 400 level course), demonstrating that the student has taken considerable initiative, showing sophisticated understanding and ability, is deemed “excellent.”
A+ 90-100
A 85-
A- 80- 84
B+ 77-
B 73-
B- 70-
C+ 67- 69
C 63-
C- 60-
D+ 57-
D 53-
F or FNS
R
56
D- 50-
40 (30-49)
20 ( 0-29)
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Academic Regulations & Plagiarism Issues
Section 16 (Academic Information: Definitions and Regulations) of the Undergraduate Calendar will be strictly administered – particularly on deadlines, Failing Grades, Administrative Notations, Late
Completions=‘INCompletes’ (Grade/INC), ‘Failed No Supplementals’ (FNS), ‘Did Not Writes’
(Grade/DNW).
Students must familiarize themselves with Concordia University’s Academic Integrity Website
(http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/), and in particular its page devoted to plagiarism
(http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/plagiarism/).
Announcements, E-Mail Use
In the event of an unscheduled cancellation of a class, the appropriate notice is posted by the University on its website. See the “Class Cancellations” link on www.concordia.ca. In addition, digital billboards on campus will announce the cancellation. You will also be notified by email.
For the duration of this course, please check your email at least once each week, and look for any messages that begin with the course number.
Having said that, please ensure that you have the right email address entered in your MyConcordia student profile. That is the same email address to which course messages are sent.
Disclaimer
In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University’s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change".
Improving Students’ Academic Experience
The University offers many services that can help students. To improve students’ ability to succeed in their courses, get the most out of the university experience, and ensure their success in completing their degree, it is strongly recommended that you make a note of the following list of services:
•
•
Concordia Counseling and Development offers career services, psychological services, student learning services, etc. http://cdev.concordia.ca/
The Concordia Library Citation and Style Guides: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/citations.html
Advocacy and Support Services: http://supportservices.concordia.ca/
Student Transition Centre: http://stc.concordia.ca/
New Student Program: http://newstudent.concordia.ca/
Access Centre for Students with Disabilities: http://supportservices.concordia.ca/disabilities/
Student Success Centre: http://studentsuccess.concordia.ca/
The Academic Integrity Website: http://provost.concordia.ca/academicintegrity/
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• Financial Aid & Awards: http://web2.concordia.ca/financialaid/
• Health
Announcements:
In the event of an unscheduled cancellation of a class, the appropriate notice is posted by the University on its website. See the “Class Cancellations” link on www.concordia.ca. In addition, digital billboards on campus will announce the cancellation. Also, please check e-mail, as all announcements will be sent to the class via e-mail .
D. REQUIRED TEXTS & COURSE RESERVE
(These are available for purchase in the Concordia Bookstore, SGW, and one copy of each is available on the Course
Reserve, Webster Circulation Desk)
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Vincent, Joan, ed. 2002. The Anthropology of Politics: A Reader in Ethnography, Theory, and
Critique . Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Gledhill, John. 2000. Power and its Disguises: Anthropological Perspectives on Politics . London:
Pluto.
The following items (in no particular order) have been placed on reserve at the Webster Circulation Desk.
These may be consulted in addition to the required texts above, but cannot usually substitute for them (the first two items below being obvious exceptions):
Call Number: GN 492 G55 2000
Author/Editor: Gledhill, John
Title: Power and its disguises : anthropological perspectives on politics
Edition: 2nd
Call Number: GN 492 A593 2002
Author/Editor: Vincent, Joan
Title: The anthropology of politics : a reader in ethnography, theory, and critique
Call Number: GN 492 C66 2004
Author/Editor: edited by David Nugent and Joan Vincent
Title: A companion to the anthropology of politics
Call Number: GN 492 A64 2006
Author/Editor: edited by Aradhana Sharma and Akhil Gupta
Title: The anthropology of the state : a reader
Call Number: GN 492.2 A57 2005
Author/Editor: edited by Jonathan Xavier Inda
Title: Anthropologies of modernity : Foucault, governmentality, and life politics
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Call Number: GN 492 K87 2001
Author/Editor: Donald V. Kurtz
Title: Political anthropology : power and paradigms
Call Number: GN 490 P6
Author/Editor: Edited by Marc J. Swartz, Victor W. Turner, and Arthur Tuden
Title: Political anthropology
Call Number: GN 490 B3413 1970b
Author/Editor: Georges Balandier
Title: Political anthropology. Translated from the French by A. M. Sheridan Smith
Call Number: GN 492 S74 2005
Author/Editor: edited by Christian Krohn-Hansen and Knut G. Nustad
Title: State formation : anthropological perspectives
Call Number: GN 492 E46 2005
Author/Editor: Benoit de L’Estoile, Federico Neiburg, and Lygia Sigaud, editors
Title: Empires, nations, and natives : anthropology and state-making
Call Number: GN 645 G55
Author: Max Gluckman
Title: Custom and conflict in Africa
Call Number: GN 645 G56
Author: Max Gluckman
Title: Order and rebellion in tribal Africa; collected essays
Call Number: GN 490 G4P6
Author: Max Gluckman
Title: Politics, law, and ritual in tribal society
CallNumber: DT 132 E8 1969
Author: E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Title: The Nuer : a description of the modes of livelihood and political
Call Number: JZ 1318 R4 2010
Editors: George Ritzer & Zeynep Atalay
Title: Readings in globalization : key concepts and major debates
Call Number: GN 490 F6
Editors: M. Fortes & E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Title: African political systems
Call Number: GN 490 M5
Editors: John Middleton & David Tait
Title: Tribes without rulers; studies in African segmentary systems [by] Laura Bohannan [and others]
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Call Number: GN 658 M34 1977
Author: Lucy Philip Mair
Title: Primitive government : a study of traditional political systems in eastern Africa
Call Number: GN 492 C63 1976
Editors: Ronald Cohen & John Middleton
Title: Comparative political systems : studies in the politics of preindustrial
Call Number: GN 388 P64 1982
Editors: Eleanor Leacock & Richard Lee
Title: Politics and history in band societies
Call Number: GN 492.6 O7
Editors: Ronald Cohen and Elman R. Service
Title: Origins of the state : the anthropology of political evolution
Call Number: GN 33 S65 1999
Author: Gavin A. Smith
Title: Confronting the present : towards a politically engaged anthropology
Call Number: GN 345 W643 2001
Author: Eric R. Wolf
Title: Pathways of power : building an anthropology of the modern world
Call Number: DT 365 D5
Editors: Stanley Diamond & Fred G. Burke
Title: The transformation of East Africa; studies in political anthropology
Call Number: GN 492 C5613 1987
Author: Pierre Clastres
Title: Society against the state : essays in political anthropology
Call Number: JC 26 A4
Editor: June Helm
Title: Essays on the problem of tribe : proceedings of the 1967 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological
Society
Call Number: GN 492 V55 1990
Author: Joan Vincent
Title: Anthropology and politics : visions, traditions, and trends
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E. SCHEDULE OF LECTURES & READINGS
Please go to the course website: http://politicalanthro.wordpress.com/schedule/
PART ONE:
POWER AND POLITICS FROM STATELESS SOCIETIES TO COLONIAL RULE
Week 1
Monday, 13 September, 2010
OVERVIEW OF COURSE OBJECTIVES, REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES
--What is Political Anthropology and Why Study it?
[please commence readings for the following week]
Week 2
Monday, 20 September, 2010
FACING POLITICS AND POWER IN ANTHROPOLOGY
Readings:
1. Ch. 9 [Vincent reader] – Marc Swartz, Victor Turner, Arthur Tuden, “Political Anthropology,” 102-109.
2. Ch. 19 [Vincent reader] – Eric Wolf, “Facing Power—Old Insights, New Questions,” 222-233.
3. Gledhill, Ch. 1, “Locating the political: a political anthropology for today,” 1-22.
• Last day to add two-term and fall term courses.
• Deadline for withdrawal with tuition refund from two-term and fall term courses.
Week 3
Monday, 27 September, 2010
POLITICAL SYSTEMS AND ROLES IN STATELESS SOCIETIES
--Evolutionary Typologies of Power, Production and Social Organization
Readings:
1. Gledhill, Ch. 2, “The origins and limits of coercive power: the anthropology of stateless societies,” 23-
44.
2. Ch. 2 [Vincent reader] – E.E. Evans-Pritchard, “Nuer Politics: Structure and System (1940),” 34-38.
Week 4
Monday, 04 October, 2010
POLITICS IN AGRARIAN SOCIETIES AND THE RISE OF THE STATE
Readings:
1. Gledhill, Ch. 3, “From hierarchy to surveillance: the politics of agrarian civilizations and the rise of the western national state,” 45-66.
2. Ch. 5 [Vincent reader] – Talal Asad, “Market Model, Class Structure and Consent: A Reconsideration of
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Swat Political Organization,” 65-81.
3. Charles Tilly, "Warmaking and Statemaking as Organized Crime."
Note: Research paper prospectus is due on this date, in class. Also, the mid-term exam questions will be assigned on this date.
---Monday, 11 October, 2010: Holiday, no classes, university closed---
Week 5
Monday, 18 October, 2010
COLONIAL RULE
Readings:
1. Gledhill, Ch. 4, “The political anthropology of colonialism: a study of domination and resistance,” 67-91.
2. Ch. 17 [Vincent reader] – Jean and John Comaroff, “Of Revelation and Revolution,” 203-212.
3. Ch. 14 [Vincent reader] – Ann Stoler, “Perceptions of Protest: Defining the Dangerous in Colonial
Sumatra,” 153-171
PART TWO:
TRANSNATIONAL POWER AND POLITICS
Week 6
Monday, 25 October, 2010
COLONIALISM AND WORLD CAPITALISM
Readings:
1. Gledhill, Ch. 5, “Post-colonial states: legacies of history and pressures of modernity,” 92-126.
2. Ch. 20 [Vincent reader] – June Nash, “Ethnographic Aspects of the World Capitalist System,” 234-254.
3. Ch. 12 [Vincent reader] – Talal Asad, “From the History of Colonial Anthropology to the Anthropology of Western Hegemony,” 133-142.
Recommended: Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism .
Optional: Frantz Fanon, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness."
Optional: Lloyd Best, "Race, Class, and Ethnicity: A Caribbean Interpretation."
Note: The mid-term exam is due in class, at the start of class, on this date.
• 31 October: Last day for academic withdrawal from fall term courses.
Week 7
Monday, 1 November, 2010
GLOBALIZATION
Readings:
1. Ch. 21 [Vincent reader] – Benedict Anderson, “The New World Disorder,” 261-270.
2. Ch. 23 [Vincent reader] – Jonathan Friedman, “Transnationalization, Socio-political Disorder, and
Ethnification as Expressions of Declining Global Hegemony,” 285-300.
3. Immanuel Wallerstein, 1997, “The Rise and Future Demise of World-Systems Analysis.”
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Week 8
Monday, 8 November, 2010
TRANSNATIONAL POWER
Readings:
1. Ch. 27 [Vincent reader] – Aihwa Ong, “Flexible Citizenship among Chinese Cosmopolitans,” 338-355.
2. Ch. 28 [Vincent reader] – Nina Glick Schiller and Georges Fouron, “Long-distance Nationalism
Defined,” 356-365.
3. Ch. 22 [Vincent reader] – Arjun Appadurai, “Grassroots Globalization and the Research Imagination,”
271-284.
Week 9
Monday, 15 November, 2010
GLOBAL PROCESSES AND LOCAL RESISTANCES
Readings:
1. Gledhill, Ch. 7, “Political process and ‘global disorder’: perspectives on contemporary conflict and violence,” 153-183.
2. Ch. 32 [Vincent reader] – Marc Edelman, “Peasants against Globalization,” 409-423.
Recommended: K. Sivaramakrishnan, "Some Intellectual Genealogies for the Concept of Everyday
Resistance."
PART THREE:
AGENCY, IDEOLOGY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Week 10
Monday, 22 November, 2010
STRUCTURE, AGENCY, AND POLITICAL CONFLICT
Readings:
1. Gledhill, Ch. 6, “From macro-structure to micro-process: anthropological analysis of political practice,”
127-152.
2. Ch. 2. [Vincent reader] – Sharon Elaine Hutchinson, “Nuer Ethnicity Militarized,” 39-52.
3. Ch. 3. [Vincent reader] – Max Gluckman, “‘The Bridge’: Analysis of a Social Situation in Zululand,” 53-
58.
4. Ch. 4. [Vincent reader] – Ronald Frankenberg, “‘The Bridge’ Revisited,” 59-64.
Note: The research paper is due in class on this date.
Week 11
Monday, 29 November, 2010
ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY AND POLITICAL AGENCY: TRANSACTIONALISM,
PRIMORDIALISM AND PRACTICE THEORY
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Readings:
1. Gledhill, Ch. 8, “Society against the modern state?: the politics of social movements,” 184-213.
2. Ch. 7. [Vincent reader] – F. G. Bailey, “Stratagems and Spoils,” 90-95.
3. Ch. 8. [Vincent reader] – Victor Turner, “Passages, Margins, and Poverty: Religious Symbols of
Communitas,” 96-101.
Optional: Joan Vincent, "Political Anthropology: Manipulative Strategies."
Note: the final exam is assigned on this date.
Week 12 & 13
Monday, 06 December, 2010
ANTHROPOLOGICAL COMMITMENT
Readings:
1. Ch. 10. [Vincent reader] – Kathleen Gough, “New Proposals for Anthropologists,” 110-119.
2. Gledhill, Ch. 9, “Anthropology and politics: commitment, responsibility and the academy,” 214-242.
3. Ch. 35. [Vincent reader] – Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Thinking Academic Freedom in Gendered Postcoloniality,” 452-460.
Tuesday, 07 December, 2010
(make up class for 11 Oct. holiday)
REVIEW OF KEY CONCEPTS AND QUESTIONS IN POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY &
CONCLUSION
Readings: TBA
Note: the final exam is due by email (send to mforte@alcor.concordia.ca
) on Friday, 10
December, by midnight.
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