Anthropology & Sociology of Development
(ANSO)
PROFESSOR
Academic year 2015 - 2016
Filipe Calvão
filipe.calvao@graduateinstitute.ch
Social and Cultural Theory I
Office hours : Wednesday 16h - 18h
Office:
P1-527
Phone:
+41 22 908 5955
ANSO040 - Autumn - 6 ECTS
Wednesday 12:15 – 14:00 (S4)
ASSISTANT
Course Description
Maria Mathew
This seminar introduces the main theoretical orientations
and intellectual movements shaping modern social
thought, from foundational texts to contemporary ideas
leading up to 20th century structuralism. By tracing the
intellectual genealogy of social thought and critically
reflecting on the concepts driving our analytics, this
seminar invites an examination on the methodological and
epistemological implications of social theory for the
discipline of anthropology and the social sciences at large.
Office hours : Thursday 14h – 16h
Office :
P1-517
Phone :
+41 22 908 5844
maria.mathew@graduateinstitute.ch
Syllabus
GOALS
Class discussions and course readings will examine the emergence of society and culture as
research objects, with a focus on the problem of change and meaning, action and structure, text and
context. Students will be exposed to classical texts in social theory, from modern social thought and
structuralist theory through its impact on post-structuralist socio-cultural anthropology and
ethnographic practice.
Overall, it will be expected that students will gain familiarity and analytical comprehension of the
following topics, themes, and concepts: society, culture, subjects and objects, sign, meaning, function,
language, ritual, symbol, power, practice, politics, hegemony, gender. These concepts and theoretical
propositions will be situated alongside different traditions in anthropological theory, namely: Structural
Functionalism, Culture and Personality, Manchester school, Marxism, linguistics and semiotic
analysis, symbolic and hermeneutical perspectives.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
This is an advanced discussion seminar but no prior knowledge of the anthropological or sociological
literature is required. Alongside a genealogy of classical and foundational texts in both disciplines,
with a particular emphasis on the anthropological tradition of the 20th century, students will learn and
exercise the practice of theoretical critique. Completing the assigned readings, written assignments,
and critically engaging with the texts during class discussions are the necessary conditions to
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MAISON DE LA PAIX
successfully attend this seminar. Grading will reflect the completion of these assignments as well as
the student’s knowledge acquisition, and demonstration of critical and analytical skills.
EVALUATION
a) Participation (15%)
Participating in class discussions and fostering a collegial environment for the exchange of ideas
is a quintessential part of your graduate training. Preparing a presentation and practicing your oral
skills are critical to the success of your participation. There are different ways of doing so: for
example, you may want to clarify a passage from the text; identify the main concepts used; connect
the readings to a subject matter or issue closer to your interests; problematize or contradict the
author’s claims.
Not everyone is comfortable speaking in public but following certain techniques will help you
improve your ability to discuss and present a text collectively:
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Reading groups: “discovering” theory does not have to be an individual task. Organizing a
reading session with one or more of your colleagues may in fact be a pleasurable and prolific
way to engage a given text and share the burden of interpretation.
Focusing on specific terms: depending on where your interests lie, you may want to track
how certain concepts and terms are differently deployed in the texts.
Keep notes as you read: these will help you formulate questions for discussion.
While it is useful to think about a question prior to coming to class, don’t wait for a fullyfledged idea before intervening.
Pay attention to the discussion and do not hesitate to build on someone else’s observations
or return to a point previously discussed.
Alternative views and disagreements are encouraged, provided the criticism is presented
with respect and a constructive spirit.
Always remember that there are no “wrong” comments.
NB: French speakers are encouraged to intervene and submit their assignments in French. A list of
reading resources in French is available below and will be placed on hold (reserved) in the library.
b) Presentation: theory through media (15%)
Once in the semester, students (in groups of 2 or 3) will present the texts for one class session
and lead the discussion. Rather than simply offering a summary of the text, students will be asked to
connect the readings to a media piece relevant to the readings (news article, short video, cartoon,
photo collection, or any other media). On Monday prior to the class, the group should email the
selected piece to the professor and teaching assistant, along with a brief explanation (no more than
one page) of the connections to the readings, as well as the strengths and limits of the theory to
account for the media selected or vice-versa.
The success of this presentation will depend on the novel and illuminating connections
established between the topic under discussion and the issues raised by the complementary media
chosen. This presentation is expected to help the class relate the readings to current events or
ground them in a given concept or theory in ethnographic and historical contexts. Students are
strongly encouraged to go beyond the mere rehearsal of course material and present the texts
creatively: how can theory inform the event / situation depicted? Conversely, how can a
contemporary media piece illuminate or help us better understand a theoretical text?
NB: Students should feel encouraged to share additional media examples in class, beyond their
allotted presentation slot. This will count towards the participation portion of the final grade.
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c) Critical reflections (1500 words) (55%)
Students will be asked to submit three short papers throughout the semester. These should
offer an argument by way of a critical interrogation of the texts. Your argument should be consistent
and persuasive, adequately supported with evidence from the text (quoted material should be
integrated into the text). You should display a clear grasp of the author’s main point(s), and
demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of the issues at hand by taking into account
possible counter-arguments.
Rather than offering a straightforward answer to an interpretive or conceptual problem, a good
paper is one which combines excellent writing skills (minimal to no typos, clear transitions and
structure, distinct authorial voice), cogency and originality of the argumentation, and the intellectual
risks taken.
To facilitate the task of engaging with the readings and devising your own argument, you may
frame each of your reflection papers around one of the following topics and concepts:
Society / Language / Meaning / Structure / Religion / Ritual / Symbol / Space / Time / Person /
Fieldwork / Change / Politics
These papers will be due on:
1st paper, Oct. 14 (on more than one author discussed between weeks 1-5)
2nd paper, Nov. 18 (on more than one author discussed between weeks 6-9)
3rd paper, Dec. 16 (on more than one author discussed between weeks 1013)
d) Free, Creative Writing (Blog posts) (15%)
Throughout the semester, students will be asked to submit short commentaries in the form of
a blog post (socialculturaltheory.wordpress.com). This assignment should help you exercise your
writing skills and critical engagement with the readings around a list of pre-selected topics to be
decided on in class. Unlike the reflection papers, we encourage personal, creative or polemical
writing, beyond the conventional canon of academic writing. Some blog entries (set to private) may
be selected on occasion for discussion in class. There will be no limit to the number of blog posts
submitted but there is a minimum of three posts in the semester.
PART I. THE MODERNIST PROJECT: FOUNDATIONS IN CULTURE AND SOCIETY
Week 1 (Sept. 16). INTRODUCTION, COURSE OVERVIEW
[What is theory for? Different modes of critique; Perception and apperception,
concrete and abstract; “Culture,” “habitus,” socially learned sensory conditioning
and reflexive thought]
Readings:
- Boas, Franz. 1889. “On Alternating Sounds” (1889), pp. 47-53.
- Mauss, Marcel. 1935. Techniques of the Body
- Bohannan, L. 1966. Shakespeare in the Bush. Natural History, 75(7), pp. 28-33
Week 2 (Sept. 23). MARX: THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
[“The Religion of Everyday Life”; production, commodity, fetishism; historical
consciousness; objectification, estrangement, alienation; Species being; Hegelian
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dialectic]
Readings [63 pages]:
- Marx, Theses on Feuerbach [3 pp]
- Marx, German Ideology, Part I (pp. 147-176 from Tucker’s The Marx-Engels Reader) [29 p.]
- Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (pp. 70-81; 86-93) [18 p.]
- Godelier, Maurice. Perspectives on Marxist Anthropology (chapter 6 “Market Economy and
Fetishism, Magic and Science According to Marx’ Capital”, pp. 152-165) [13p.]
Suggested:
- Marx, Karl: “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”; Capital (Chap. 1).
Week 3 (Sept. 30). DURKHEIM AND MAUSS: SOCIETY AND SOCIAL FACTS
[“The problem of knowledge is posed new terms:” what is society? L’Année
Sociologique; Collective consciousness and representations; communal
effervescence; Man as double; Social realism; religion as a social thing, sacred and
profane; Reciprocity, gift, debt; total social facts.]
Readings:
- Durkheim, Émile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Introduction; Conclusion III-IV), pp. 118; 433-448 [33 p.]
- Durkheim, Émile. The Rules of Sociological Method. 1966 [1895]. (ch. 1 “What Is a Social Fact?”),
pp. 50-59 [9 p.]
- Mauss, M. The Gift (Read as much as you can, but focus on pp. 1-46)
Suggested:
- Durkheim, Émile. The Division of Labour in Society (Introduction, Chapter 1 “The Method of
Determining this Function”), pp. 1-29 [29p.]
Week 4 (Oct. 7). WEBER: ACTION AND INTERPRETATION
[Subjective meaning, interpretive understanding, social action; ideal and pure types;
system of symbols, legitimacy, domination, charisma, routinization; explanation and
understanding]
Readings [70 p]:
- Weber, Max. Economy and Society: an Outline of Interpretive Sociology: “Basic Sociological
Terms,” pp. 4-28; “”Sociological Categories of Economic Action”: “The Definition of Sociology and of
Social Action”; “Types of Social Action”; “The Concept of Economic Action”, pp. 63-68
- Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences, “ ‘Objectivity’ in Social Science and Social
Policy”, [Focus on pp. 50-85]
Suggested:
- Weber, "Politics as a vocation," pp. 129-158
- Weber, The Types of Legitimate Domination, pp. 212-254
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PART II. STRUCTURALISM AND ITS LIMITS
**FIRST REFLECTION PAPER DUE**
Week 5 (Oct. 14). BRITISH STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONALISM
[Colonialism and Indirect rule; Ethnographic method; Kinship structures and jural
relationships; Function, lineage systems, and organic wholes]
Readings [48 p.]:
- Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1930. “Introduction: The Subject, Method and Scope of this Inquiry”,
Argonauts of the Western Pacific” (pp. 1-20).
- Radcliffe-Brown. 1952. Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Introduction; On the Concept of
Function in Social Science (pp. 1-14; 178-187)
- Lesser, Alexander. 1985. “Functionalism in Social Anthropology” in: Sidney Mintz (ed.) History,
Evolution, and the Concept of Culture: Selected Papers by Alexander Lesser, pp. 45-50
Suggested:
- Radcliffe-Brown, “Joking Relationships” in Structure and Function in Primitive Society
Week 6 (Oct. 21). MYTH, MIND, AND REASON
[Practical knowledge; Boasian Relativism and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis; Culture
and Personality; Unconscious and underlying formal systems of thought; Habitual
worlds and behavior, Context and Perspective]
Readings [68 p.]:
- E.E. Evans Pritchard. 1976. Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic (abridged edition). (Chapter 2, skim 7
and 8), pp. 18-32 [14p.]
- Levi-Strauss. 1963. Structural Anthropology ( “The Structural Study of Myth”) [16p.]
- Sapir, Edward. 1927. The Unconscious Patterning of Behavior in Society, in Language, Culture
and Society, pp. 29-42. [13p.]
- Whorf, Benjamin Lee, 1956 Language, Thought, and Reality. (“The Relation of Habitual Thought
and Behavior to Language”) pp. 134-159 [25p.]
Suggested:
- Ruth Benedict “Anthropology and the Abnormal” Journal of General Psychology 10, 1934, pp. 5982 [23p.]
- Barthes, Roland. 1972. Mythologies (“The World of Wrestling”, “The Great Family of Man”), pp. 1525; 100-102.
- Levi-Strauss, Savage Mind (“The Science of the Concrete”), pp. 1-33 [33p.]
- Freud, S. [1919]. “The ‘Uncanny’”, pp. 1-20 [20p.]
Week 7 (Oct. 28). RITUAL AND SYMBOLIC ANTHROPOLOGY
[“Webs of significance”; Rites of passage; liminality; patterns; culture as text; social
discourse; Interpretative anthropology; hermeneutics; symbolic and ritual action]
Readings [53p.]:
- Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (chap. 4, “Betwixt and Between”),
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pp. 93-111 [18p.]
- Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger (Introduction), pp. 1-8.
- Geertz, C. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures (“Thick Description”), pp. 3-30
Suggested:
- Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (“Symbols in Ndembu Ritual”)
- Van Gennep, Arnold [1902] The Rites of Passage, pp. 10-13, 15-25.
- Kelly, J. and M. Kaplan. 1990. “History, Structure, and Ritual”, Annual Review of Anthropology, 19,
pp. 119-150.
Week 8 (Nov. 4). LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE
[Signifier, signified; langue and parole; diachrony and synchrony; semiosis;
synchronic structures and historical change; linguistic value and arbitrary relations]
Readings [65 p.]:
- Saussure, Ferdinand [1915]. Course in General Linguistics, pp. 6-23, 65-83 [35 p.]
- Lévi-Strauss, “Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology”, Structural Anthropology [20 p.]
- Sahlins, M. 1981. Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities: Structure in the Early History of the
Sandwich Islands Kingdom, pp. 3-8, 67-72 [10 p.]
Suggested:
- Leach, E. (1964). Animal Categories and Verbal Abuse. In The Essential Edmund Leach, Vol. 1.
- Derrida, Jacques. 1978. “Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourses of the Human Sciences”, in
Writing and Difference, pp. 278-293.
Week 9 (Nov. 11). STRUCTURE IN MOTION: ORDER AND DISORDER
[Event, social situation; social systems and political theory; conflict functionalism and
rituals of rebellion; Manchester school;]
Readings [69 p.]:
- Meyer Fortes and E.E. Evans-Pritchard. 1940. “Introduction” in Meyer Fortes and E.E. EvansPritchard (eds.) African Political Systems. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-23
- Max Gluckman. “Analysis of a Social Situation in Modern Zululand” Bantu Studies 14, 1940, pp. 130.
- Leach, Edmund. 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma, Chapter 1 (pp. 1-17) [conclusion is
suggested reading: pp. 279-292].
Suggested:
- Barth, Fredrik. 1967. “On the Study of Social Change” American Anthropologist
PART III. LANGUAGE IN CULTURE, CULTURE IN PRACTICE
**SECOND REFLECTION PAPER DUE**
Week 10 (Nov. 18). SIGN AND MEANING
[Sign, Object, Interpretant; Semiotic Interactional events; Speech events; Framing;
Positionality, Denotation; Icon, Index, Symbol; pragmatics and metapragmatics]
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Readings [58 p.]:
- Peirce, Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs [22 p.]
- Goffman, Ervin. “Footing”, in Forms of Talk. [30 p.]
- Keane, W. 2003. “Semiotics and the Social Analysis of Material Things.” [16 p.]
Suggested:
- Austin, J. L., 1962. How to do things with Words (Lecture 1, pp. 1-11)
- Silverstein, Michael. 2004, “’Cultural’ Concepts and the Language-Culture Nexus”, Current
Anthropology, 45:5, pp. 621-652.
Week 11 (Nov. 25). CULTURE IN PRACTICE
[Action and value, intersubjective space-time; Change and value transformations;
objective and embodied structures; tactics; space and language; Intention and
motivation]
Readings [76 p.]:
- De Certeau, M. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life (Intro, Ch. 1, 7), pp. 1-15, 91-111 [35 p.]
- Munn, Nancy. 1986. The Fame of Gawa, Chapters 1, 3 (pp. 3-20; 49-73) [41 p.]
Suggested:
- Graeber, David. Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value (Value as the Importance of Actions),
pp. 49-90.
- Bourdieu, P. 1970. The Logic of Practice (The Kabyle House), pp. 271-283.
- Ortner, Sherry. 1984. “Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties”, Comparative Studies in Society
and History, 26:1, pp. 126-166 (read 144-160) [16p.]
Week 12 (Dec. 2). GENDER AND PERFORMANCE
[Embodiment, sexuality, politics of representation; sex and gender performativity;
structures of domination, normalized bodies, hybrid identities]
Readings [71 p.]:
- Scott, Joan W. 1999. “Gender: A useful category of historical Analysis”, in Gender and the Politics
of History, pp. 28-50
- Haraway, Donna. “Situated Knowledges: The Science question in feminism and the privilege of
partial perspective”, in Symians, Cyborgs, and Women, pp. 183-201
- Morris, Rosalind. 1995. “All Made Up: Performance Theory and the New Anthropology of Sex and
Gender” Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 567-92.
Suggested:
- Scott, Joan. 1991. The Evidence of Experience, Critical Inquiry, 17:4, pp. 773-797.
- Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies that Matter: on the discursive limits of “sex”, pp. 1-55
- Bauman, R. and C. L. Briggs. 1990. “Poetics and Performance as Critical Perspectives on
Language and Social Life,” Annual Review of Anthropology, 19:59-88.
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Week 13 (Dec. 9). HEGEMONY, HISTORY, CONSCIOUSNESS
[Ideology and Praxis; Resistance and the return of the repressed? Class
consciousness; unthinkability; Historical narrative and the production of history]
Readings:
- Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks (pp. 3-14; 52-55; 321-343)
- Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. 1995. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Chapter 1,
3), pp. 1-30; 70-107
- Comaroff, Jean and John Comaroff. Of Revelation and Revolution. Christianity, Colonialism, and
Consciousness in South Africa, Vol. 1, pp. 13-32
Suggested:
- Cohn, Bernard. 1985. “The Command of Language and the Language of Command” in Colonialism
and its Forms of Knowledge.
- Hall, Stuart. 1996. Gramsci’s Relevance for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, in Critical
Dialogues in Cultural Studies.
- Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style (Selections)
**THIRD REFLECTION PAPER DUE**
Week 14 (Dec. 16). THEORY AND ETHNOGRAPHY
Suggested:
- Ferguson, J and Akhil Gupta. 2002. Spatializing States: Toward an ethnography of neoliberal
governmentality. American Ethnologist, pp. 981-1002.
- Appadurai, A. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” 1990. Public Culture 2,
pp. 1-24
- Tsing, A. Friction. An Ethnography of Global Connection (Introduction)
- Comaroff, J & J. L. 2003. “Ethnography on an Awkward Scale: Postcolonial Anthropology and
the Violence of Abstraction.” Ethnography 4:2, pp. 147-179. [32p.]
Reading Resources in French:
- Barthes, R. (2015). Mythologies. Seuil.
- Bourdieu, Pierre, et al. Le sens pratique. Ed. de minuit, 1980.
- Derrida, J. (1967). L'écriture et la différence (Vol. 100). Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
- Durkheim, E. (1893). De la division du travail social. Paris : PUF, 2007
- Durkheim, E. (2004). Les Règles de la méthode sociologique. Paris, Presses universitaires de
France.
- Durkheim, E., (1968). Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse. Paris : Presses universitaires
de France.
- Godelier, M. (1977). Économie marchande, fétichisme, magie et science selon Marx dans Le
Capital. M. Godelier, Horizon, trajets marxistes en anthropologie, 2, 201-224. Paris : F. Mespero
- Lévi-Strauss, Claude.1973. Anthropologie structurale Paris ; Plon
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