ANTH 104
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Spring 2006
M/Th 9:50-11:00, PNE 139
Gregory Ruf
Visiting Associate Professor
PNE 346
Office Hours: M/Th 11:00-1:00 (and by appointment)
Email: gruf@wellesley.edu
Course Description: This course offers a comparative approach to the concept of culture and
an analysis of how culture structures the worlds in which we live. It examines human societies
from their beginnings to the postindustrial age, and considers the development of various forms
of social organization and their significance for family and kinship, economics, politics, and
religion.
Required Readings: The following books have been ordered through the Wellesley College
bookstore:
• Richard Klein and Blake Edgar, 2002, The Dawn of Human Culture, NY: John
Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-25252-2 (cloth) [$28] [GN281 .K548 2002] (also available
in E-Book format)
• Richard Lee, 2002, The Dobe Ju/’Hoansi, 3rd ed., Ontario: Wadsworth, ISBN 0-15506333-2 (pbk) [$26] [DT1058.K86 L44 2003]
• Sidney Mintz, 1985, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern
History, NY: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-009233-1 [$13.95] [GT2869 .M56 1985]
• Yolanda Murphy & Robert Murphy, 2004, Women of the Forest, NY: Columbia
University Press, ISBN 0-231-13233-6 (pbk) [$25] [F2520.1.M8 M83 1985]
• Margery Wolf, 1960, The House of Lim: A Study of a Chinese Farm Family.
Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-394973-7 (pbk) [$16] [HQ668.95 .W63]
• Kirk Endicott and Robert Welsch (eds.), 2004, Taking Sides: Clashing Views on
Controversial Issues in Anthropology, 3rd edition, Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill.
ISBN 0-07-310202-4 (pbk) [$25]
Evaluation and Grading: Class sessions will entail a lecture component combined with
discussion of assigned readings. Regular attendance is expected of all participants; absences will
be excused (or extensions granted) only in special circumstance, judged in conformity with
College practice. Assigned readings must be completed prior to class-time, and each student
should prepare notes and questions for discussion. Course grades will be based on the following
criteria:
• Participation = 15%
• 3 Short Papers (~5-7 pages each) = 20% each
• a series of in-class Quizzes = 25%
Details regarding assessment exercises will be announced at appropriate junctures of the course.
Please Note:
Students with disabilities who are taking this course and who need disability-related
accommodations are encouraged to work with Barbara Boger, the Director of Programs of the
Pforzheimer Learning and Teaching Center (if you have learning or attention disabilities), and Jim
Wice, the Director of Disability Services (if you have a physical disability or are uncertain) to
arrange these accommodations. Their offices are located in the Pforzheimer Learning and
Teaching Center in Clapp Library.
Recommended Resources:
This course does not employ a formal introductory ‘textbook,’ although students are encouraged
to consult such texts on their own initiative throughout the semester as a supplement to lectures
and discussion. Moreover, there are now a large number of anthropologically-related websites
accessible on the internet. NB: Not all sites are created equal; some contain accurate data, but
others may not; browse sensibly.
Here are a few suggested starting places for those looking to learn more:
•
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) offers a number of useful links to web-based
resources: http://www.aaanet.org/resinet.htm
•
McGraw-Hill publishers maintains an on-line learning center based on Conrad Kottack’s
introductory textbook, Cultural Anthropology: http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0072500506/student_view0/
•
The University of Manitoba offers an web-based tutorial on kinship systems:
http://www.umanitoba.ca/anthropology/kintitle.html
•
Dennis O’Neil of Palomar College offers several helpful on-line tutorials for students of
anthropology: http://anthro.palomar.edu/tutorials/. For his suggested anthropology links, see:
http://www.palomar.edu/anthropology/#Anthropology%20Web%20Links
•
Human Evolution and Archaeology http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/index.html
•
Arizona State University’s Institute for Human Origins http://www.becominghuman.org/
•
Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History website on Human Origins
http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/
•
University of California at Berkeley’s Museum of Paleontology http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/
•
Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/
•
Prehistoric (including Paleolithic and Neolithic) Art:
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHprehistoric.html
•
Alan Petersen’s Stone Age art images:
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/apetersen/_ART201/stoneage.htm
•
National Geographic’s Hominid Family Photo Album:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/outpost/ax/metacontent_fs.html?interpret_f1_fs
Course Outline
PART I: Culture and Evolution
Week 1
Monday, Jan. 30 – Introducing Anthropology: The Ethnographic Looking-Glass
Read:
• Horace Minor, 1956, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,” American Anthropologist 58:3
(http://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html)
Thursday, Feb. 2 – What Makes Us Human?
Read:
• Klein and Edgar, “Dawn at Twilight Cave” & “Nature or Nurture Before the Dawn” (in The
Dawn of Human Culture), pp. 11-27 & 257-277
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 9 (Science)
Recommended:
• Richard Leakey, 1994, “The Language of Art,” in The Origin of Humankind, NY: Basic Books,
pp. 101-118.
• Chauvet Pont-D’Arc (France): http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/
Week 2
Monday, Feb. 6 – Evolutionary Theory
Read:
• Ian Tattersall, 1998, “Evolution: For What?” in Becoming Human: Evolution and Human
Uniqueness, NY: Harcourt Brace, pp. 78-108.
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 1 (Race)
Recommended:
• Frans de Waal, 1996, “Darwinian Dilemmas,” in Good Natured: The Origins of Right and
Wrong in Humans and Other Animals, Cambridge: Harvard, pp. 6-24.
Thursday, Feb. 9 – Early Human Origins
Read:
• Klein and Edgar, “Bipedal Apes” and “The World’s Oldest Whodunit” (in The Dawn), pp. 2961 and 63-89.
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 2 (Violence)
Recommended:
• Ian Tattersall, 1998, “Starting Out” in Becoming Human, op cit., pp. 109-134.
• Richard Leakey, 1994, “The First Humans,” in The Origin of Humankind, op cit., pp. 1-20.
• Alan Walker & Pat Shipman, 1997, Wisdom of the Bones, Vintage.
Week 3
Monday, Feb 13 – Dispersal & Proliferation
Read:
• Klein and Edgar, “The First True Humans” and “Humanity Branches Out” and “Neanderthals
Out on a Limb” (in The Dawn), pp. 91-131, 133-167, and 169-215.
• Morwood, M.J., et al, “Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores in eastern
Indonesia,” Nature 431 (Oct 2004):1087-91 [JSTOR]
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 3 (Neandertals)
Recommended:
• Ian Tattersall, 1998, “Becoming Human” in Becoming Human, op cit., pp. 135-187.
• Richard Leakey, 1994, “A Crowded Family” and “A Different Kind of Human,” in The Origin of
Humankind, op cit., pp. 21-41 and 42-58.
• M. Ingman, et al., 2000, “Mitochondrial Genome Variation and the Origin of Modern
Humans,” Nature 408:708-713 [JSTOR]
•
•
•
Lindell Bromham et al., 2003, “Mitochondrial Steve: Paternal Inheritance of Mitochondria in
Humans,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18(1):2-4 [JSTOR]
Flores Man Special -- http://www.nature.com/news/specials/flores/index.html
National Geographic website on Flores finds:
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0504/feature1/index.html
Thursday, Feb 16 – Anatomy, Language, & Consciousness
Read:
• Klein and Edgar, “Body Before Behavior” (in The Dawn), pp. 217-255.
• Ian Tattersall, 1998, “Being Human,” in Becoming Human, op cit., pp. 188-235.
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 8 (Cognition)
Recommended:
• Richard Leakey, 1994, “The Art of Language” and “The Origin of Mind,” in The Origin of
Humankind, op cit., pp. 119-157.
• Alison Jolly, 1999, Lucy’s Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution, Harvard.
• Daniel Dennett, 1991, Consciousness Explained, Boston: Little, Brown.
Week 4
Monday, Feb 20 – No Classes – Presidents’ Day
Thursday, Feb 23 – Culture, ‘Human Nature,’ & Primate Behavior
Read:
• Frans de Waal, 1996, “Getting Along,” in Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in
Humans and Other Animals, Cambridge: Harvard, pp. 163-200.
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 7 (Apes)
Recommended:
• Ian Tattersall, 1998, “The Brain and Intelligence: Humans and Apes,” in Becoming Human,
op cit., pp. 30-77.
• Frans de Waal (ed.), 2001, Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior can tell us about Human
Social Evolution, Harvard.
• Frans de Waal, 2001, The Ape and the Sushi Master, NY: Basic Books
PART II: Culture and Society
Week 5
Monday, Feb 27 – Human Communities of the Late Pleistocene -- Paper 1 DUE
Read:
• Mithen, 2004, After the Ice: A Global Human History, 20,000-5000 BC, Cambridge: Harvard,
Chs. 2 (pp. 8-16); 3-6 (pp. 20-54); 25 (pp. 229-235); 37 (pp. 337-347)
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 4 (New World)
Recommended:
• Marshall Sahlins, “The Original Affluent Society,” in Stone Age Economics, REF (online version
available at
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:Xf9oEmP6E34J:puredebt.com/Sa
hlins.pdf+original+affluent+society
Thursday, Mar 2 – Neolithic Revolutions
Read:
• Mithen, After the Ice, Chs. 7-9 (pp. 56-79); 30 (pp. 274-285); 39 (pp. 359-369); 51-52 (pp.
490-503)
• Kent Flannery, 1965, “The Ecology of Early Food Production in Mesopotamia,” Science
147:1247-1256 (reprinted in A. Vayda (ed.), 1969, Environment & Cultural Behavior:
Ecological Studies in Cultural Anthropology, Garden City: Natural History Press, pp. 283307 [Clapp GF51 .V35])
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 6 (Cannibalism)
Recommended:
• Melinda Zeder, 1994, “After the Revolution: Post-Neolithic Subsistence in Northern
Mesopotamia,” American Anthropologist 96(1):97-126 [JSTOR]
Week 6
Monday, Mar 6 – Field Orientations & Paradigmatic Perspectives
Read:
• Lee, Chs. 1-2
• Murphy & Murphy, Ch. 3
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 10 (Samoa)
Thursday, Mar 9 -- Ecology & Subsistence
Read:
• Lee, Chs. 3-4
• Murphy & Murphy, Chs. 1-2
• Wolf, Chs. 1-2
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 13 (San)
Week 7
Monday, Mar 13 – Exchange & Reciprocity
Read:
• Susan Kent, 1993, “Sharing in an Egalitarian Kalahari Community,” Man 78(3):479-514
[JSTOR]
• Lee, Appendix A: “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari” (orig. Natural History December 1969
[JSTOR])
Recommended:
• Yunxiang Yan, 1996, The Flow of Gifts: Reciprocity & Social Networks in a Chinese Village,
Stanford.
• Janet Carsten, 1997, The Heat of the Hearth: The Process of Kinship in a Malay Fishing
Community, Oxford
Thursday, Mar 16 -- Film: < N!ai – Story of a !Kung Woman >
Recommended:
• Marjorie Shoshtak, 2000 [1981], Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, Harvard
• Marjorie Shoshtak, 2000, Return to Nisa, Harvard
* SPRING BREAK * [Sat 3/18 thru Sun 3/26]
Monday, Mar 27 – Kinship & Descent
Read:
• Lee, Ch. 5
• Murphy & Murphy, Ch. 4
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 12 (Adoption)
Week 8
Thursday, Mar 30 – Residency & Domestic Groups
Read:
• Murphy & Murphy, Ch. 6
• Wolf, Chs. 3-4
Recommended:
• Robert Murphy, 1956, “Matrilocality and Patrilineality in Mundurucu Society,” American
Anthropologist 3:414-434 [JSTOR]
Monday, Apr 3 -- Marriage & Affinity I
Read:
• Lee, Ch. 6
• Murphy & Murphy, Ch. 7
Week 9
Thursday, Apr 6 – Marriage & Affinity II
Read:
• Wolf, Chs. 6-10
Recommended:
• Rubie Watson, 1981, “Class Differences and Affinal Relations in South China,” Man (ns)
16(4):593-614 [JSTOR]
• Linda Stone and Caroline James, 1995, "Dowry, Bride-Burning, and Female Power in India,"
Women’s Studies International Forum 18(2):125-43 [JSTOR]
Week 10
Monday, Apr 10 – Family, Gender, & Personhood
Read:
• Lee, Ch. 7
• Murphy & Murphy, Ch. 9
• Wolf, Chs. 11-12
Recommended:
• Rubie Watson, 1986, “The Named and the Nameless: Gender and Person in Chinese Society,”
American Ethnologist 13(4):619-631 [JSTOR]
• David Gilmore, 1987, “Machismo,” in Aggression and Community: Paradoxes of Andalusian
Culture, New Haven: Yale, pp. 126-153 [HN590.A5 G55 1987]
• Thomas Gregor, 1987, Anxious Pleasures: The Sexual Lives of an Amazonian People, Chicago
[F2520.1.M44 G725 1985]
Thursday, Apr 13 -- Film: < Small Happiness >
Week 11
Monday, Apr 17 -- NO CLASSES PATRIOTS DAY
Tuesday, Apr 18 -- MONDAY SCHEDULE -- Political Organization
Read:
• Lee, Ch. 8
• Marshal Sahlins, 1963, “Poor Man, Rich Man, Big Man, Chief: Political Types in Melanesia and
Polynesia,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 5(3):285-303 [JSTOR]
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 5 (Matriarchy)
Recommended:
• Richard Lee, 1982, “Politics, Sexual and non-Sexual, in an Egalitarian Society,” in Politics and
History in Band Societies, Cambridge, pp. 37-59 [ILL]
• Maria Lepowsky, 1990, “Gender in an Egalitarian Society: A Case Study from the Coral Sea,”
in P. R. Sanday and R. G. Goodenough (eds.), Beyond the Second Sex, Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania, pp. 171-223 [GN479.7 .B48 1990]
Thursday, Apr 20 – Film: < The Feast &/or The Ax Fight > – Paper 2 DUE
Recommended:
• Napoleon Chagnon, 1997, Yanomamö, 5th Edition, Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace
• There are numerous websites with information pertaining to the Yanomami of lowland South
America. For a relevant site with an anthropological tutorial case-study, visit
http://www.umanitoba.ca/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/yanomamo/; See also
‘Understanding the Ax Fight’ http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/projects/axfight/
Week 12
Monday, Apr 24 – Symbolism, Ritual, & Myth
Read:
• Murphy & Murphy, Ch. 5
• Kertzer, David, 1988, “Virtues of Ambiguity,” in Ritual, Politics, and Power, New Haven: Yale,
pp. 57-76 [GN492.3 .K47 1988]
• Alan Dundes, 1978, “Into the Endzone for a Touchdown: A Psychoanalytic Consideration of
American Football,” Western Folklore 37(2):75-88 [JSTOR]
Recommended:
• Turner, Victor, 1967, “Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites of Passage,” and
“Symbols in Ndembu Ritual,” in Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual, Cornell
[DT963.42 .T8]
Thursday, Apr 27 – Religion and Magic
Read:
• Lee, Chs. 9
• Endicott & Welsch, Issue 14 (Illness)
• George Gmelch, “Baseball Magic” http://www.dushkin.com/text-data/articles/27128/body.pdf
Week 13
Monday, May 1 -- Development, Global Capitalism, and Environmental Change
Read:
• Lee, Chs. 10-12
• Murphy & Murphy, Ch. 8
• Paul Farmer, 2004, Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the
Poor, California, Ch.1 (“On Suffering and Structural Violence: Social and Economic Rights
in the Global Era”): http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9875/9875.ch01.html
Recommended:
• Brosius, Peter, 1997, “Endangered People, Endangered Forests: Environmentalist
Representations of Local Knowledge,” Human Ecology 25(1):47-69 [JSTOR]
• S. Brian Burkhalter & Robert Murphy, 1989, “Tappers and Sappers: Rubber, Gold and Money
among the Mundurucu,” American Ethnologist 16(1):100-116 [JSTOR]
Thursday, May 4 -- Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism
Read:
• Lee Ch. 13
• Endicott & Welsch, Issues 11 (Tradition) and 15 (Ethnic Conflict)
• Mintz, Sweetness & Power, Intro + Chs. 1-2 [GT2869 .M56 1985]
Week 14
Monday, May 8 -- Concluding Discussion: Modern World System
Read:
• Mintz, Sweetness & Power, Chs. 3-5
• Endicott & Welsch, Issues 16-18 (Ethics)
Paper 3 DUE – Wednesday, 10 May 2005