Cultural Anthropology: An Introduction
Fall Semester 2007
Bob Jones, Instructor

Course Description:

Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human. It is the study of the variety of human cultures in different environmental, political and historical contexts. It is all too common to experience instances of shock, puzzlement, confusion, or disapproval when confronted by different customs and practices of people who do not share our own culture. Curiosity is often the result of that experience, and anthropology is the means by which we can explore that curiosity. Each culture has a different pattern to deal with the basic events and challenges of life. This pattern includes things like language, economic system, family and kinship, religion, and social institutions. Cultures, however, are not static and change with time and through borrowing from other cultures. Cultural anthropologists have developed theories of culture and research methodologies to study different cultures, and through these we become aware of our own unique cultural patterns and those of others, how our own patterns shape our experiences and world view, and help us to understand and interact with other cultures. This course surveys basic concepts and research methods in the context of world cultures, and allows us to consider the increasingly multicultural, transnational and globally connected mode3rn world. The course consists of lectures, group activities, field trips and ethnographic projects, films and slide presentations, readings and discussions.

Required Texts:

John Monaghan and Peter Just. Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: 2000.

Marvin Harris. Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddle of Cultures. Vintage: 1989.

Other required texts and articles will be assigned during the semester.

Additional Anthropological Readings

Culture:

“Coping with Culture Clash” AE 04/05

“Lessons from the Field” AE 07/08

Excerpt from The Unredeemed Captive, pp. 140-166.

Narrative Ethnography

Excerpt, The House of Lim, Chapter 1.

“Among the Kazakhs of Xinjiang” The Silk Road, pp.49-53.

Marriage and Kinship

“The Visit” AE 04/05

Religious Belief

“Baseball Magic” AE 07/08

Ethnographic Project

The ethnographic project will give you a chance for hands-on experience in anthropology. The general objective is to apply tools anthropologists typically use when gathering research materials (interviews, participant observation, background reading) to develop your own anthropological insights. There will be one of these assignments, worth 20% of your grade. The grading will be based on how well you meet assignment objectives, which will ask you to examine elements of your own culture, as well as those of others.

What is ethnography? It is “the documenting and analysis of a particular culture through field research.” By the end of the semester, each student will have completed a short ethnographic project, based upon field research in the community. The final product will be in the form of a written “narrative ethnography”, a video film, or other visual presentation.

As we learn about the ethnographic process, we will begin to focus on possible subject matter, which may include the material culture, social life, festivals, holidays, religion, or other cultural phenomenon of native or emigrant groups in the Louisville community. An emigrant family, the culture of a fellow student, the community center for a local ethnic or cultural group, or other group that represents a culture that is different than your own.

Field work consists of interviewing, listening to and observing people in their cultural and social settings, as well as doing background reading and research. The end product should be a narrative description of the target group, with some analysis of how their culture functions in the context of their community.

As we learn more about anthropology, you should become more focused on individual field work topics, and how to go about gaining ethnographic information. Among the topics which we will spend much of our time studying are:

·  Family and Kinship

·  Descent systems

·  Belief systems

·  Identity

·  Arts and crafts

Grading Scale

Quizzes 30%

Final Exam 20%

Group project 20%

Individual project 20%

Participation 10%

Monthly Course Schedule

August and September: What is “anthropology” and “ethnography”? What do we mean by “culture” and “society”?

October

Marriage and kinship. Caste, class, tribe, nation. The “stuff” of culture.

November

Gods, ghosts and ancestors. Cultural, social and personal identity.

December

Ethnographic project work due. Final Exam.

3