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ANTHROPOLOGY 104
LIFEWAYS IN DIFFERENT CULTURES:
A SURVEY OF WORLD SOCIETIES
Professor Paul E. BrodwinFall, 2017
Dept. of Anthropology, UW-Milwaukee, Sabin Hall room
Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 11-12, and by appointment229-4734
Encounters with cultural difference are a daily fact of life in the United States and throughout the world. This course teaches scholarly, evidence-based ways to understand such differences. We will explore several questions:
What does “culture” mean?
What types of “cultural knowledge” emerge and circulate in diverse societies?
How do cultural meanings influence personal experience?
How do they help enforce the dominant social order?
How do people accept, criticize, or transform the social order?
The course introduces the fundamental outlook of cultural anthropology. We will learn how to think like an anthropologist by reading ethnographies: reports of intensive long-term fieldwork or “participant-observation” research in single communities. We will study how anthropologists examine the insiders’ point of view, build cross-cultural understanding, and apply it to real world problems. We will also discuss some key theories in contemporary anthropology about relativism, group identity, global inequality, and the cultural shaping of individual lives.
The course features three in-depth case-studieson the following topics:
* the cultural meanings of sexuality and gender across the globe
* migration and identity on the US/Mexico borderlands
* addiction and the life of street drug users in the United States
Each of these books describes a single community and a handful of individuals, but places them in the context of larger cultural, historical and political forces. We will learn how to read these research reports and to identify the authors’ main arguments. We will learn how the comparative approach of anthropology helps to illuminate our own society and its challenges. This course encourages the close reading of texts and active in-class discussion. We will spend most class time discussing, criticizing and comparing the readings. Please complete the assigned material before class and come with your questions and insights about the readings.
The books and articles may be controversial. They document unfamiliar beliefs, rituals, and ways of life. You do not need to agree with the authors’ conclusions or these ways of life. But you must respect the opinions of other students and the professor. You must also learn scholarly ways to evaluate the authors’ arguments. If you have critiques, you must base them on published data and analysis, not just your personal opinion. Our only goal is to understand, as students of social science, the complexity of human cultural arrangements around the world.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Prerequisites: None.
2. Attendance: Attendance is mandatory.
3. Readings: You must complete assigned readings by the start of class. Please highlight and underline the books as you read them, and take notes as you listen to class discussions and lectures.
There is one required course reader for purchase at Clark Graphics, 2915 N. Oakland, 962-4633. (Request it by the course number and my name.) A copy of the sourcebook is also on “honors reserve” in Sabin 315.
There are four required books (listed below in the order we will read them). Note: You may buy any edition, new or used. Books are for sale through uwm.ecampus.com (and other on-line vendors)and on reserve at the UWM library.
Serena NANDA: Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations (Waveland Press)
ISBN 978-1-57766-074-3
Leo CHAVEZ: Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society (Wadsworth/Thomsen Learning)
ISBN 978-0-1550-8089-8
Irene GLASSER: Anthropology of Addictions and Recovery (Waveland Press)
ISBN 978-1-57766-558-8
Merrill SINGER: The Face of Social Suffering: The Life History of a Street Drug Addict (Waveland Press)
ISBN 978-1-57766-432-1
4. Grading:
1stIn-class examination 20%
2nd In-class examination 20%
Small group responses
3 points each x 10 responses 30%
Final examination + 30%
Total: 100%
During class, students in groups of 5 will jointly write a short response to a prompt given during lecture. Each response will be 1-3 paragraphs long and signed by all the members of the group.
Your letter grade is based on your numeric grade (out of a possible 100 points): 70 to 73.3 = C-, 73.4 to 76.6 = C, 76.7 to 79.9 = C+, There is no pre-set percentage for class participation. However, active and informed discussion will usually raise your grade.
All examinations must be taken in class, on the date stated in the syllabus. Make-ups and extensions will be granted only for documented emergency situations and must be arranged prior to the stated date of the exam. Any person not making prior arrangements will automatically be given a failing grade (zero points). Any extension must be negotiated personally with the professor (not the TA), at least one week before the due date. Academic misconduct -- including plagiarism -- will not be tolerated. If instances of academic misconduct are detected or suspected, action will be taken in accordance with written university policies. Plagiarism will result in a grade of zero points for the entire assignment. For further rights and responsibilities as a student, please consult
Please do not read or send text messages during class. Place your phone on mute, vibrate or airport mode. Personal computers are allowed only for taking notes. Any use of computers for other purposes (consulting email or websites) will lead to a ban on all computers in the classroom.
DISCUSSION TOPICS AND READINGS
Section I: The background and basic questions of cultural anthropology
Sept. 5Introduction to course
The three sub-fields of anthropology, Cultural difference in everyday life
Why compare cultures?
Sept. 7 The anthropological view of culture
READINGS:Ferraro: Introduction (in Sourcebook)
Miner: Body ritual among the Nacirema (in Sourcebook)
Keesing: Not a real fish: the ethnographer as insider… (in Sourcebook)
NOTE: Readings for week one are also on D2L course website
Sept. 12Cultural relativism: how much do marriage and parenthood vary?
READINGS: Nanda: Arranging a marriage in India (in Sourcebook)
Scheper-Hughes: Death without weeping (in Sourcebook)
Section II: Cultural shaping of gender and sexuality
Sept. 14Men, women and power: cross-cultural comparisons
READINGS: Freidel: Society and sex roles(in Sourcebook)
Shostak: Women and men in !Kung society(in Sourcebook)
** Small group exercise **
Sept. 19Basic definitions of sexuality and gender diversity, and case study
READINGS: Nanda, Gender Diversity: Preface, Introduction, & Chapter 1
Sept. 21A “third sex” in India
READINGS: Nanda, Gender Diversity: Chapter 2
** Small group exercise **
Sept. 26Masculinity, gender roles and religion in Brazil
READINGS: Nanda, Gender Diversity: Chapter 3
Sept. 28Transgendered males and beauty contests in southeast Asia
READINGS: Nanda, Gender Diversity: Chapter 4
** Small group exercise **
Oct. 3Mirrors of ourselves: Gender diversity in Euro-American societies
READINGS: Nanda, Gender Diversity: Chapters 6-7
Oct. 5 IN-CLASS EXAMINATIONDefinitions and short essays, covering material from Sept 5 to Oct 3
Section III: Lives across borders: social control and cultural identity
Oct. 10Globalization and migration
READINGS: Spradley and McCurdy: Globalization (in Sourcebook)
Richerson and Boyd: Migration: an engine for social change (in Sourcebook)
Shandy: The road to refugee resettlement (in Sourcebook)
Oct. 12General background to anthropology of US/Mexico migration
READINGS: Chavez, Shadowed Lives: Forward, Preface, Introduction, & Chapter 1
** Small group exercise **
Oct. 17Motives and strategies for migration
READINGS: Chavez, Shadowed Lives: Chapter 2 (skim) and 3
Oct. 19Social adaptations of undocumented migrants
READINGS: Chavez, Shadowed Lives: Chapter 4
** Small group exercise **
Oct. 24Shifting perspectives on marginality and incorporation
READINGS: Chavez, Shadowed Lives: Chapters 5-6
Oct. 26The personal experience of migrants
READINGS: Chavez, Shadowed Lives: Chapter 9
** Small group exercise **
Oct. 31Incorporation and marginality: general discussion of Chavez
READINGS: Chavez,Shadowed Lives: Chapter 10
Nov. 2 IN-CLASS EXAMINATION Definitions and short essays, covering material from Oct 10 to Nov 2
Section IV: Addiction, recovery, social class and culture
Nov. 7Cultural categories and “addiction”
READINGS: Glassser,Anthro of Addictions: chapter 1
Nov. 9Alcohol, culture and community
READINGS: Glassser,Anthro of Addictions: chapter 2
** Small group exercise **
Nov. 14Mind-altering drugs across cultures
READINGS: Glassser, Anthro of Addictions: chapter 4
Nov. 16Recovery in cross-cultural perspective
READINGS: Glassser, Anthro of Addictions: chapters 5-6
** Small group exercise **
Nov. 21Life history as an anthropological method
READINGS: Singer, The Face of Social Suffering: chapter 1
Nov. 23 Thanksgiving holiday. No class
Nov. 28The weight of family history
READINGS: Singer, The Face of Social Suffering: chapter 2
Nov. 30The “social career” of a street drug user
READINGS: Singer, The Face of Social Suffering: chapter 3
** Small group exercise **
Dec. 5The culture of urban gangs and drug-dealing
READINGS: Singer, The Face of Social Suffering: chapter 4
Dec. 7The culture of urban gangs and drug-dealing
READINGS: Singer, The Face of Social Suffering: chapter 5
** Small group exercise **
Dec. 12The culture of urban gangs and drug-dealing
READINGS: Singer, The Face of Social Suffering: chapter 6
Dec. 14Summing up: culture, social structure, and individual agency
READINGS: Singer, The Face of Social Suffering: chapter 8
FINAL EXAMINATION 10 am to 12 noon, Tuesday, December 19
Definitions and short essays, covering material from the entire semester
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
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Background and basic method of cultural anthropology
I. To make the familiar, strange; and the strange, familiar
- attributed to Novalis (1772-1801)
2. Anthropology is “the comprehension of the self by the detour of the comprehension of the other.”
- Paul Ricoeur, quoted in Paul Rabinow: Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco. Berkeley: University of California Press 1977, p. 5