CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY



CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY ANT 3305 SPR 2005

GARRETT COOK DRAPER 318A 710- 4433

OFFICE HOURS T, W and Th 11-2

e-mail Garrett_Cook@baylor.edu

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SYLLABUS AND PROSPECTUS

I. INTRODUCTION

Cultural Anthropology is a nineteenth century invention of European and Euro-American culture, an institution which arose in order to classify, explain and often to aid in the management of the diverse tribal and peasant societies which were confronted and radically affected by colonialism. Most anthropologists, much like captain Kirk and Mr. Spock (please don’t be put off by this antiquated reference), subscribed in theory to a prime directive of non-interference in alien cultures, but like Kirk and Spock they were frequently caught up in processes in which local and previously isolated communities were suddenly affected by the economic and political expansion of THE FEDERATION. Anthropologists thus became cultural brokers, mediators of culture contact and culture change, rather than simply being observers and documentors of static isolated cultures. Anthropologists have witnessed and documented dramatic confrontations between cultures, and the major transformations in ways of life which have been caused by these confrontations. Cultural anthropology seeks to comprehend the processes of culture change and intercultural dynamics.

Yet, as anthropologists personally encountered peoples and cultures vastly different from their own, additional purposes, purposes often at odds with the original scientific and colonialist missions of the 19th century, developed. These new purposes have led to attempts to act as translators of cultural realities, as appreciators and sometimes as evangelists for the world views or institutions of non-western cultures, as advocates for often disenfranchised "natives," documentors of the intercultural context and experience and ultimately as quasi-outsider interpreters and critics of their home societies and cultures.

Two contending traditions then have co-existed within anthropology from its inception- a scientific school which sees the study of culture as a branch of natural history and seeks to formulate the laws of cultural behavior and human nature (eg. Leslie White) and a literary or humanities school which sees the study of culture as comparative philosophy, comparative literature or even as a specialized form of literary criticism in which cultures are understood as "texts" (eg. Clifford Geertz). Recently, as part of an intellectual movement in the humanities known as post-modernism, and encouraged by the development of an academic discipline called cultural studies, which largely focuses analysis on popular culture and media in the United States, the literary school has enjoyed a period of ascendancy and the goal of studying other cultures has often been the construction of explicit critiques of authority, power and exploitation. We will investigate all these perspectives, but our focus will be on the limited issue of how to describe and interpret cultures.

This course will provide you with a rich understanding of the development of the study of culture, of the findings of cultural anthropology about cultural diversity, and, I hope, with a genuine appreciation for the difficulties, challenges and excitement of studying culture. It will provide you with some key experiences in careful, critical analytical reading, in understanding and evaluating intellectual controversies, in observing, investigating and describing cultural phenomena, in reflective self-conscious analysis of your own responses to field work, other cultures and project team participation, and in utilizing controlled comparisons to analyze institutions in cross cultural contexts.

Books to Purchase:

Asking and Listening Paul Bohannon and Dirk van der Elst Waveland 1998

Bridges to Humanity Bruce Grindal and Frank Salamone Waveland 1995

Distant Mirrors Philip DeVita and James D. Armstrong West/Wadsworth 2002

Annual Editions Anthropology Elvio Angeloni Dushkin/McGraw Hill

Field Ethnography Paul Kutsche. Prentice Hall. 1998.

II. TOPICAL OUTLINE OF THE COURSE

A. CULTURE General introduction. What is culture? The concept of cultural relativism and its critique. The concept of wholism (holism) and models for cultural integration. Major theoretical orientations in cultural anthropology are critically reviewed.

Applications: Critically evaluate the concepts and limits of applicability of cultural determinism and relativism by reading classic statements and discussing case studies. Examine the application of the culture concept to complex pluralistic class structured society. Identify institutionalized American microcultures. Locate and read an ethnography to answer questions posed in class. NOTE-This ethnography may also be used as a source of data to report on an institution in cross cultural perspective in part C below.

B. ETHNOGRAPHY How is culture observed and described? What are cultural facts and how are they collected? Discussion of fieldwork goals, methods and ethics.

Applications: Review and consider analytical descriptions of intercultural encounters in Bridges to Humanity and of American culture in Distant Mirrors and Field Ethnography. Utilize Field Ethnography to devise and conduct ethnographic investigations of local cultural scenes, microcultures, or institutions. Keep and submit a thoughtful and self conscious journal of your field work. Make team-based presentations of ethnographic findings to class, or in the event of an approved individual project, write an individual ethnographic sketch for submission to the instructor.

C. ETHNOLOGY What is the comparative method in cultural anthropology? Explore the idea of the institution and its use in cross cultural analysis and the formulation of cultural models and generalizations.

Applications: Cross cultural definition and analysis of selected institutions, generation of cross cultural comparative research questions, report of findings on how an institution varies in its form and function in two different cultures.

III. CLASS WORK AND GRADING

Required and graded class work will include exams or brief position papers in each of the 3 units (25%), participation in an ethnographic research project resulting in a journal (25%) and a project team presentation of research findings to the class (with performance and written components) (25%), and an individual 6 to 10 page critical study of an institution in cross cultural perspective worked out in consultation with the class instructor due as the final exam (25%).

The instructor will assign one additional point to the final grades of those who are present for at least 80% of random roll calls, and zero to two points to final grades based on his impressions of exemplary conduct- egs. active class participation based on sound preparation, group leadership, and creative ideas and comments.

Letter grades will be asssigned as follows:

90 and above: A 86-89: B+ 80-85: B 76-79: C+

70-75: C 60-69: D 59 and below: F

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