Cultural Anthropology ANT 2413
Section 3170
Spring 1998 
TTH 12:00-1:15

Office Hours: MWF - 10:00 - 11:00
TTH - 10:30 - 12:00
or by appointment

Optional Text
Study Guide for the Telecourse Faces of Culture. Richard T. Searles

Unit 1

• Introduction to Course

• Chapter 1: The Nature of Anthropology

• Chapter 2: The Nature of Culture
• Spradley 2. Eating Christmas in the Kalahari
• 23. Culture, Rank and IQ
• 35. Using Anthropology

• Chapter 4: Language
• Spradley 3. Shakespeare in the Bush
• 6. Conversation Style: Talking on the Job
• 7. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

2/3-2/5

• Chapter 5: Growing Up Human
• Spradley 17. Mother's Love
• Review

Unit 2

2/12-17

• Chapter 6: Patterns of Subsistence
• Spradley 9. The Hunters
• 10. Cultivating the Tropical Forest

• Chapter 7: Economic Systems
• Spradley 13. Reciprocity and the Power of Giving

• Chapter 8: Sex and Marriage
• Spradley 18. Family and Kinship in Village India
• 19. Polyandry
• 21. Symbolizing Roles: Behind the Veil

• Chapter 9: Family and Household

• Chapter 10: Kinship and Descent

• Chapter 11: Grouping by Sex, Age, Common Interest, and Class

3/24

• Spradley 22. Society and Sex Roles
• Review

Unit 3

3/31-4/2

• Chapter 12: Political Organization and Social Control

• Chapter 13: Religion and the Supernatural
• Spradley 11. India's Sacred Cow
• 31. Revitalization Drives American Militias
• 32. Cargo Cults

• Chapter 14: The Arts

• Chapter 15: Cultural Change
• Spradley 28. The Inupiat Eskimo Case
• 34. The Kayapo Resistance

• Chapter 16: The Future of Humanity
• Spradley 12. Adaptive Failure: Easter's End
• Conclusion

4/30 (Thur.) Third paper due

5/5 Exam 3

• 2-4 pages long.
• Correct bibliographic information is essential.

A. If you were going to do a study as an anthropologist which culture would you choose? What would be the focus of this study? Explain why you would choose this culture. What problems might you encounter? Scan some ethnographies to see what has been written about this group. Note: China, American Indians, Muslims, as topics are too broad; narrow your choice down to the Tarahumara of northern Mexico, French farmers, or students from Saudi Arabia in Austin, for example. (no extinct cultures)

B. Interview a person or a family from another culture (non-English speaking), recent arrivals to the US. What do they have to say about the differences and similarities between their culture and modern American culture (food, greetings, bathrooms, attitudes about work, sports, money)? What are some of the things that caused culture shock (explain what it is to them) for them? Do they have positive or negative feelings about their culture or ours? How have people in our culture reacted to them? What are some of their thoughts concerning speaking English and their native language? What do they hope to achieve (school, job, etc.)? What is their family background (married? siblings?)? Are they likely to become US citizens? Why or why not?

C. Write a researched essay on one of the topics on language discussed in class. This could include teaching human language to animals, reconstruction of ancestral languages, the rapid disappearance of many of the world's languages, or the formation of creole languages. Use specific cultural examples.

D. Do some research on the child rearing techniques of another culture. How do they differ from our ideas about child rearing? What kind of effect do the techniques have on the personality of the adults in the culture?

Information for bibliography for essays:
proofread!
 

• Please include a cover sheet with your name and the title of your paper on it, as well as my name and the course.
• An encyclopedia, by itself, is not enough of a source, nor are our textbooks, or the lectures.
• Be sure to document the words and ideas of other people you use when writing your paper. All ideas not your own must have a reference. Using someone else's information without attribution is plagiarism and will lower your grade drastically. Quotation marks are not necessary unless you use the exact words of your original source. References need to be given in the text of your paper. The author's surname (unless it appears in the text), year date of the publication, and page number are enclosed in parentheses (Turabian 1973:184). An alphabetized bibliography at the end of the paper supplies complete information in the following forms:

Haviland, William A.
1996 Cultural Anthropology, 8th edition. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

McCurdy, David W. and Spradley, James P.
1997 Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, 9th edition. New York: Harper Collins.

Turabian, Kate
1973 A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Turpin, Solveig A.
1984 The Red Linear Style Pictographs. Plains Anthropologist 29:181-189.

• 2-4 pages (one and a half is not long enough).
• Use sources other than the texts and lectures.
• IMPORTANT: Give bibliographic information. Choose one topic. No extinct cultures.

 1. The Potlatch, the Kula Ring, and the Cargo system are examples of leveling mechanisms. Using one as an example, define the concept and explain its functions and purpose in a particular society. Give an ethnographic example, you may use an example other than these three.

2. Look through the ethnographic literature, or interview some one from another culture, for examples of marriage practices different from ours (for example polygamous or arranged marriage). Compare and contrast the practices and explain how they function with other aspects of the culture. Is divorce easy or hard? Why? Use a specific culture to illustrate your ideas.

3. Do some research on a caste system. How is caste indicated? What resources do the different castes control? How do the castes depend on each other? How do other social institutions (government, religion, etc.) affect the system? Is mobility possible? What does it mean to modern life? How does it integrate, while dividing people? Caste structure and history are less important than a description of the actual reality today.

Cargo system:

• Peasants, Eric Wolf
• Economics and Prestige in a Maya Community, Frank Cancian
• Zinacantan, Evon Vogt
• Machine Age Maya, Manning Nash
• Fields of Tzotzil, George Collier

• The Kula, New Perspectives on Massim Exchange, Jerry Leach (essays by many authors, photos)
• Women of Value, Men of Renown, Annette B. Weiner
• From Muyuw to the Trobriands: Transformations Along the Northern Side of the Kula Ring, Frederick H. Damon (structural analysis of variation in a regional system)

• An Iron Hand Upon the People: the Law Against the Potlatch on the NW Coast, Douglas Cole and Ira Chaikin (a history of the Potlatch, the law, the Indian response, photos)
• The Gitksan Potlatch, John W. Adams, (detailed, first hand observations in the field)
• see also other NW Coast Indians eg. Chinook, Nootka, Tsinshan, Bella Coola, Tlinglit
• "Masks of the Ancestors" and "Underground Potlatch," Natural History, October 1991

• The Western Educated Hindu Woman, Rama Mehta
• Guest of the Sheik, Elizabeth Fernea
• Nisa, Majorie Shostak
• Dynamics of Polyandry, Nancy Levine
• "A Bride for Raman," Natural History, March 1988
• "Taraka's Ghost," Natural History, Oct. 1990
• "Burning Widows, Burning Brides: The Perils of Daughterhood in India, Dorothy Stein, in Pacific Affairs Journal 1988

• in Nepal: "And the Band Played On," Natural History, Sept. 1991
• Eta or Burakumin: Buraku Liberation Research Institute
• The Last Primitive Peoples (Crown Pub. NY 1976)

• 2-5 pages (one and a half is not long enough).
• Use sources other than the texts. Rather than books, you will probably want to rely more on periodicals, many of which are available at the ACC library.
• IMPORTANT: Correct bibliographic information is essential.
• Choose one topic. You should focus on culture change in a contemporary culture in whichever topic you choose.

1. Do some research on religion in the everyday life of a culture (not ours). Describe how one particular religious institution changes as a culture changes, as it is affected by outside influences and internal changes. How does religion function to meet old and new needs in the day-to-day life of the people practicing it today? For example: how is a religious festival or ritual different today from the way it was in the past? Why has it changed? How does symbolism reflect change?

Or interview someone from another country who has a religion different from our Judaeo-Christian tradition. (for example: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Shintoism). Is there a place of worship here in Texas? See if you can arrange to attend. How has this religion adapted to fit in to American culture in Austin? How does it meet the new needs of a family coming from far away? Do they practice in a new way here? How does their religion affect their views on American culture?

2. Development schemes and multinational corporations have had a major impact on the third world. Give one or two specific examples. Describe its success or failure in terms of the impact it has on the lives of those affected. Who gains, who loses? Who designed it, how is it implemented?

3. Tribal cultures are sometimes called the Fourth World. The people might not even be aware they are part of a larger state. Use one contemporary ethnographic example to show the fate of these tribes today. This can be anything from annihilation, to uneasy integration, to more rarely, strategies that allow them to keep their culture.

• Amazon region: Urueu-Wau-Wau, Kayapo, Hurani (Guarani)
• Philippines: Agta, Lumad
• Africa: Masai, Dani, Nuba, Ogoni
• Indonesia:  Dayak
• Andes: Aymara, Quechua
• Australia: Aborigines
• Europe: Saami

Religion -

• "Cultural Encounter: Islam in Java," History Today, Nov.1984
• "Return of the Pleiades," Natural History, June 1987
• "Night of the Radishes," Natural History, Dec. 1986
• "Dark Side of the Shaman," Natural History, Nov. 1989
• "Tubakou's Spirit Flight," Natural History, July 1992
• "Judas Transformed," Natural History, March 1994
• "Sorcers' Apprentice," The Sciences, Jan/Feb 1996

• the Virgin of Guadalupe
• the Day of the Dead in Mexico

• Aid as Obstacle: 20 Questions, Frances Lappe, et al. (about our foreign aid and the hungry, many examples of the problems US food aid causes, easy to read)
• Only One World: Our Own to Make and Keep, Gerard Piel (general geographical and historical overview of development, environment, population, agriculture)
• Anthropology and the Global Factory: Studies of the New Industrialization in the Late 20th Century, eds. Frances Rothstein and Michael Blim (collection of essays from all over world, presented mostly without analysis, a few good ones "Women Workers in S. Korea," "Mondragon Coops," others)
• Multinational Managers and Poverty in the Third World, Lee Travis, ed. (series of essay presenting advice to multinationals on their role in global development - how difficult it is, but how beneficial they think they are in upgrading the life of the poor, sort of an updated version of bestowing civilization on savages)

• 512-223-3385
• 
• snail mail: 1212 Rio Grande, Austin, TX 78748

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