Block 1– Fall 2001– 9:00 - 12:00

Barnes 403 (please note room change)


Office hours: Monday and Thursday: 1:00 – 2:30 and by appointment

Course Description: This course is an introduction to cultural anthropology. The goals of the course are to examine the diversity of human cultural forms in areas such as subsistence (making a living), social and personal identity, emotions, ritual and belief, social inequality, family and kinship, and gender. We will discuss a variety of cultural groups, from Himalayan farmers to Bedouin Arabs to high-school students in small-town Texas. In doing so, we will attempt both to understand these groups and to become more aware of the ways that our own cultural beliefs and understandings are constructed. The course is designed both to teach about the unfamiliar cultural practices and beliefs of others and to encourage an examination of our own cultural actions and assumptions about the world. We will pay particular attention to ethnography, the unique methodology of anthropology, and will look at the experiences and results of various kinds of ethnographic fieldwork. We will also address issues such as social change, intercultural contact and conflict, and social inequality.

Some recurring themes of course: fieldwork, ethnography, culture, power, difference

Required Texts: All texts are available at the Colorado College Bookstore. Additional readings, in the form of articles, will be made available to you. Let me know immediately if you have any problem obtaining the readings.

* Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming to Know Another Culture. Ernestine McHugh. University of Pennsylvania Press.
* Learning Capitalist Culture: Deep in the Heart of Tejas. Douglas E. Foley. University of Pennsylvania Press.
* Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. Lila Abu-Lughod. University of California Press.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

If you miss class for any reason, or are late, it is your responsibility to find out any assignments, announcements, or missed materials from a classmate.

Attendance is required; please inform me if you need to miss class for any reason. The portion of the grade labeled "participation" includes overall attendance, participation in class discussions, contributions to a positive learning environment, and unscheduled activities such as in-class writings, brief overnight research or writing assignments, discussion exercises, film notes, or pop quizzes. Readings should be done before class on the date they appear on the syllabus. Please bring current reading materials to class each day so that we can refer closely to the text when appropriate. I expect you to come on time and with something thoughtful to say about the reading.

You should be prepared each day to speak to the following questions: What is the basic argument of each reading? How persuasive is the argument? How effectively are the arguments supported? What do you agree/disagree with in the readings, and why? What, if any, points are there in the readings at which you simply don’t understand what the author is saying? How does this material speak to other material we have encountered in this class? What would be an interesting point at which to begin discussing these readings?

I do not accept late work unless (1) you have made prior arrangements with me based on a legitimate reason, such as serious illness or family emergency OR (2) there is a genuinely unforseeable emergency. All work for this class should be performed under the Honor Code of Colorado College.

Although I have planned the syllabus very carefully, it is possible that I may decide to make minor changes. I will notify you of these in class and you will be responsible for them.

Grading breaks down as follows:

35% Participation
--short writing assignments (either in-class or overnight)
--participation in daily class discussions and activities
--attendance at lectures, discussions, and films
--film notes
--pop quizzes
--other unannounced class activities

15% Midterm Exam

35% Ethnographic Project
--proposal(s)
--fieldnotes
--field research
--final written paper
--final oral presentation of findings

15% Final Exam

**ADDITIONAL AFTERNOON VIDEOS MAY BE ADDED TO THE SCHEDULE. YOU WILL BE INFORMED OF THESE IN CLASS AHEAD OF TIME**