Anthropology 3700:  Works and Ideas of Great Anthropologists
Fall 2005 
MWF 2:00 p.m. in Louderman 458 

Robert L. Canfield, Professor, 
Office:  McMillan 340.  Phone: 935-5282 [o], 721-1279 [h].  canfrobt@artsci.wustl.edu 
Baris Isci Teaching Assistant, Office: McMillan 349, bisci@artsci.wustl.edu 

General Requirements
1) Reading.  Below is a schedule of lectures and readings to guide you in course preparation.  You should stay on schedule and come prepared for class discussions.  (Changes in the reading schedule may be announced in class; please stay alert for such changes).As the details in the assigned readings are important, you should come to class with the assigned readings in hand so that you can follow the lectures and participate in the discussion.Much of the time we will work directly from the assigned readings. The textbooks are the following:
 Available at the Book Store: 
McGee and Warms [eds], Anthropological Theory, 3rd edition. Boston:  McGraw-Hill ISBN 0072840463  [referred to as MW on the reading schedule] 
 Available through erez: 
 A set of additional readings [selections from this set are marked * on the schedule below]. 
2) Attendance:  You will be expected to attend every class period and to be prepared to discuss the material assigned for that day.  Class attendance will definitely help in writing assignments and examinations.  There is virtually no chance of doing well without consistent exposure to what happens in class.  A record of attendance will be kept.  To facilitate that, you will be asked to sit in the same place every class period.  If you expect to miss class, please notify me first, or as soon afterward as possible.  If you miss more than 3 classes [unless excused] you should not expect to earn an A or A-; if you miss more classes than that please see me about the terms of continuing in the course. 

3) Class participation.  You will be expected to participate in discussions of the required material.  There will be a number of lectures, but the success of the course will depend heavily on your participation.  In class sessions I plan to ask questions about the assigned readings in order to elicit comments from you.  Your responses are important to me because they will help me track what you are actually getting out of the assigned readings. 

4) Examinations and papers.  There will be two in-class exams, and a short paper at the end of the course.  They will all be weighted more or less equally; there will be no comprehensive examination.  The readings and my lectures will focus on one unit or topic at a time, and when I have finished two units I will ask you to write a exam on those units.  The lectures and class discussions should help you grasp the assigned readings and prepare you to write the necessary exercise.  The dates of evaluative exercises [exams or papers] are indicated on the schedule below. 
 


 
First assignment:  Preprofessional history. [click here]

 
Schedule outline
Unit I  Foundations
Preprofession-al period
Marx: "Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook"
Morgan:  "Ethnical Periods."
Tylor:  “Science of Culture”
Durkheim: "Social Facts"; "Totemism and Class"
Unit II American cultural determinism
*Stocking: "Franz Boas and the Concept of Culture," 
*Freeman:  "The Launching of CulturalDeterminism" 
*Freeman:  "Boas Proposes an Intractable Problem"
Benedict: "Psycholo-gical Types."
Mead:  “Margaret Mead and Samoa”
*Redfield:  Folk Culture of Yucatan 
Unit III British social anthropology
Malinowski:  Kula Ring
*Stocking [Radcliffe-Brown]: “Anarchy Brown”
Radcliffe-Brown: “Mother’s Brother in South Africa”
Evans-Pritchard:  “The Nuer”
*Leach:"Introduction," Political Systems of Highland Burma.
*Barth: “Segmentary Opposition and the Theory of Games”
*Barth: “Ethnic Groups &Boundaries” 
Unit IV Materialist reactions
White:  "Energy and the Evolution of Culture"
Steward:  “Patrilineal band”
*Steward:“Multilineal Evolution”
*Service, selections from Primitive Social Organization.
*Harris: "Theoretical Principles ofCultural Materialism" 
*Wolf:  "Aspects of group relations in a complex society."
*Wolf:  Europe and the People without History” 
Unit V Anti-materialism and its reactions
Levi-Strauss:  “On Language”
*Crick:”Structural-ism of Levi-Strauss”
Geertz: “Deep play”
Geertz: “Thick description”
Turner:  “Symbols ..”
*Sahlins:  Culture + Practical Reason
Unit VI Modern issues
*Raymond Williams, “Selections from Marxism and Literature”
*Bourdieu:[selection] Outline of a Theory of Practice
*Harvey: [selection] The Condition of Post-Modernity
*Clifford:  Writing Culture
Crapanzano:  Hermes’ dilemma
D'Andrade: “Moral models …”
*Fox: [selections] Gandhian Utopia
*Barth: [selection]  Balinese Worlds
*Gregor and Gross.  2005.  “Culture of Accusation”

 
 

 AN3700 Course Reading Schedule, fall  2005.  Come to class prepared to discuss the following on these dates.
 * = in the course packet; MW = in McGee and Warms
 
8/31/05 W  Syllabus, Introduction.  Importance of cultural theory for anthropological interpretation generally.   
 
 Unit I:  Pre-professional and early professional anthropology
 
9/2/05 F Pre-professional period: Age of Discovery; Enlightenment, Counter Enlightenment
 Reading assignment: MW 5-10 “Nineteenth Century Evolutionism”
 Lecture:  Age of Discovery; Hobbes; modernity concept [modo]; Voltaire; Enlightenment / Counter Enlightenment
 
9/5/05 M LABOR DAY
 
9/7/05 W Nineteenth Century materialism and mechanism: Marx 
 Reading assignment: MW [53-66]: Marx-Engels, "Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook"
 Lecture: Marx: dialectical materialism; evolution
 
9/9/05 F Beginning of the professional period: Civilization and Evolution in the Nineteenth Century: Morgan 
 Reading assignment: MW3 [41-52]: Morgan: "Ethnical Periods." 
 Lecture: Morgan: Kinship; Stages of evolution.
 
9/12/05 M Beginning of the professional period:  Civilization and Evolution in the Nineteenth Century:  Spencer and Tylor 
 Reading Assignment: MW[5-11] Nineteenth Century Evolutionism; MW [11-27] Spencer. MW [27-41] Tylor: Science of culture. 
 Lecture: Tylor and nineteenth century evolutionary thought. 
 
9/14/05 W Classic formulations: Functionalism: Durkheim 
 Reading assignment:  MW [84-86] "Foundations of Sociological Thought"; MW 6 [87-93]: Durkheim: "Social Facts"; MW 7 [94-104]: "Totemism and Class".
 Lecture:  Durkheim
 
9/16/05 F Summary:  preprofessional and early professional anthropology 
 
 Unit II:  American cultural determinism before WWII
 
9/19/05 M Classic formulations: Boas, Historical Particularism and Cultural Determinism 
 Reading assignment:  MW [128-130]: "Historical Particularism"; *Stocking [195-233]: "Franz Boas and the Concept of Culture," pp. 195-233] in Race, Culture and Evolution [UChic 0226774945] 
 Lecture: Boas and the concept of culture
 
9/21/05 W Classic formulations:  Boas, Culture against Race 
 Reading Assignment: *Derek Freeman [34 - 61]: Ch 3, "The Launching of Cultural Determinism"; Ch 4, "Boas Proposes an Intractable Problem," in Margaret Mead and Samoa. 
 Lecture: Boas, Mead (Coming of Age in Samoa, 1927), and the nature/nurture controversy
 
9/23/05 F Classic formulations: Culture and Personality: Benedict 
 Reading assignment: MW[205-208] "Culture and Personality"; MW16 [209-218]: Benedict: "Psychological Types." 
 Lecture:  C and P:  Benedict (Patterns of Culture, 1934), Sapir,
 
9/26/05 M Classic formulations:  Culture and Personality:  Margaret Mead
 Reading Assignment:  Bennett, Classic Anthropology pp. 219-256, "Psychology and Anthropology: Modes of Interface ..." 
 Lecture:  Other conceptions of Personality and Culture.  G. H. Mead; G. Bateson
 
9/28/05 W Culture in a regional context 
 Reading assignment:  *Redfield, “Preface,” “Table of Contents,” and [pp 1-18]: "The Peninsula of Yucatan," from Folk Cultures of Yucatan. 
 Lecture:  Peasants: Redfield's folk-urban continuum; Kroeber's part-societies.
 
9/30/05 F Examination on Units I and II [CESS]
 
 Unit III.  British Social Anthropology
 
10/3/05 M British functionalism:  Malinowski.  MW ch 13 [161-176]: Malinowski: "Essentials of the Kula" (from Argonauts of the Western Pacific 1922). 
 Lecture:  Malinowski's participant observation; potential shift in his views.  Later views: function; instrumental behavior; myth and function.
 
10/5/05 W British functionalism:  Radcliffe-Brown 
 Reading assignment:  MW[157-160] "Functionalism"; *Stocking, “Anarchy Brown” in: After Tylor, pp 304-338 [UWis 0299145840]. 
 Lecture: R-B: function: selections from his Andaman Islanders on "order" in the society
 
10/7/05 F British functionalism:  Radcliffe-Brown
 Reading Assignment:  MW 173-184:  “Mother’s Brother in South Africa.”
 
10/10/05 M More on BSA:  Evans-Pritchard, And Margaret Mead
 
10/12/05 W British functionalism: Evans-Pritchard's segmentary lineage. 
 Reading assignment:  MW15: Evans-Pritchard “The Nuer” [183-202]: 
 Lecture:  E-P: The segmentary lineage; Fortes: Dynamics of Clanship
 
10/14/05 F British functionalism:  Critique by Edmund Leach.
 Reading Assignment:  Leach:  “Introduction,” Political Systems of Highland Burma.
 
10/17/05 M British funtionalism:  Critique by Fredrik Barth
 Reading Assignment:  "Segmentary Oppostion and the Theory of Games," pp 5-21. 
 
10/19/05 W Ethnicity and plural societies.
 Reading assignment: *Barth [9-18], "Introduction," from Ethnic Groups and Boundaries; [Cohen, "Introduction," from Custom and Politics in Urban Africa.] 
 Lecture: Barth: ethnicity: A. Cohen: ethnicity and custom and politics
 
10/21/05 F FALL BREAK
 
 Unit IV:  American Materialism
 
10/24/05 M Neo-evolutionism I: White 
 Reading assignment: MW [225-227]: Cultural ecology and neo-evolutionary thought; MW [243-262]: White: "Energy and the Evolution of Culture". 
 Lecture:  White:  Energy and evolution; 
 
10/26/05 W Neo-evolutionism II a :  Steward’s patrilineal band.
 Reading assignment:  MW [228-243]: Steward: "Patrilineal Band";
 
10/28/05 F Neo-evolutionism  IIb:  Steward’s multilineal evolution, cultural ecology, cultural core and adaptation 
 Reading assignment: *Steward, selections from Theory of Culture Change [pp 18-29, 36-42]; *Service, selections from Primitive Social Organization. 
 Lecture: Steward: cultural core; Adaptation; Lattimore, “The Steppes of Mongolia...” from Inner Asian Frontiers of China.
 
10/31/05 M A Philosophically Explicit Cultural materialism:  Harris 
 Reading assignment: *Harris, "Theoretical Principles of Cultural Materialism," pp 46-60, in Cultural Materialism [Random H 0394412400];*Harris, "Introduction", from The Rise of Anthropological Theory. 
 Lecture: Murdock: a failed project [MW20: statistical correlations]; Marx; Harris: Cultural materialism; Rise of Anthropological Theory 
 
11/2/05 W Neo-civilizational studies: Peasants and cultural brokers:  Wolf 
 Reading assignment: *Wolf: "Aspects of group relations in a complex society." 
 Lecture: Wolf on peasants, history, and civilizations: Cultural brokers: “Two types ...”, “Virgin of Guadalupe ...”, “Closed corporate peasant communities”, Sons of the Shaking Earth. 
 
11/4/05 F Marxism and World Systems: Wolf, Wallerstein. 
 Reading assignment:*Wolf, "Introduction" [pp1-23] and selections from Ch 3 from Europe and the People without History [UCalif 0520048989]. 
 Lecture: Wallerstein: World Systems.
 
11/7/05 M Review for exam
 
11/9/05 W Examination on Units III and  IV [T-P]
 
 Unit V:  Reactions to Materialism
 
11/11/05 F Revival of Boas and Durkheim:  Structuralism:  Levi-Strauss [T-P] 
 Reading assignment: MW[330-332]  Structuralism; MW 24 [332-347]: Levi-Srauss, "Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology"; [optional] *Crick:"The Structuralism of Claude Levi-Strauss," from Explorations in Language and Meaning. 
 Lecture Levi-Strauss and linguistic models for cultural analysis.
 
11/14/05 M Anti-materialist reactions: Interpretivism Ia: Geertz 
 Reading assignment: MW 524-5, “Symbolic and interpretive anthropology”; MW 553-574, Geertz, "Deep Play".
 Lecture:  Geertz 
 
11/16/05 W Anti-materialist reactions: Interpretivism Ib: Geertz 
 Reading assignment:  *Geertz:  “Thick description”, in The Interpretation of Culture.
 Lecture:  Geertz’s challenge to materialism.
 
11/18/05 F Anti-materialist reactions: Interpretivism II:  Turner
 Reading assignment:  MW36 [478-495]:Turner, "Symbols in Ndembu Ritual"
 Lecture:  Turner
 
11/21/05 M A Boasian/structuralist anti-materialist reaction. 
 Reading assignment:*Sahlins, Ch 1: "Marxism and Two Structuralisms," pp 1-23....from Culture and Practical Reason. 
 Lecture: Sahlins and the cultural determinist reaction.
 
11/23/05 W THANSGIVING BREAK
 
11/25/05 F THANKSGIVING BREAK
 
 Unit VI.  Recent issues
 
11/28/05 M Revised reflections on Marx:  Gramscian notions of hegemony.
 Reading assignment:  Raymond Williams, “Selections from Marxism and Literature”, pp. 585-608 [Pagination from Culture/Power/History, edited by Dirks, Eley, and Ortner.] 
 
11/30/05 W Practice theory:  Bourdieu. 
 Reading assignment: *Bourdieu, selections [pp 1-9, 72-87, 171-174], from Outline of a Theory of Practice. 
 Lecture: Practice theory [Bourdieu, Ortner, Sahlins]
 
12/2/05 F The post-modernist critique 
 Reading assignment: *Harvey, [pp 44-53, 356-359] From The Condition of Post-modernism; *Clifford, James. "Introduction," [pp 2-11] from Writing Culture.
 
12/5/05 M The post-modernist critique 
 Reading assignment:  MW 535-550: Crapanzano, "Hermes dilemma..." 
 Lecture: Post-modernism [Clifford]
 
12/7/05 W Responses to the post-modernists. 
 Reading assignment: Harvey, pp. 356-369; MW 551-568: D'Andrade “Moral Models in Anthropology” 
 
12/9/05 F Gregor + Gross, “The Culture of Accusation …”  AA 106(4): 687-698.
 
12/12/05 M LAST CLASS
 
 Final Paper will be on Units V and VI