Anthropology 3700:  Works and Ideas of Great Anthropologists
Fall 2008
MWF 3:00 p.m. in Busch 100

Robert L. Canfield, Professor, Office Hours:  Tu 1-3
Office:  McMillan 340.  Phone: 935-5282 [o], 721-1279 [h].  canfrobt@artsci.wustl.edu 
Teaching Assistants:  Nino ["Nutsa"] Batiashvili [nbatiash@artsci...]; Heather Meiers [hlmeiers@artsci...]

General RequirementsOffice Hours: W/F 1:30-3:00 T/Th 1:30-2:30
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 [password: change]: 
 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]

 
Questions and further notes to help with the reading assignments

 
 
Schedule outline
Unit I  Foundations
Preprofession-al period
Marx: "Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook"
Morgan:  "Ethnical Periods."
Tylor:  “Science of Culture”
Muller:  Language and thought.
Weber: "The Social Psychology of the World Religions,"
Durkheim: "Social Facts"
Mauss:  "The Gift"
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:  “The Group and the individual in functional analysis”
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” 
[*Cohen:  "Intro": Custom and Politics in Urban Africa.]
Unit IV Materialist reactions
White:  "Energy and the Evolution of Culture"
Steward:  “Patrilineal band”
*Steward:“Multilineal Evolution”
*Service, selections from Primitive Social Organization.
*Harris:  "Introduction" Rise of Anthropological Theory.
*Harris: "Theoretical Principles of Cultural Materialism" 
*Wolf:  "Aspects of group relations in a complex society."
*Wolf:  Selections, Europe and the People without History” 
Wallace:  “Revitalization Movements”
Unit V Anti-materialism and its reactions
[Levi-Strauss:  “On Language”]
*Crick:”Structural-ism of Levi-Strauss”
Geertz: “Thick Description"
Geertz: “Religion as Cultural System”
Turner:  “Symbols in Ndembu Ritual”
*Sahlins: selections, Culture + Practical Reason
*Sahlins:  Ch 1, 2, Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities
Unit VI Modern issues
*Raymond Williams, “Selections from Marxism and Literature”
*Bourdieu:[selections] Outline of a Theory of Practice
*Harvey: [selections] The Condition of Post-Modernity
*Clifford:  Intro:  Writing Culture
*Fischer:  ‘Postmodernism”
*Friedman:  "Post-Modernism"
*Anderson,“Immagined Community”
*Bailey, “Do what you will?” in The Prevalence of Deceit.
Appadurai, "Grassroots Globalization and Research ..." 
Ong: "Anthropology, China and modernities:  the geopolitics of cultural knowledge."

 
List of additional readings on erez for Anthropology 3700, "Works and Ideas of Great Anthropologists" [Prof Canfield]

*Isaiah Berlin,  1974.  “The Counter Englightenment”.  Dictionary of the History of Ideas. [110-112]
*George Stocking, 1982 [195-233]:  "Franz Boas and the Concept of Culture," pp. 195-233] in  Race, Culture and Evolution [UChic 0226774945]
*Derek Freeman, 1983 [pp 34-61] Ch 3, "The Lauching of Cultural Determinism"; Ch 4 "Boas Proposes and Intractable Problem," Margaret Mead and Samoa. [HarvISBN 0-674-54830-2]
*John W. Bennett, 1998 [pp. 219-256], "Psychology and Anthropology:  Modes of Interface ..." in Classic Anthropoology  [Transaction Press 1-56000-333-2]
*George Stocking, 1995 [pp. 304 -338] "Anarchy Brown in the Andamans and Australia ...; etc.", in After Tylor.  [UWis 0299145840]
*Robert Redfield.  1941.  [pp. ix-xxi; 1-18] "Preface", "Table of Contents", "The Peninsula of Yucatan," in Folk Cultures of Yucatan. 
*Edmund Leach.  1954.  "Introduction," Political Systems of Highland Burma. 
*Fredrik Barth.  1959.  “Segmentary Opposition and the Theory of Games.”  J of the Royal Anthropological Institute 89:5-21.
*Fredrik Barth.  1969.   "Introduction" [9-18],  from  Ethnic Groups and Boundaries; 
*Julian Steward.  1955.  Selections [pp. 18-29, 36-42] from Theory of Culture Change. 
*Elman Service.  1962. Selections from Primitive Social Organization. 
*Marvin Harris. 1968.  "Introduction", from Rise of Anthropological Theory. 
*Marvin Harris.  1979. "Theoretical Principles of Cultural Materialism," from Cultural Materialism.
*Eric R. Wolf.  1956.  "Aspects of group relations in a complex society." 
*Eric R. Wolf.  1979.   "Introduction" and selections from Ch 3, Europe and the People without History. [UCalif 0520048989]
*Malcomb Crick. 1976:  "The Structuralism of Claude Levi-Strauss," from Explorations in Language and Meaning. 
*Clifford Geertz.  1973.  “Thick description” [3-30], from The Interpretation of Culture. 
*Marshall Sahlins.  1976.  “Preface” and Ch 1:  "Marxism and Two Structuralisms" [pp vii - ix, 1-23], in Culture and Practical Reason. 
*Marshall Sahlins.  1981.  [Selections] Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities. ISBN: 0472027212
*Pierre Bourdieu.  1972.  Selections [pp 1-9, 72-87, 171-174], from Outline of a Theory of Practice. 
*Raymond Williams.  1977.  “Selections from Marxism and Literature” [585- 608] from A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory.
*David Harvey.  1990.  Selections [pp 39-53, 356-359] from The Condition of Post-modernism [Blackwell 0631162941]
*James Clifford.  1986.  "Introduction:  Partial Truths."  Writing Culture  [pp 2-11] [UCalif 0520057295]
*Michael Fischer.  “Postmodernism,” pp 368b – 372a, in, Dictionary of Anthropology.
*Benedict Anderson, pp. 37-46, "Origins of National Consciousness," Imagined Communities. [Verso 0860915468].
*M-R Trouillot, “An unthinkable history” from Silencing the Past. Pp. 70-108.
Ong: "Anthropology, China and modernities:  the geopolitics of cultural knowledge."



    AN3700 Course Schedule: [fall 2007]
  * = in the course packet; MW = in McGee and Warms

   DISCUSSION TOPICS FOR THIS DAY

8/27/2008 W  Syllabus, Introduction.  Importance of cultural theory for anthropological interpretation generally. 
8/28/2008 Th
   Unit I:  Pre-professional and early professional anthropology
8/29/2008 F  Pre-professional period: Age of Discovery; Enlightenment, Counter Enlightenment. Reading assignment:  *“Counter-Enlightenment” by Isaiah Berlin.Lecture:  Age of Discovery; Hobbes; modernity concept [modo]; Voltaire; Enlightenment / Counter Enlightenment 
8/30/2008 S 
8/31/2008 X
9/1/2008 M  Break
9/2/2008 T 
9/3/2008 W  Nineteenth Century materialism and mechanism: Marx  Reading assignment: MW [54-61] [OPTIONAL 62-66]: Marx-Engels, "Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook"; Wolf pp. 73-79 of Europe and the People without History . Lecture: Marx: dialectical materialism; evolution
9/4/2008 Th 
9/5/2008 F  Beginning of the professional period: Civilization and Evolution in the Nineteenth Century: Tylor and Morgan.  Reading Assignment: MW[5-11] Nineteenth Century Evolutionism; Tylor: Science of culture MW [28-32a] [OPTIONAL 32-42]; Morgan: "Ethnical Periods." [43-46 and 49 "Recapitulation"] [OPTIONAL 47-54].  Lecture: Tylor and Morgan: Kinship; Stages of evolution.
9/6/2008 S 
9/7/2008 X 
9/8/2008 M  Classic formulations: Functionalism: Durkheim  Reading assignment:  MW [69-72] "Foundations of Sociological Thought"; MW 5 [73-79]: Durkheim: "What is a Social Fact?"   Lecture:  Durkheim 
9/9/2008 T 
9/10/2008 W  Classic formulations:  German Romanticism and Meaning:  Max Müller and Max Weber.  On Müller a class handout; On Weber, ERES "The Social Psychology of the World Religions," 267-301 [Required: 267-282].  Gerth and Mills, From Max Weber. 
9/11/2008 Th 
  Unit II:  American cultural determinism before WWII 
9/12/2008 F  Classic formulations: Boas, Historical Particularism and Cultural Determinism  Reading assignment:  MW [128-132]: "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 
9/13/2008 S 
9/14/2008 X 
9/15/2008 M  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 
9/16/2008 T 
9/17/2008 W  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
9/18/2008 Th 
9/19/2008 F  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. 
9/20/2008 S 
9/21/2008 X
9/22/2008 M  Review 
9/23/2008 T 
9/24/2008 W  Examination on Units I and II
9/25/2008 Th 
  Unit III.  British Social Anthropology 
9/26/2008 F  British functionalism:  Malinowski. Reading Assignment:  ERES:  *“The Group and the individual in functional analysis” [Reprinted in Anthropology and Theory, pp 88-99. plus:  MW editor’s notes only from ch 13 [163-179] [Malinowski: "Essentials of the Kula"].   Lecture:  Malinowski's participant observation; potential shift in his views.  Later views: function; instrumental behavior; myth and function. 
9/27/2008 S 
9/28/2008 X 
9/29/2008 M  British functionalism:  Radcliffe-Brown Reading Assignment:  ERES: “Mother’s Brother in South Africa.”
9/30/2008 T 
10/1/2008 W  British functionalism: Evans-Pritchard's segmentary lineage.  Reading assignment:  ERES *Evans-Pritchard “The Nuer of the Souther Sudan”:   Lecture:  E-P: The segmentary lineage; Fortes: Dynamics of Clanship among the Talensi 
10/2/2008 Th 
10/3/2008 F  British functionalism:  Critique by Edmund Leach.  Reading Assignment:  *Leach:  “Introduction,” Political Systems of Highland Burma.
10/4/2008 S 
10/5/2008 X 
10/6/2008 M  British functionalism:  Critique by Fredrik Barth  Reading Assignment:  *Barth [5-21]: "Segmentary Opposition and the Theory of Games," 
10/7/2008 T 
10/8/2008 W  Ethnicity and plural societies.Reading assignment: ERES. *Barth [9-18], "Introduction," from Ethnic Groups and Boundaries;  [OPTIONAL Abner Cohen, "Introduction," from Custom and Politics in Urban Africa] Lecture: Barth: ethnicity: A. Cohen: ethnicity and custom and politics 
10/9/2008 Th 
  Unit IV:  American Materialism after WW II
10/10/2008 F  Neo-evolutionism II a :  Steward’s patrilineal band.  Reading assignment: MW [226--229]: "Re-emergence of evolutionary thought" MW 248-252; 257-263] [Intermediate pages are OPTIONAL]: Steward: "Patrilineal Band";
10/11/2008 S 
10/12/2008 X
10/13/2008 M  Neo-evolutionism I: Neo-Evolution:  Reading assignment: MW 229-232]: White: "Energy and the Evolution of Culture".  *Steward, Selections from Theory of Culture Change [pp 18-29, 36-42]; *Service, selections from Primitive Social Organization Lecture:  White:  Energy and evolution; Steward "Multilinear Evolution" 
10/14/2008 T 
10/15/2008 W  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.
10/16/2008 TU 
10/17/2008 F  BREAK
10/18/2008 S 
10/19/2008 X
10/20/2008 M  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. 
10/21/2008 T 
10/22/2008 W  The New Personality and Culture:  Anthony Wallace   Reading Assignment: “Revitalization Movements” AA [1956] 58: 264-281. 
10/23/2008 Th 
10/24/2008 F  Review for exam 
10/25/2008 S 
10/26/2008 X 
10/27/2008 M  Examination on Units III and  IV 
  Unit V:  Reactions to American Materialism
10/28/2008 T 
10/29/2008 W  Structuralism:  Levi-Strauss [T-P]   Reading assignment: ERES. *Crick:"The Structuralism of Claude Levi-Strauss," from Explorations in Language and Meaning.   Lecture: Levi-Strauss and linguistic models for cultural analysis.  [OPTIONAL  MW 345-347.  Structuralism; MW 347-362: Levi-Srauss, "Structural Analysis in Linguistics and Anthropology".] 
10/30/2008 Th 
10/31/2008 F  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.
11/1/2008 S 
11/2/2008 X
11/3/2008 M  A new use of structuralism  Reading Assignment:  *Sahlins [Preface and Chs 1 and 2] Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities  Lecture:  Structure in the event 
11/4/2008 T 
11/5/2008 W  "Anti-materialist reactions: Interpretivism Ia: Geertz  Reading assignment:  *Geertz:  “Thick Description”, in The Interpretation of Culture.  Lecture:  Geertz’s challenge to materialism. 
11/6/2008 Th 
11/7/2008 F  Anti-materialist reactions:  Interpretivism Ib:  Geertz.  Reading assignment: *Geertz: Religion as a Cultural System
11/8/2008 S 
11/9/2008 X
11/10/2008 M  Anti-materialist reactions: Interpretivism II:  Turner  Reading assignment:  MW39 [536-553]: Turner, "Symbols in Ndembu Ritual"  Lecture:  Turner
11/11/2008 T 
    Unit VI:  Recent Contributions
11/12/2008 W  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.] 
11/13/2008 Th 
11/14/2008 F  Practice theory:  Bourdieu.  Reading assignment: *Bourdieu, selections [pp 1-9, 72-87, 171-174], Outline of a Theory of Practice.  Lecture: Practice theory [Bourdieu, Ortner, Sahlins] 
11/15/2008 S 
11/16/2008 X
11/17/2008 M  The post-modernist critique.   Reading assignment: *Harvey, [pp 39-53] from The Condition of Post-modernism; *Clifford, "Introduction: Partial Truths," [pp 2-11] from Writing Culture.; *Fischer, “Postmodern,” Dictionary of Anthropology, pp 368b – 372a. 
11/18/2008 T 
11/19/2008 W  Responses to the post-modernists. Reading assignment: *Harvey, [pp. 356-369]; *Lindholm "Logical and Moral Problems of Postmodernism"  JRAI 1997. Vol 3(4): 747-760.
11/20/2008 Th 
11/21/2008 F  Responses to the post-modernists:  Reading assignment:  *Aihwa Ong: "Anthropology, China and modernities:  the geopolitics of cultural knowledge."  pp 60-64 and 84-86 [intermediate pp are OPTIONAL]. In: H.L. Moore 1996.  The Future of Anthropological Knowledge. 
11/22/2008 S 
11/23/2008 X 
11/24/2008 M  Another Viewpoint:  Reading Assignment: *B. Anderson [37-46], "Origins of National Consciousness," Imagined Communities. 
11/25/2008 T 
11/26/2008 W  BREAK
11/27/2008 Th 
11/28/2008 F  BREAK
11/29/2008 S 
11/30/2008 X
12/1/2008 M  ERES.  Appadurai, "Grassroots Globalization and the Research Imagination."  Public Culture 12: 1-19, 2000.
12/2/2008 T 
12/3/2008 W  *Bailey [97-129], “Do what you will?” Ch 4, In The Prevalence of Deceit.
12/4/2008 Th 
12/5/2008 F  Review
12/6/2008 S 
12/7/2008 X
12/8/2008 M 
12/9/2008 T
12/10/2008 W 
12/11/2008 Th 
12/12/2008 F  FINALS
12/13/2008 S 
12/14/2008 X
12/15/2008 M  FINALS
12/16/2008 T