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ANTHROPOLOGY 460
Anthropological Theory
Professor Paul E. BrodwinSpring, 2012
Dept. of Anthropology, UW-MilwaukeeSabin Hall #180
Office hours: Mondays, 1-3, and by appointmentPhone: 229-4734
Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language. (Raymond Williams)
The nice thing about culture is that everyone has it. (Marilyn Strathern)
This course examines the anthropological discussion about culture across the past 120 years, roughly since the beginning of the discipline. We will explore some basic theoretical debates which still inspire empirical research: How do cultural symbols shape human subjectivity? What accounts for cultural creativity and invention? How do tradition and “common-sense” become so convincing? What are the sources of political and ideological authority as well as resistance and critique? What happens to traditional religious and ritual practices in modern Western societies and in new global formations? What, if anything, separates the “modern West” from “traditional” cultures? How can we use anthropological knowledge to comprehend and criticize contemporary society?
We begin with Enlightenment thinkers and then move to two pillars of classic European social theory: Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. We will examine their viewpoints about traditional and modern societies, religion, and the source of social order. The course next takes up symbolic anthropology of the mid-20th century through the work of Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, and others. Their theories continue to influence both ethnographic methods and the truth-claims that anthropologists make about cultures. Finally, we will examine the self-criticism of anthropology over the past twenty years, new thinking about culture and subjectivity, and recent accounts of power and resistance.
Anthropological theory is a huge topic, and this course will sacrifice breadth for depth. We will read and discuss a handful of the most central and oft-cited texts in the discipline. The goal is to learn the major unsettled arguments as well as the conceptual tool-kit which makes anthropology a distinctive and productive field. This course focuses on the close reading of texts. Please complete the assigned readings before class and come with questions and insights about the authors’ arguments.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Prerequisites: Senior standing. This is the “capstone” course, required of all anthropology majors.
2. Attendance: Attendance in class is required. Although formal attendance is not taken, the lectures, discussion and the weekly in-class writing exercises will help you understand the assigned readings. They will thoroughly prepare you for the three take-home essays.
3. Readings: Readings assigned for each day must be completed by the start of class. Books are for sale at People’s Bookstore (2122 E. Locust, 962-0575). The course sourcebook, containing all required articles, is for sale at Clark Graphics (2915 N. Oakland, 962-4633). Request it by the course number and my name. Most of the books are also on reserve at the library, and the sourcebook is on "honor reserve" in cultural anthro. lounge, Sabin Hall 315.
Books:HADDEN:Sociological Theory
TURNER: The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure
WEBER: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
4. Graded Exercises
Undergraduates: Each student will complete three take-home essay assignments. You should use only the course readings in answering these essays. I strongly urge you not to use materials from other courses or the web. The first two will be reviewed and critiqued in class by other students and myself, and then revised and resubmitted. The third take-home essay constitutes the final examination. NOTE: You must hand in hard copies of all papers. E-mailed papers will not be accepted
Graduate students: Students will complete the first two take-home assignments as above, and then write a substantial research paper for the final exam. This paper must be at least 20 pages long, and it should address the course themes in a creative, original way. You must consult with me about your topic by April 1, 2012. Research papers are due at 5:30 pm on May 14. No late papers will be accepted.
5. Grading:
Undergraduates:1st and 2nd take-home essays30% each
3rd take-home essay 40%
Graduate students:1st and 2nd take-home essays30% each
Research paper40%
Your letter grade is based on your numeric grade (out of a possible 100 points): 70 to 73.3 = C-, 73.4 to 76.6 = C, 76.7 to 79.9 = C+, There is no pre-set percentage for class participation. However, active and informed discussion will usually raise your grade.
All take-home examinations must be handed in by the date stated in the syllabus. Make-ups and extensions will be granted only for documented emergency situations and must be arranged prior to the stated date of the exam or due date. Any person not making prior arrangements will automatically be given a failing grade (zero points). Any extension must be negotiated personally with the professor, at least one week before the due date. Academic misconduct -- including plagiarism -- will not be tolerated. If instances of academic misconduct are detected or suspected, action will be taken in accordance with written university policies. Plagiarism will warrant a grade of zero points for the entire essay. For further rights and responsibilities as a student, please consult
Please turn off all electronic devices in class (cell phones, Blackberries, ipods, etc.). You may not receive or send text messages during class. Personal computers are allowed only for taking notes. People using computers must sit in the back row of class, to prevent distracting other students. The professor reserves the right to alter this syllabus via class announcements or email to students.
DISCUSSION TOPICS AND READINGS
23 JanIntroduction to course; the Enlightenment background to anthropological theory
Handouts: Great Chain of Being; Definitions of culture
Section I: Classic European social theory
30 JanEnlightenment and conservative voices: 18th Century origins of anthropological theory A. READINGS Hadden: Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1
Kant: What is Enlightenment? (sourcebook)
Voltaire: Providence, Superstition, and Impiety (sourcebook)
B. READINGS: Garner (ed.): Section 2: The Enlightenment and Conservative Reactions, and Section 3: Edmund Burke (sourcebook)
6 FebEmile Durkheim (I): Religion and “collective consciousness”
A. READINGS:Durkheim: Intro. to Elementary Forms ... (sourcebook)
Durkheim: Chap. 11, “Religion and ritual” (sourcebook)
Hadden: Chapter 3
Emil Durkheim (II) Religion and modernity
B. READINGS: Durkheim Chap. 12 “Secularisation...” (sourcebook)
13 Feb. Emile Durkheim (III): Social structure and subjectivity in modern society
A. READINGS: Durkheim: Chap. 5 “Forms of social solidarity” (sourcebook)
(Read only pp. 123-135, and 138-140, on mechanical vs. organic solidarity) Durkheim: Chap. 6 “The division of labor...” (sourcebook)
and Chap. 8 “Anomie...” (sourcebook)
13 Feb (cont)Max Weber: (I): Basic questions about religion and social change
B. READINGS: Weber: Protestant Ethic
Author’s Introduction
Chap. 1: Religious affiliation and social stratification
Chap 2. The spirit of capitalism
Hadden: Chapter 4
20 Feb.Max Weber (II): European Protestantism as a case study
A. READINGS: Weber: Protestant Ethic
Chap. 3: Luther’s conception of the calling
Chap. 4: Intro., section A, and final 2 pages of chapter
Chap. 5: Asceticism
B. Discussion: Comparison of Enlightenment thinkers, Durkheim and Weber
Instructions on standard 5-page essay
1st take-home essay handed out (due 27 February)
Section II: Cultural anthropology: symbolic interpretation of social life
27 FebIn-class peer critique of take-home essay
A. Bring hard copy of 1st take-home essay.
Theoretical foundations of symbolic analysis
B. READINGS: Turner: The Ritual Process, chap. 3
Moore: Chap 18: Victor Turner, Symbols, Pilgrims & Drama
5 MarchFinal version of 1st take-home essay due at start of class
Symbolic analysis: field research and case studies
A. READINGS: Turner: The Ritual Process, chap. 4 and 5
B. READINGS: Geertz: Thick description (soucebook) (begin reading).
12 MarchSymbolic anthropology: classic and contemporary approaches A. READINGS: Geertz: Thick description (finish)
Moore: Chap. 19: Clifford Geertz, An Interpretive Anthropology
B. READINGS:Abu-Lughod: Interpretation of cultures after television
19 March Spring Vacation
26 MarchEpistemological critique of symbolic anthropology: how fieldworkers construct knowledge
A. READINGS: Rosaldo: Grief and Headhunter’s Rage (sourcebook)
Ethical critique of symbolic anthropology: the fieldworker’s ethical responsibility
B. READINGS: Scheper-Hughes: The Primacy of the Ethical
2ndtake-home essay handed out (due 2 April)
Section III: Recent directions in anthropological theory: power, resistance and practice
2 AprilIn-class peer critique of take-home essay
A. Bring hard copy of 2nd take-home essay.
Rethinking culture and power in a globalized world
B. READINGS Appadurai: Disjuncture & Difference … (sourcebook)
9 April Final version of 2nd take-home essay due at start of class
The new emphasis of “power” in anthropological theory
A. READINGS: Said: Introduction to Orientalism,
B. READINGS: Ortner: Thick Resistance
16 AprilMichel Foucault’s theory of social power: the impossibility of resistance?
A. READINGS: Foucault: Chap 1: The body of the condemned (sourcebook)
B. READINGS: Foucault, Chap. 3: Panopticism (sourcebook)
23 AprilJames Scott’s theory of social power: overt and covert resistance
A. READINGS: Scott: Chap. 1: Behind the official story (sourcebook)
Chap. 2: Domination, acting and fantasy (sourcebook)
B. READINGS: Scott: Chap. 4: False consciousness (sourcebook)
30 AprilPractice theory: the micro-politics of everyday life
A. READINGS:Ortner: Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties (sourcebook)
B. READINGS:Bourdieu: Outline of a Theory of Practice, chap. 4, pp. 159-171 (sourcebook)
7 MayCase study in practice theory: religious heresy
A. READINGS: Berlinerblau: Toward a sociology of heresy, orthodoxy, and doxa (sourcebook)
3rd take-home essay question handed out.
Final take-home essay due on Monday, 14 May,
by 5:30 pm, under door of Sabin Hall 180.
You may turn in essays early at any time;
please place under door of Sabin Hall 180.
Anthropology 460 UW-Milwaukee Professor Paul Brodwin
Anthropological Theory
Discussion questions for selected readings
Definitions of “theory”
Hadden (p.11): “An entire set of assumptions about how the world basically operates and about what knowledge is.”
Einstein: “The supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.”
(On the Method of Theoretical Physics. Philosophy of Science 1934, Vol. 1, pp. 168-169; quoted in JAMA, January 26 2005, Vol. 293, no. 4, p. 491)
Kant: What is Enlightenment?
1. What is Kant’s definition of Enlightenment?
2. How does Kant define the “public use of reason”?
- How should one combine one’s customary duties in a social role with one’s independent reason?
3. For Kant, what are the chief “rights of mankind?” What is the major “crime against humanity”?
4. Is Kant anti-religious?
Voltaire: Providence, Superstition, and Impiety
1. Does Voltaire hold religious beliefs? If so, are they consistent with the human faculty of reason?
2. What are the social implications of “superstition,” according to Voltaire?
Hadden: Chapter 1.
1. For the Philosophes, liberal individualism (the freely reasoning, independent, autonomous individual) is a core human trait. What is Goldmann’s counter-argument? How does he criticize the Enlightenment emphasis on autonomy and individualism?
2. What was Comte’s ideal human society? Do you think it could exist?
3. Describe the conservative reaction against the enlightenment
4. What are the evolutionist models of Comte and Spencer? How do they differ from today’s anthropological understanding of social change?
Garner: Sections 1 and 2
1. Contrast the main tenets of the Enlightenment and the conservative reaction
2. What is the proper role of religion, according to conservative thinkers?
3. How is the individual related to society, according to both Enlightenment and conservative thinkers?
4. Hadden claims that social theory draws equally from both Enlightenment and conservative thought. What does he mean?
Durkheim: Intro to Elementary Forms of the Religious Life
1. Durkheim says that “fundamentally… there are no religious that are false” (p. 2). What does he mean? What viewpoints is he rejecting?
2. How does Durkheim justify basing his general theory of religion on the study of Australian aborigines (a people living, he claims, in “the simplest social state known at present”)? (see pp. 4-5)
3. Durkheim claims that basic categories of understanding, like time and space, are “collective representations.” They have an essential social character. What examples does he use? Do you find them convincing?
4. How does the authority of society over the individual make itself felt? Why is this authority necessary?
Durkheim: Chap. 11, Religion and ritual
1. What is the fundamental social sentiment that gives rise to religion?
- How does it differ from everyday consciousness?
- Give examples of the way religious organizations periodically revive it.
2. How does Durkheim connect the notion of mana (“abstract powers, anonymous forces”) to the sentiments generated by collective social life? (see pp. 227-231)
3. There is a paradox in Durkheim’s views on the relation between the individual and society. On the one hand, human beings are absolutely dependent upon society, and since religion is society writ large, humans are absolutely dependent upon their religion. On the other hand, he writes that the existence of gods depends on human thoughts. What does he mean, and how can we resolve this paradox?
Durkheim: Chap. 12, Secularisation and rationality
1. In the first few pages, Durkheim sketches out an evolutionary development
from highly ritualized religion of “primitive society” to modern European Protestantism. What drives the loss of ritual and “tradition”?
2. Given Durkheim’s notion that religion symbolizes and helps to unite society, what will happen if religoin becomes “a smaller and smaller sector of social life”?
-What will happen to morality?
3. According to Durkheim, what is the relation between more “modern” thought and “primitive” thought?
Durkheim: Chap. 5, Forms of social solidarity
1. How does the study of crime and punishment illuminate Durkheim’s general theory of society?
2. How does the evolution of punishment parallel the evolution of religion?
-What changes in society underlie the development of both institutions?
3. (Key point:) Define the categories of mechanical and organic solidarity
Durkheim: Chap. 6, The division of labor …
1. What is the relation between the “collective consciousness” and individualism? How does it change over the course of social evolution (from “primitive” to “modern” societies)?
2. Can there be a religion of individualism?
-What would be its main features?
-Is this the dominant religion of our society
Durkheim: Chap. 8, Anomie and the moral structure of industry
1. What is anomie?
2. Why is this a danger particularly for modern societies held together by organic solidarity?
Weber: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
1. How does Weber define capitalism?
-How does it differ from ordinary self-interest?
-How does it differ from “traditional economic activity”?
2. According to Weber, how does Protestantism differ from Catholicism?
3. How does the conception of the calling arise in Protestantism?
4. What was the goal of Calvinist religion?
5. What was the doctrine of predestination?
-How does this doctrine affect people’s orientation to labor?
6. In Europe, how did the accumulation of wealth acquire moral and religious significance?
7. What is “worldly asceticism”?
8. What happened to the Protestant ethic after people became wealthy?
Turner: Ritual Process, chap. 3
1. What is a rite of passage? Describe van Gennep’s 3-stage model
2. How does Turner compare and contrast liminality and structure?
-Why (and when) is liminality necessary?
-Give examples of liminal episodes in contemporary USA society.
3. How do Turner’s view on social structure resemble and differ from those of Durkheim?
Turner: Ritual Process, chaps. 4
1. What are the different types of communitas?
2. What happens when people attempt to live out the ideal of communitas?
3. What do rituals of reversal accomplish? Do they oppose or strengthen social structure?
Turner: Ritual Process, chaps. 5
1. Describe the two kinds of liminality found in rituals of status elevation and status reversal.
2. Why do rituals of status elevation so often involve abasement and humility?
3. some rituals of reversal undermine the dominant structures of society, while others support those structures. Discuss this contrast.
4. How would Turner analyze societies with blatant conflict and tension? (see p. 190)
Geertz: Thick description
1. What are the differences between thin and thick description?
2. What does Geertz mean by saying that culture is public?
-What conception of culture is arguing against?
3. Given this view of culture, what is the unique contribution of anthropological fieldwork?
Abu-Lughod: The interpretation of culture(s) after television
1. Is it possible to carry out a “thick description” of television as a cultural object?
-Why or why not?
-To attempt this, how must we change the ethnographic method?
2. What general discoveries about Egyptian society does Abu-Lughod make via her ethnography of television?
3. What are Abu-Lughod’s political critiques of Geertzian anthropology?
Rosaldo: Grief and a headhunter’s rage
1. In what ways are anthropologists always “positioned subjects”?
- How does one’s position affect the authority of anthropological description and theories?
2. What are the classic anthropological approaches to death rituals and why does Rosaldo criticize them?
3.How does Rosaldo describe the force of cultural meanings and rituals?
- How does consideration of the force or intensity of cultural meanings change our view of culture? Of the goals of anthropology?
Scheper-Hughes: “The Primacy of the Ethical … “
1. What is her critique of cultural relativism?
2. How does she criticize the usual stance of the anthropologist?
- Is she criticizing objectivity in social science?
- What alternative stance does she propose? How does it relate to the “positioned knowledge” discussed by Rosaldo?
3. How would anthropologists discern the ethically correct path of action or advocacy?
Appadurai: Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy
1. What does Appadurai mean when he claims that imagination is a social practice?