CULTURES IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY
Anthropology 101
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:35 - 2:50 p.m., Life Cycle Institute 102
Dr. Vasiliki Neofotistos
neofotistos@cua.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 4:30-6:00 p.m. or by appointment, Marist Hall 3
Teaching Assistant: Valerie Dandar
vdandar@gmail.com
Course Description
The course is an introduction to the rich field of cultural anthropology. Today there are no more "primitive cultures." Our lives are influenced by media images and information, consumer desires, international markets, global ecology, diverse and conflicting political aspirations, religious revivals and rewritten histories of the world's peoples. Anthropologists pose questions about unexpected links among such phenomena.
In this course we will examine the tools, theories and techniques that anthropologists use to understand complex cultural dynamics. Our approach to the material we cover will be twofold. First, we will be comparative. Cultural anthropology uses the study of other cultures to gain perspective on our own; anthropologists consider similarities and differences in a wide range of human societies before generalizing about the human condition. Second, our views of other cultures will be holistic, that is, we will look at connections between practices and beliefs within cultures, and not at isolated customs.
Cultural anthropologists want to understand how global interconnections influence cultural practices and understandings. Some of the interconnections we will explore in this course are those between Guatemalan weavers and tourist markets, a 19th-century French aristocrat and present-day steroids scandals in sports, international migrants and middle-class Americans. We will also examine instances of ethnic violence and the challenges that globalization poses to social organization. Moreover, we will explore social differences and the ways in which they become social inequalities within the United States.
In posing and answering questions about cultures, we will use some of the concepts and methods of anthropological inquiry.
Our study will focus on:
· the diverse goals that people in families and communities have, and the ways that people use to reach their goals
· the symbolic resources through which people create meaningful lives
· the ways in which people construct identities, families and communities
· the political and economic processes that shape social organization
· the negotiations, contests and conflicts in which people participate to accomplish their goals.
For those who are majors in education or in nursing special reading assignments will examine respectively the social and cultural specificities of education and schooling, or the social and cultural specificities of health, illness, and wellbeing.
Course Texts Required for Everyone Enrolled in the Course
Barnes, Virginia Lee and Janice Boddy. 1994. Aman: The Story of a Somali Girl. Vintage Press.
Chavez, Leo R. 1992. Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society. Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
Schultz, Emily and Robert Lavenda. 2001. Cultural Anthropology, 6th edition. Mayfield Press.
Kawagley, A. Oscar. 1995. A Yupiaq Worldview: A Pathway to Ecology and Spirit. Waveland Press.
Vigil, James Diego. 1997. Personas Mexicanas: Chicano High Schoolers in a Changing Los Angeles. Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
Additional Text for Nursing Majors
Fadiman, Anne. 1997. The Spirit Catches and You Fall Down. Noonday Press.
Grades
Mid-term Exam #1 25%
Mid-term Exam # 2 25%
Final exam 25%
Written assignment 25%
Class participation will also be taken into consideration when tallying final grades.
Course Requirements
The reading assignments in the Schultz and Lavenda, Chavez, and Barnes and Boddy books are given below and are required reading for satisfactory work in the course. The Chavez, and the Barnes and Boddy books will be used for examples throughout the semester. Class participants are expected to have prepared reading assignments for each class and to attend class; they are responsible for reading all this material whether or not it has been covered in lectures. Class participants are also responsible for all material covered in class lectures, maps, films and videos.
Nursing majors have additional reading assignments in the Fadiman book that is double-starred (**) below.
Exams
Two midterm exams will be given during the semester, one before the middle of the semester and one shortly after. Also, a two-hour final exam will be given at the end of the semester. All exams include multiple choice, short answer, map, and essay questions. Essays must be well written and show mastery of concepts learned in the course; essays will ask that you use such concepts to think about some of your own experiences.
Written Assignments
A short written assignment of 5 double-spaced pages is due at the last class meeting on December the 6th. For non-Education and non-Nursing majors, topics will be based on visits to Smithsonian museum exhibits that will be assigned later in the semester.
To write your essay, you need to view an exhibit and use a concept that you have learned this semester to think about the exhibit, react to it, criticize it, or relate it to something else you know.
Topics for the written assignment for Education majors will be based on the book, A Yupiaq Worldview: A Pathway to Ecology and Spirit, or Personas Mexicanas: Chicano High Schoolers in a Changing Los Angeles. Education majors will work on projects for classroom use and may assemble their projects in an appropriate fashion.
Topics for the written assignment for Nursing majors will be based on the book, The Spirit Catches and You Fall Down.
All students are encouraged to visit the Writing Center to get critiques of their written assignments and essays. All written assignments should be stapled in the upper left-hand corner. No loose pages, folders, or plastic covers will be accepted. There will be a grade penalty for students who do not submit their papers on time.
To download the topic for your written assignment click on the appropriate link below.
Course Outline
Week One: Cultures and Meanings
Tuesday, Aug 30: Course Introduction: The Anthropological Perspective
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 1
-- *Kawagley: Introduction and Chapter 1
Thursday, Sept 1: Conducting Fieldwork
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 3
-- Aman: Foreword, Chapters 1 and 2
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 2
Thursday, Sept 8: Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
-- Aman: Chapters 3 and 4
-- *Kawagley, Chapter 2
MOVIE: “Greetings from Gronzy”
Week Three: Colonialism, Change and Adaptation
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 4
FRIDAY, Sept 16: An Ever-Changing World
-- Aman: Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8.
-- MOVIE: Kazaks of China
Week Four: Language and Culture
Tuesday, Sept 20: The structure of language and languages
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 5
-- **Fadiman: Chapters 1 and 2
-- Aman: Chapters 9 and 10
-- *Kawagley: Chapter 3
Week Five: Cognition, Socialization, and Enculturation
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 6
Aman: Chapter 11, 12
Thursday, Sept 29: Languages in Context
-- Aman: Chapter 13
Week Six: Play, Art, Myth and Ritual I
Tuesday, Oct 4: FIRST MIDTERM EXAM
Thursday, Oct 6: Play, Art, Myth and Ritual I
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 7 pp. 143-160
-- *Kawagley: Chapter 4
-- **Fadiman: Chapter 3
Week Seven: Play, Art, Myth and Ritual II
Tuesday, Oct 11: ADMINISTRATIVE MONDAY (no classes)
Thursday, Oct 13: Play, Art, Myth and Ritual II
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 7 pp. 161-170
-- **Fadiman: Chapter 4
MOVIE : "Trobriand Cricket”
Week Eight: The Social Construction of Reality
Tuesday, Oct 18: How Beliefs Shape Behaviors
-- *Kawagley: Chapter 5
-- **Fadiman: Chapters 5 and 6
MOVIE: The Three Worlds of Bali
Week Nine: Social Organization and the Power to Act
Thursday, Oct 27: Empowerment
-- Aman: Chapters 18, 19 and 20
-- *Vigil: Chapters 1 and 2
-- ** Fadiman: Chapters 5 and 6
Week Ten: The Social Construction of Violence
Tuesday, Nov 1: Practices of War and Peace
-- Aman: Chapters 21, 22 and 23
-- Chavez: Introduction and Chapter 1
Thursday, Nov 3: Resistance
-- Chavez: Chapter 2
-- *Vigil: Chapters 3 and 4
-- **Fadiman: Chapters 7 and 8
Tuesday, Nov 8: The Meanings of Progress
Thursday, Nov 10: Forms of production, distribution, and consumption
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 10
-- *Vigil, Chapters 3 and 4
Week Twelve: Kinship
Tuesday, Nov 15: SECOND MIDTERM EXAM
Thursday, Nov 17: Patterns of Family Relations
-- Schultz & Lavenda, Chapter 11
-- Chavez: Chapters 5 and 6
-- **Fadiman, Chapters 9-12
Week Thirteen: Marriage and Family
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapters 12 and 13
-- *Vigil, Chapter 5
Thursday, Nov 24: THANKSGIVING RECESS
Week Fourteen: Globalization, and the Social Construction of Equality and Inequality
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 14
-- *Vigil, Chapters 6 and 7
-- **Fadiman, Chapters 13, 14 and 15
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 15
-- Chavez: Chapters 9 and 10
-- **Fadiman: Chapters 16 and 17
Week Fifteen: REVIEW
Tuesday Dec 6: Review
-- Schultz & Lavenda: Chapter 16
-- Review for final exam (Please bring your questions)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE
Thursday December 8: Patronal Feast of the Immaculate Conception (HOLIDAY)
Tuesday, Dec 13: FINAL EXAM, 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Last Revised 16-Nov-05 11:30 AM.
