Catholic University of America
Anthropology 504
Social Theory: Structure and Agency

Fall 1998                                                                                                        Dr. David Guillet
Tuesdays 4:10 - 6:00 pm                                                                          Tel: 202 319 5080
Office Hours:                                                                                     E-Mail: guillet@cua.edu
Monday 11:00-12:00
Wednesday 2:00-4:00

Much current debate in anthropological theory centers on competing paradigms of structure and agency. This course reviews current directions in this debate through the reading of recent ethnographies that claim to make a significant contribution to theory. Lectures on key theorists, including, but not limited to, Karl Marx, Max Weber, James Coleman, Pierre Bourdieu, Clifford Geertz, Michel Foucault, Antonio Gramsci and the British Marxist historians, will alternate with presentation of student papers on the ethnographies.

Texts, Required:

Edwin Wilmsen, Land filled with flies. University of Chicago Press

Paul Farmer, AIDS and Accusation. University of California Press

Arturo Escobar, Encoutering development. Princeton University Press

Dorothy Holland, Educated in romance: women, achievement and college culture. University of Chicago Press

Sharryn Kasmir, The Myth of Mondragon. Cooperatives, politics and working-class life in a Basque town.

Jean Lave, Cognition in Practice. Cambridge University Press

Texts, Recommended:

Daniel Little, Varieties of Social Explanation

Peter Burke, History and Social Theory

Procedure and Evaluation:

Students will be required to write short papers on each of the six ethnographic texts. These papers will be read and discussed during class. Course evaluation will be based on written assignments (50%), class attendance and participation (20%), and a final examination (30%).

Class Schedule

Introduction

Lecture: Karl Marx

Student Papers: Wilmsen, Land filled with flies

Lecture: Rational Choice Theory

Student Papers: Lave, Cognition in Practice

Lecture: Max Weber, Clifford Geertz, and James Clifford

Student Papers: Farmer, AIDS and Accusation

Lecture: Pierre Bourdieu

Student Papers: Holland, Educated in romance

Lecture: Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci

Student Papers: Escobar, Encountering development

Lecture: The British Marxist Historians

Student Papers: Kasmir, The myth of Mondragon

Open

Social Theory: Structure and Agency

Version 6.0

Selected Bibliography of Books and Articles Relevant to the Theoretical Issues Discussed in the Course

Borofsky, Robert 1997 CA Forum on theory in Anthropology: Cook, Lono, Obeyesekere and Sahlins. Current Anthropology 38:255-282

Briggs, Charles L. 1996 The Politics of Discursive Authority in Research on the "Invention of Tradition". Cultural Anthropology 11: 4: 435

Burke, Peter 1992 History and social theory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press

Coleman, James. S. 1990 Foundations of Social Theory. Harvard University Press

Dirks, Nicholas B., Geoff Eley and Sherry B. Ortner, eds. 1994 Culture/Power/History: A reader in contemporary social theory. Princeton University Press

Durkheim, E. 1947[1893] Division of labor. trans. G. Simpson. New York: Free Press 1951[1897] Suicide. Glencoe, Il.: Free Press

Fox, Richard G., ed. 1991 Recapturing anthropology. Santa Fe: School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series

Friedman, Jonathan 1994 Cultural identity and global process. London: Thousand Oaks

Harvey, David 1990 The condition of postmodernity. Blackwell's

Marx, Karl 1965[1857-57] Pre-capitalist economic formations ("Formen"). With introduction by Eric Hobsbawm. New York: International Publishers

Marx, Karl 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

Obeyesekere, Gananath 1992 The apotheosis of Captain Cook: European mythmaking in the Pacific. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Ortner, Sherry B. 1984 Theory in anthropology since the sixties. Comparative Studies in Society and History 26:1:126-166

Ortner, Sherry B. 1998 Identities: The Hidden Life of Class. Journal of anthropological research. 54: 1: 1-

Salzman, Philip Carl 1988 Fads and fashions in anthropology. Anthropology Newsletter 29:5

Sahlins, Marshall 1995 How "natives" think: About Captain Cook for example. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Sangren, P. Steven 1995 "Power" against Ideology: A Critique of Foucaultian Usage. Cultural Anthropology 10: 1: 3

Scott, James C. 1990 Domination and the arts of resistance. Yale University Press

Service, Elman 1985 A century of controversy: Ethnological issues from 1860-1960. Academic Press

Vincent, Joan 1990 Anthropology and politics. University of Arizona Press

Weber, Max 1958[1904] The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. New York: Scribner's

Weber, Max 1993 [1922] The sociology of religion. Boston: Beacon Press

Karl Marx

Althusser, Louis and Etienne Balibar 1970 Reading capital. London and New York: Verso Books

Dobb, Maurice 1963[1946] Studies in the development of capitalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul

Friedemann, Johathan 1974 Marxism, structuralism and vulgar materialism. Man n.s. 9:444-69

Godelier, Maurice 1986 The making of great men: Male domination and power among the New Guinea Baruya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Hilton, Rodney, ed. 1976 The transition from feudalism to capitalism. London: New left Books

Hindess, B., and P. Hirst 1975 Precapitalist modes of production. London: Routledge

Marx, Karl 1965[1857-57] Pre-capitalist economic formations ("Formen"). With introduction by Eric Hobsbawm. New York: International Publishers

Marx, Karl 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy

Nelson, Cary and Lawrence Grossberg, eds. 1988 Marxism and the interpretation of culture. University of Illinois Press

Wallerstein, Immanuel 1974 The modern world system. New York: Academic Press

Wallerstein, Immanuel1979 The capitalist world economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Cognition and Choice

Coleman, James S. 1990 Foundations of Social Theory. Harvard University Press.

Dalton, George 1961 Economic theory and primitive society. American Anthropologist 63:1-25

D'Andrade, R.G. and Claudia Strauss, eds. 1992 Human motives and cultural models. Cambridge University Press

Green, Donald P. and Ian Shapiro 1994 Pathologies of rational choice theory: A critique of applications in political science. New Haven: Yale University Press

Holland, Dorothy and Naomi Quinn, eds. 1987 Cultural models in language and thought. Cambridge University Press

Hollis, Martin and Steven Lukes, eds. 1982 Rationality and relativism. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press

Lakoff, George 1987 Women, fire, and dangerous things. University of Chicago Press

Schank, Roger C. 1977 Scripts, plans, goals and understanding. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum

Shore, Bradd 1996 Culture in mind. Cognition, culture and the problem of meaning. Oxford University Press

Smith, Adam 1976[1776] The wealth of nations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Max Weber, Clifford Geertz, and James Clifford

Clifford, James and George E. Marcus 1986 Writing culture. Berkeley: University of California Press

Geertz, Clifford 1980 Negara. University of Chicago Press

Geertz, Clifford 1973 The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books

Keesing, Roger M. 1987 Anthropology as interpretive quest. Current Anthropology 28:2:161-176

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko, ed. 1990 Culture through time. Stanford University Press

Sangren, P. Steven 1988 Rhetoric and the authority of ethnography: "Postmodernism" and the social reproduction of texts. Current Anthropology 29:3:495-435

Spencer, Jonathan 1989 Anthropology as a kind of writing. Man (N.S.) 24: 145-164

Weber, Max 1958[1904] The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. New York: Scribner's

Weber, Max 1968 Economy and society. New York: Bedminister Press

Pierre Bourdieu

Bourdieu, Pierre 1977 Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Bourdieu, Pierre 1990 The logic of practice. Stanford University Press

Michel Foucault

Foucault, Michel 1965 Madness and civilization. Random House

Foucault, Michel 1972 The archaeology of knowledge. Pantheon

Foucault, Michel 1979 Discipline and Punish. Random House

Foucault, Michel 1969 Pamphlet printed in fulfillment of requirements for candidacy at the College de France. Trans. Didier Eribon. Paris: privated printed, pp. 4-6

Antonio Gramsci

Gramsci, Antonio 1988 An Antonio Gramsci Reader. New York: Schocken Books

Golding, Sue 1992 Gramsci's democratic theory: Contribution to a post-liberal democracy. University of Toronto Press

Sasoon, Anne S. 1988 Gramsci's politics. 2nd. ed. University of Minnesota Press

The British Marxist Historians

Anderson, Benedict 1991 Imagined communities. Revised Edition. London: Verso

Dobb, Maurice 1963[1946] Studies in the development of capitalism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul

Hilton, Rodney 1976 The transition from feudalism to capitalism. London: New Left Books

Hobsbawm, Eric and Terence Ranger, eds. 1983 Invention of tradition. Cambridge University Press

Thompson, E.P. 1968 The making of the English working class. Rev. ed. Penguin

Thompson, E.P. 1978 The poverty of theory and other essays. New York: Monthly Review Press

Home Page                                   E-Mail David Guillet