Integrated Studies 001Anthropology Stream

Anthropology Stream Greg UrbanCohen Hall Museum 518 Monday 2-3:20 p.m. Ph. 898-0895

gurban@sas.upenn.eduHrs.:  TBA

Identity, Inheritance, and Change:

This course serves as an introduction to our attempts, past and present, to understand the world and the human place in it. In particular we will examine how human identity is formed, through social interaction, genetics, or our own heroic exploits. We will work through the importance of our embeddedness within traditions, from our biological natures, to our cultural inheritance, to the mythic frameworks that guide us. We will also focus on the always present process of change, both disrupting and invigorating, that makes life itself possible.

The Anthropology Stream

The overall focus of the anthropology stream is the culture concept, which is not only central to the discipline of anthropology, but also key to integrating the distinct and too often disparate strands of knowledge defining the modern world. The key questions we will be addressing during the semester are: (1) How much of our identity is given to us by culture? (2) What exactly do we inherit from the past through social learning? (3) What is the relationship of culture to processes of change?

This steam will equip students with an understanding of some of the great ideas in the qualitative social sciences, as well as some of the principal concepts, including, in addition to the culture concept, race, role, language and semiotic process, division of labor, and relativism. Readings are primarily from classic texts in anthropology and adjacent disciplines, with the addition of some relevant contemporary readings.

Requirements:

Attendance at all lectures is required. Material covered in lecture, along with the assigned readings, will form the basis for two examinations: a midterm and a final. Each of these two exams will count for a third of the student’s grade in the anthropology stream.

In addition to exams, students will conduct a research project — a mini-ethnographic study — which will count for a third of the anthropology stream grade. Students have a choice between two options for their research:

Option 1: A min-ethnography of feelings, beliefs, and knowledge about national constitutions. The research will consist in interviews with at least two different adults, one citizen of some country other than the United States, and one a U.S. citizen. The interviews should be recorded and important parts transcribed. Important: no two students may interview the same individual, so confirm first that your interview is exclusive. Students will also do some background investigation of the literature on the role of the constitution in the non-U.S. country they are studying. Out of this research, students will produce a paper of approximately 10 pages in length, synthesizing the results of their interviews and background research with ideas from the class.

Option 2: a mini-ethnography of one occupation, exploring through three interviews with different individuals the motivations they (and others) have for doing the work they do.  The interviews should be recorded and important parts transcribed. Important: no two students may interview the same individual, so confirm first that your interview is exclusive. Students will also do some background investigation of the literature on the occupation they are choosing to study. Out of this research, students will produce a paper of approximately 10 pages in length, synthesizing the results of their interviews and background research with ideas from the class.

Ethnographies are due in the 7th week of the semester, on Monday October 14, 2013 by midnight.

Grading:

Grades will be determined according to the following formula:

Research project and write-up: 33.33%Midterm examination: 33.33%Final examination: 33.33%

Readings:

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Most of the readings will be in PDF form available on-line at the Canvas website for the class. In addition to the PDF readings, there will be one book available at the Penn Bookstore: The Making of PCR by Paul Rabinow.

I. IDENTITY

Lecture 1: What makes us human: culture?

Geertz, Clifford. "Thick Description," in The Interpretation of Cultures, pp. 1-32.  New York:  Basic Books.  1973.

Lecture 2: Culture colonizes the body

Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Social Space and Its Transformations" in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, pp. 99-125 (only). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1984. Originally published in French in 1979.

Fussell, Paul.  "Appearance Counts," in Class, pp. 51-75.

Lecture 3: Race: It’s not just in our genes

Boas, Franz. Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants, pp. 1-9 (only).  Washington, D.C.:  Government Printing Office.  1911.

Mukhopadhyay, Carol C. and Yolanda Moses. Reestablishing ‘Race’ in Anthropological Discourse.  American Anthropologist 99(3): 517-533. 1997.

Lecture 4: Signs of Identity: conscious and not-so-conscious sign usage

Hall, Edward T. “Culture as Communication” and “Distances in Man,” Chapter I and X, pp. 1-6 and 113-129 in The Hidden Dimension. New York: Anchor Books. 1990. Originally published in 1966.

Lecture 5: What are nations?

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities, pp. 1-46. New York: Verson. 1994[1983].

II. INHERITANCE

Lecture 6: With whom may we have sex? Incest and exogamy

Freud, Sigmund. “Identification” and “Being in Love and Hypnosis.” Chapters VII and VIII, pp. 46-61, in Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. James Strachey (trans.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. 1959. Originally published in 1922.

Cohen, Yehudi. "Marriage, Alliance, and the Incest Taboo." In Conformity and Conflict, 6th edition. pp. 125-135. Originally published in 1978.

Lecture 7: The concept of the role in culture

Merton, Robert K. "The Role-Set: Problems in Sociological Theory." The British Journal of Sociology 8(2): 110-120 (abridged). 1957.

Weston, Kath. Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship, Chapter 2: “Exiles from Kinship,” pp. 21-42. New York: Columbia University Press. 1997.

Lecture 8: Language as structure

de Saussure, Ferdinand.  In Course in General Linguistics.  Part I, Chapter I, "Nature of the Linguistic Sign," pp. 65-70, and Part II "Synchronic Linguistics," Chapter I-V only, pp. 101-127.  New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1966 [1915].

III. CHANGE

Lecture 9: Acosmic love: Changing our orientation towards the world.

Bellah, Robert. “Max Weber and World-denying Love: A Look at the Historical Sociology of Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67(2): 277-304. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1978.

Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Chapter II: “The Spirit of Capitalism” (pp. 13-37) and “Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism” (pp. 103-125). London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. 2001[1904].

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Lecture 10: The division of labor.

Smith, Adam. “On the Division of Labor.” An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, pp. 3-13. New York: The Modern Library. 1994. Originally published in 1776.

Durkheim, Emile. "Mechanical Solidarity, or Solidarity by Similarity” and “Solidarity Arising from the Division of Labor.” In The Division of Labor, pp. 11-67. New York: The Free Press, 1933, originally published in French in 1893.

Lecture 11: Corporations as culture-bearers.

Deal, Terrence E. and Allan A. Kennedy, "Strong Cultures:  The New 'Old Rule' for Business Success," and "Values:  The Core of the Culture," in Corporate Cultures:  The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, pp. 3-36.  Cambridge, Mass.:  Perseus Publishing.  2000[1982].

Lecture 12: Cultural and biological learning

Rabinow, Paul. The Making of PCR: A Story of Biotechnology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1996.

Lecture 13: Relativism in a globalizing world?

Geertz, Clifford. "Anti Anti-relativism." American Anthropologist 86(2): 263-277. 1984.