John Burdick
Fall 1999 404C Maxwell Hall
Fridays, 9:30 am -12:30 pm X3822
Syracuse University jsburdic@maxwell.syr.edu
Home: 423-8722

This course is the first of a two-part sequence (the second is ANT 612) covering the history of the principal trends in Euro-American anthropological theory and ethnographic practice. This course brings the story through to the late 1960s. Next semester, ANT 612 will take the story from the 60s through to the present.

The course is intended to serve as a preliminary guide to, not an exhaustive accounting of the works doctoral students should become familiar with in order to prepare for the qualifying exam next August. I will pass out in class sample questions from recent qualifying examinations, to give you an idea of the nature and scope of the questions you may expect. Appended to this syllabus is a bibliographic guide that suggests some strategies for deeper reading on topics covered this semester. The bibliographic guide should not be regarded as a privileged or exhaustive list of readings. It is included only to help stimulate and guide your own bibliographic explorations.

A guiding principle of the course is that in general reading whole ethnographies, rather than a smattering of articles, provides deeper understanding of different authors’ points of view. While this sometimes means a heavy reading load, it also means staying focussed on a smaller number of authors, and getting to know them better.

In order to perform well on the qualifying exam, you will have to become familiar not only with the literatures included in the course sequence and their bibliographies; you will also have to become familiar with the literatures of a geographical area of your choice. To this end, you will have an opportunity in this course, in your term paper, to begin the process of mapping out and becoming familiar with these other literatures.

Refer to Marxism and feminism next semester.