1) Please purchase:
1) At Campus Copier (Marshall Square Mall)

Course Reader
2) At Orange Bookstore (and on reserve):

Jerry Moore, Visions of Culture
Adam Kuper, Anthropology and Anthropologists
Edward Tylor, Religion in Primitive Culture
Margaret Mead, Sex and Temperament
Julian Steward, Theory of Culture Change
E.E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer
Bronislaw Malinowski, Crime and Custom in Savage Society
Victor Turner, Forest of Symbols
Claude Levi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning
Clifford Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures

This is a heavy reading course. For good reason: there is no other way for you to become acquainted with the array of perspectives about which you'll have to know to succeed as anthropologists. Please be ready for this. Completing the weekly readings are a key part of the course, and essential to good, productive discussions. Please give this reading high priority.

Every week you must hand in 2-3 double-spaced pages on the readings for that week. I do not expect the papers to be highly polished essays. I do not expect the papers to cover all the reading for the week. I do expect you to do the following: 1) summarize what you understand to be two or three central issues/points in the reading; 2) articulate at least two questions and/or problems the readings have provoked for you.

These mini-papers get you to keep up with the readings; gets you feedback early and throughout course; becomes a very useful tool in studying for exams; and prepares you for class discussion.

You may miss two weeks of reading notes without prejudice (in addition to the week that you have a class presentation). These papers count 50% toward your final grade.

3) Two class presentations

Once during the semester you will make a twenty-minute presentation in class. In this, after consulting with me, you will present either on a) the biography of a relevant author, with discussion of his or her work; b) an article that applies or elaborates on the theoretical approach illustrated by the joint assignment of the week; c) an article that presents a critical appraisal of the theoretical approach of the week. The two key tasks of the presentation are a) to present the key points of the material; b) to raise stimulating questions for class discussion to follow.

The first day of class we will draw lots to determine who presents on which day. When you find out which day you will be presenting, you may want to glance at that day in the syllabus. You will notice that I have included, after each joint reading assignment, suggested topics for each week’s presentations. While you may take one of these suggestions, you are also free to be stimulated by these to choose, in consultation with me, some other pertinent topic.

Please set up a meeting with me between 1-2 weeks before your presentation date, to discuss options and reading that will be relevant for you. For any topic, I expect you to read at least one additional article; some presentations, however, such as biographies, require a bit more reading (but are also a lot of fun). The class presentation is worth 10% of your grade. The week you present you are not required to hand in your weekly response paper.

4) Write one term paper

On Friday, December 11th, you must hand in a 15-page paper discussing three anthropological works.

1. The works must deal, from different points of view, with the same region, issue, or problem.
2. The works must be written before the mid-1960s.
3. Ideally, since this is a course in the history of anthropological theory, the works should not all come from the same period, but should illustrate different periods.
4. While the works do not have to correspond neatly to different theoretical schools, you should select works that exemplify variety rather than sameness of approach.

For each work your job is to do a close reading and explicate the underlying theoretical, social, and political ideas and commitments that guide the work – its choice of subject, the questions it poses, its method, what it takes to be explanatory, and its conclusions. You should show how the works’ underlying assumptions, style of thought, approach, etc., differ from and resemble each other. You definitely should incorporate into your paper ideas you have picked up in this course from readings and discussions. Please set up an appointment to discuss possible topics for your papers before the first week of October.