Spring 2001

Tuesdays – Thursdays 2:00 to 3:15 PM

Hamilton Room 302

Instructor: Alice Bee Kasakoff

Office: Hamilton Room 307

Office Hours: Monday 1 to 2 PM and Thursday 11:15 to 12:15

                          Basso, Keith 1996 Wisdom Sits in Places. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1945 Some Aspects of Marriage and the Family among the Nuer Rhodes Livingston Papers Number 11, Manchester University Press.

Basch, Linda, Glick Schiller, Nina and Cristina Szanton Blanc 1994 Nations Unbound Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.

Behar, Ruth 1993 Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza’s Story. Boston: Beacon Press.

Mankekar, Purnima 1999 Screening, Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood and Nation in Postcolonial India. Durham: Duke University Press.

Selected articles on reserve in Department Office.

Objectives :

1) To acquaint students with theoretical and methodological conversations going on in Cultural Anthropology today and help them understand their background.

2) To intensively analyze influential examples of how ethnography is being done and has been done in the past and to show how the methods being used are related to the theoretical perspectives of the authors.

3) To help students formulate a research proposal for their summer and/or thesis research -their Comprehensive Exam - which includes a theoretically grounded research question.

4) To help students compile an annotated working bibliography which will be the basis for their summer and/or thesis research (Comprehensive Exam) and to help them learn to use the library and other tools for finding out about research that has gone on and is going on in Cultural Anthropology.

5) To provide experience in collegial cooperation with peers by providing practice in encouraging and aiding the research of other students in the program.

In the first two parts of the course we will read ethnographies that have influenced recent conversations within cultural anthropology. In Part One the ethnographies highlight how the issue of place has affected ethnographic practice. In Part Two they highlight issues of voice, power and gender. In Part Three students will develop their own theoretical perspective and direct their reading to the theoretical part of the research proposal they are writing. Each student will take responsibility for teaching one week during this part of the class, assigning reading and leading discussion around their theoretical interests.

Assignments:

Oral Presentation:

For each unit (ethnography) a particular student will be responsible for starting class discussion around two questions they will present to the class, one from Group I  and the other from Group II.

Group I:

A.    What is the argument of this chapter?  How does it fit into the larger structure of the ethnography?  Is it necessary and why?

B.    Issues of place in this chapter.

C.    What is the relationship between method and theory in this work?

D.    Issues of voice, power and representation in this work.

We will be keeping a running journal of issues of place, and of voice representation and power on disk.

Other questions you should be prepared to discuss in class are: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches taken in this ethnography and how they might be useful to you in your own research.

Group II:

A.    How was the ethnography received at the time it was published - based upon book reviews.

B.    What was its impact on later research - based upon citation indexes.

C.    What are the key theoretical works underlying its theoretical framework - present key theoretical references cited by the author.

Papers:

Three Short Papers

First Paper:  

A 5 to 10 page paper discussing issues of "place" in modern ethnography.  In this paper you should compare the two books we have read on how they treat place, relate your discussion to the article(s) we have read, articulate the ideas about place you intend to use in your research proposal and defend them, and also include one other ethnography that has been written on a "place" near where you intend to do your research.  Make use of book reviews, theoretical articles and citations presented in class.

Second Paper:

A 5 to 10 page paper discussing issues of "Voice, Power and Representation" in modern ethnography.  In this paper you should compare the two books we have read on how they treat these issues, relate your discussion to the article(s) we have read, articulate the ideas about these issues you intend to use in your research proposal and defend them.  Make use of book reviews, theoretical articles and citations presented in class.  

Third Paper:

A 5 to 10 page paper discussing the theoretical framework you intend to use in your research proposal.  Most students will be writing a research proposal which contains a theoretically grounded research question which may be the basis for their thesis research.  This paper should contribute to the theoretical section of the proposal.  It should include a theoretical lineage of the framework you intend to use in your research.  Identify and discuss key theoretical work, say why it is important that it be used to discuss the topic you will study and what your study will contribute to developing this theory.  Incorporate in this discussion an ethnography which makes use of the same or a similar theoretical framework in a part of the world where you are not working.  You should also include a section evaluating your class presentation and what the other students learned from it (on the basis of their final exams).  What would you do differently next time?

Papers are due at 5PM the day after the last day of each unit.  Do not miss class to complete your assignment!!

Take-home Final:

Students answer questions on the student-led topics.  Questions will be provided by students and exam graded by them.

Working Bibliography:

This is not a class assignment but students should use the class to compile it. It will be the basis for the references you will need for your research proposal which, in turn, may be the basis for the review of the literature in your thesis. Some of the items will be on the bibliography you will hand out in the class where you present your theoretical perspective. It should contain full citations to materials students have read which are related to the proposed research. The annotations should go beyond a summary to explain how the work relates to, and will be useful for, the research the student wishes to carry out. Its length is not as important as its adequacy as the basis for the research to be done. Special attention should be given to works that provide theoretical grounding for the research question. It should be divided into sections by topic. Beyond the one(s) on theoretical perspectives, it could also contain sections on methods to be used, previous research in the same geographical area or on the community or type of community where the research will be conducted, and research elsewhere in the world on the same topic, problem or issue.

Students are expected to have done the reading prior to class and to come prepared to discuss it in class. We will keep a running list of concepts, issues and ideas that are raised by the ethnographies we will read together. Students need to be able to talk about the research they are planning and we will operate as a working group in which everyone will make suggestions about the research students are planning.

Three Papers……………………… 60 %

Take Home Final ………………… 15 %

Class participation........................ ..25 %

As part of the comprehensive Exam you will be presenting your research orally to your advisor, the instructor of Anthropology 519 and to other interested faculty and students. Date and time to be announced.

Students in Anthropology and other disciplines who would like to find out more about theories and methods being used in cultural anthropology today. They should be engaged in or preparing for research using anthropological theories or methods