Course Description

This seminar provides an in-depth and historical exploration of the ways in which anthropologists have theorized culture since the discipline's founding in the 19th century. We will study some of the key trends, concepts, and models in anthropological theories of culture: evolution, functionalism, interpretive anthropology, Marxism, feminist anthropology, postmodernism, globalization, and neoliberalism. A central concern will be how anthropologists have defined culture, conceptualized its processes, and theorized how individuals interact with culture in ways that challenge or reproduce power relations and social structures.

Class meetings

The class meets one time per week and follows a seminar format. Students will be expected to attend all class meetings (attendance will be taken), to complete the readings as scheduled on the syllabus, and to come to class prepared to engage in a focused discussion of the issues raised by the readings. Most weeks, students will write a brief response paper (2-3 pages) on an assigned topic. These will serve as the basis for group discussion.

Course Requirements

Course grades will be based on written work and class participation, broken down as follows:

1. Class Discussion and Participation (15%)

This advanced seminar promotes an active approach to learning. Not only are you required to attend all class meetings, but you will be expected to engage actively in group discussions in ways which demonstrate your critical reflection on the readings. Because involvement in class activities is so important, more than one unexcused absence during the semester will result in the lowering of your participation grade by two percentage points for each additional class missed.

2. Response papers (30%)

In preparation for most class meetings, you will be asked to write a short response paper (2-3 pages) on an assigned question related to the readings. These papers require you to reflect on the readings, either by developing your own insights or by evaluating the methods used by their authors. There are ten assignments over the course of the semester. Each is worth three points, for a total of 30 points and 30% of your course grade. Late papers will not be accepted. Papers are to be emailed to Prof. Leshkowich before class.

3. Two 5-7 page essays (25%)

In weeks 6 and 11, you will be asked to submit a 5-7 page (double-spaced) essay on an assigned question. These essays will require you to make a critical, insightful, and compelling argument that synthesizes issues raised by readings from the previous weeks. Each paper will count for 12.5% of your course grade. Papers will be due by 3pm on a Friday following the course meeting (i.e., October 10 and November 14) and should be emailed to Prof. Leshkowich. Unexcused late papers will be penalized one portion of a grade (e.g. an A becomes an A-) for each day late.

4. Take Home Final Exam (30%)

At the end of the semester, you will complete a final exam (15-20 pages) in which you will answer three essay questions that require you to evaluate critically several readings in order to explore central themes of the course. The questions for the final exam will be distributed during the last class session. Exams will be due in Professor Leshkowich's office on Thursday, December 18 by 3 p.m. Unexcused late exams will be penalized one portion of a grade (e.g. an A becomes an A-) for each day late.

Academic Honesty

In coming to Holy Cross, students and faculty have joined an intellectual community dedicated to learning together through the open exchange of ideas. For us to feel comfortable sharing our perspectives, we need to be confident that our ideas will be respected as our own. All of us share responsibility for creating an environment conducive to open exchange by holding to principles of trust, integrity, and honesty. Academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, fabrication, cheating, and collusion, violates these fundamental principles. As a student, you are responsible for reading and knowing the College Policy on Academic Honesty, as stated in the College Catalog (pages 12-14). As your professor, I am available to help you understand this policy and to guide you in following appropriate methods of research and citation.

In response to a growing number of infractions of the college policy on academic honesty, all written work for this course will be archived. All response papers and essays for this class must be submitted in electronic form so that they may be permanently stored.

This class adheres to a zero tolerance policy for academic dishonesty. Any work that, upon investigation, is found to violate the college policy will receive a grade of zero and a report will be submitted to the college administration. Further information about these procedures is contained in the College Catalog.

Grade Calculation

The 5-7 page essays, final paper, and course grades will be calculated according to a 100-point scale. The grading scale is as follows:

A, 93 and above	C+, 77-79.99
A-, 90-92.99	C, 73-76.99
B+, 87-89.99	C-, 70-72.99
B, 83-86.99	D+, 67-69.99
B-, 80-82.99	D, 60-66.99
	F, 59.99 and below

Office Hours

My office hours are listed at the top of this syllabus, and I encourage you to visit with me during the semester. I am available to discuss specific issues arising from the course, as well as to exchange more general insights and chat about experiences from your studies or my research.

Course Website (http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/aleshkow/320/320.html)

The website for this course is a center for important information: syllabus, writing assignments, study guide questions, essay questions, and announcements. Please check it frequently and feel free to pass along suggestions for additional links and information which should be included. Also, check out my homepage at:
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/aleshkow/homepage.html

Readings

The following books (marked with ** on the reading list) are available for purchase:

Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. International Publishers, 1990. ISBN: 0717803597
Mazzarella, William. Shoveling Smoke. 2003. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN: 0822331454
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1940. The Nuer. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0195003225
Foucault, Michel. 1978. The History of Sexuality, Volume I. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0679724699
Stoler, Ann. Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule. Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-23111-5
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052129164-x
Butler, Judith. 1999 [1990]. Gender Trouble. Routledge. ISBN: 0415924995
Rosaldo, Renato. Culture and Truth. Boston: Beacon Press. 1989. ISBN 080704623-x
Ong, Aihwa. 2006. Neoliberalism as Exception. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-3748-5

All other readings are available through ERes. The course password is theory.

Course Schedule

Week 1: September 3
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: What is anthropological theory? How does it relate to ethnography? Discussion of course organization and requirements. Preview of next week's topic.

Note: For helpful overviews of some of the major topics of this course, check out the following website developed by students at the University of Alabama: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/anthros.htm.

Week 2: September 10
EVOLUTION
Early anthropologists were centrally concerned with issues of evolution, particularly models that explained social and cultural transformation. At the same time, anthropologists generally were suspicious of attempts to ascribe human behavior to purely biological factors or to see human differences such as race as primarily biological. What tensions between biological and sociocultural evolution lay at the roots of anthropological theory? How did early anthropologists seek to practice cultural relativism? How were some nonetheless complicit in reproducing a sense that Western society was somehow more "evolved"? What lessons and relevance do their ideas have for us today?
Readings: Tylor, "The Science of Culture" (article)
**Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, Chapters 1, 2, and 9 (You may also wish to read the introductory materials for background on Engels's work and its significance)
Boas, "The Methods of Ethnology" (article)
Writing Assignment #1 due in class.
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 3: September 17:
KARL MARX AND ETHNOGRAPHY
Karl Marx is, along with Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, one of the founders of contemporary social science. What are the major elements of his philosophy of the relationship between human action and economics, social structure, culture, and historical change? Anthropologists, while frequently sympathetic to Marx's critique of capitalist inequality and commodity fetishism, often argue that his theory of history, agency, and socioeconomic transformation is a specific response to the conditions of Western European history. How is Marx's analysis of labor and exchange relevant to anthropological understandings of culture?
Readings: Marx, selections from Capital
Writing Assignment #2 due in class
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 4: September 24
GLOBALIZING COMMODITIES AND COMMODITY IMAGES
Anthropologists interested in contemporary contexts of globalization and commodification often cite Marx's work on use value and exchange value. This week, we'll explore how William Mazzarella builds on Marx's notion of the commodity to analyze the power of the "commodity images" created by a Bombay advertising firm. How does Mazzarella develop Marx's insights? How does attention to a specific ethnographic context allow one to support or challenge a more general or structural theory?
Readings: **Mazzarella, Shoveling Smoke
Writing Assignment #3 due in class
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 5: October 1
FUNCTIONALISM
According to Bronislaw Malinowski, "The functional view of culture lays down the essential principle that in every kind of civilization every custom, material object, idea, and belief fulfills some vital function, has some task to accomplish, and represents an indispensable part of the working whole." While functionalism's proponents lauded the model's scientific theory and methodology, it has been strongly criticized for, among other things, being ahistorical, too schematic, and neglectful of the complexity of individual interactions with cultural systems and meanings. What are the elements of functionalism? How can we assess the theory's strengths, weaknesses, and impact?
Readings: Malinowski, "The Group and Individual in Functional Analysis" (article)
**Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer (entire book)
Writing Assignment #4 due in class.
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 6: October 8
INTERPRETIVE ANTHROPOLOGY
Interpretive anthropology, exemplified in the work of Clifford Geertz, emerged as a reaction to anthropological theories, such as functionalism and structuralism, that focused on culture as rules, structures, or systems separate from human actions, meanings, and interpretations. Geertz advocated for interpreting culture as a system of symbols and meanings that shape how human beings interpret the world. Their interpretations, in turn, can transform culture. What are the major elements of an interpretive approach to culture? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Readings: Geertz, "Thick Description," Deep Play," and "The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man" (articles).
No response paper due this week.
First 5-7 page essay due on Friday, October 10 by 3pm, delivered by e-mail.

Week 7: October 15
POWER
While interpretive anthropology focused on how meanings and symbols are both individual and shared, do all individuals within a society see things similarly? Or is one's perspective shaped by one's position? Combining a concern for meaning and knowledge with attention to how knowledge is implicated in inequality and structures of control, the work of Michel Foucault proved groundbreaking in its theorization of power. What does Foucault mean by power? How are culture and interpretation implicated in power? What room does Foucault leave for agency? To explore these questions, we'll consider Foucault's ideas on human sexuality and scientific knowledge.
Readings: **Foucault, The History of Sexuality (entire book)
Writing Assignment #5 due in class.
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 8: October 22
SEX, BODIES, AND COLONIAL POWER
Foucault provides a broad and provocative theory of power/knowledge and sexuality, but how can we understand the effects of these processes on individuals and on broader political relations between peoples and states? In Carnal Knowledge, Ann Stoler studies the sexualization and racialization of daily life in contexts of European colonialism. How is sexual control linked to political control? Does Foucault's analysis of the body suffer from a lack of attention to issues of race? How does studying colonialism allow us to see links between race, sex, and power?
Readings: **Stoler, Carnal Knowledge (entire book)
Writing Assignment #6 due in class.
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 9: October 29
STRUCTURE, AGENCY, AND PRACTICE
Marx and Foucault both tend to emphasize how broader structures shape human behavior, with the sense that what we perceive to be our agency or choice may in fact be predetermined. Anthropologists, however, tend to focus in our research on individuals' perceptions, experiences, and actions. How can we see those actions as to some extent shaped by context, yet also subject to improvisation and individuality in ways that might affect broader social and cultural systems? Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice attempts to provide a model for a dynamic relationship between structure and agency. What are the strengths and weaknesses of his approach?
Readings: **Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (selections)
Writing Assignment #7 due in class.
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 10: November 5
GENDER
In the 1970s, as political feminism gathered momentum, many anthropologists began to question whether their own field suffered from an androcentric bias. They considered the power relations embedded in fieldwork, the absence of women's perspectives in ethnography, the sources of gender inequalities in different cultural contexts, and the sociocultural construction of gender itself. We'll explore these issues by considering Ortner's explanation for what she perceived to be women's universal subordination to men. What assumptions is she making about gender, nature, and culture? Has her argument withstood the test of time? How have other theorists, such as Judith Butler, questioned the distinction between sex and gender so central to feminist theory? What role do biology and culture play in the formation of gendered subjectivities and behaviors? Finally, we'll consider Lutz's arguments about the links between gender, power, and knowledge within the field of anthropology.
Readings: Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?" (article)
Ortner, "So, Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?"
**Butler, Gender Trouble (selections)
Lutz, "The Gender of Theory" (article)
Writing Assignment #8 due in class.
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 11: November 12
RETHINKING ETHNOGRAPHY
Anthropology began as an attempt to document culture objectively. But from the start, the method of participant observation and the goal of understanding others' points of views contained an inherent subjectivity. Postmodernism takes subjectivity as its starting point to question the nature of knowledge and claims to truth. How has postmodernism influenced anthropological theory and the practice of fieldwork? If all knowledge is contested and contingent, how can we ever say anything? If we can't generalize, how can we theorize?
Readings: Clifford, "Introduction: Partial Truths" from Writing Culture (article)
Rabinow, "Representations are Social Facts: Modernity and Post-Modernity in Anthropology" (article)
**Rosaldo, Culture and Truth (entire book)
No response paper due this week.
Second 5-7 page essay due on Friday, November 14 by 3pm, delivered by e-mail.

Week 12: November 19
GOVERNMENTALITY AND HEGEMONY
Governments govern through direct forms of power, from military force to laws and other political structures. How do they also govern through shaping the ideas of citizen-subjects? Is individual subjectivity itself a creation of governmental power? Given anthropologists' tendency to celebrate collective beliefs, cultural identities, and individual agency, how might we also understand what might seem to be forms of "freedom" as connected to hegemony and domination? Are cultural identities and individual subjectivities always already invested with power? With what consequences?
Readings: Rose, Powers of Freedom, chapter 2
Foucault, "On Governmentality"
Gramsci, selestions from Prison Notebooks
Writing Assignment #9 due in class.
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.

Week 13: December 3
NEOLIBERALISM
In a world in which flows of people, money, things, and ideas move with increasing speed and in increasing numbers, how should we understand culture? Is the world post-cultural? With individuals' lives shaped by such diffuse forces, how should we think about agency? Do individual actions matter? What is neoliberalism, and how can anthropologists contribute to our understanding of the global power processes associated with it?
**Ong, Neoliberalism as Exception
Writing Assignment #10 due in class.
For tips about crafting response papers, click here.
Final exam questions will be distributed.

Thursday, December 18
FINAL EXAMS DUE by 3 p.m. by email to Prof. Leshkowich.