NOTE THAT THIS SYLLABUS IS FOR THE FALL 2023. THERE WILL BE SOME SMALL CHANGES IN THE FORTHCOMING FALL 2024 BUT THE TENOR OF THE COURSE WILL REMAIN THE SAME
The class meets on Thursdays, from 5:10 to 6:50 in TBA.
[where to look for the required and recommended readings]
Varenne, Hervé "On the speech acts that are making Corona" March 28, 2020
recommended:
- Bond, George et al., eds. 1997 AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Boulder, CO: Westview.
- Gundaker, Grey 2008 "Hidden Education Among African Americans During Slavery." in Anthropological perspectives on education. Edited by H. Varenne and E. Gordon. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press. pp. 53-74.
- Limerick, N. 2018 "Kichwa or Quichua? Competing Alphabets, Political Histories, and Complicated Reading in Indigenous Languages." Comparative Education Review, 62(1), 103-124.
- Tawasil, Amina 2018 "Reading as Practice: the Howzevi (Seminarian) and Clair de Lune." Anthropology and Education Quarterly
- Varenne, Hervé 2019 "Introduction " to Educating in Life (Routlege)
ALL STUDENTS MUST (RE-)READ
Frost, Robert Mending Wall 1914
A - Marx, Karl "History: Fundamental Conditions" in The German ideology. New York: International Publishers. [1845] 1970
B - Saussure, Ferdinand de "Linguistic value" in Course in General Linguistics pp. 111-122. Tr. by W. Baskin. New York: McGraw-Hill. [1915] 1966
recommended:
- Goody, Jack Production and reproduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1975
- Marx The Communist Manifesto. New York: International Publishers. [first published in 1852]
- Meillassoux, Claude Maidens, Meal and Money: Capitalism and the Domestic Community. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1981 (First published in 1975)
- Wittfogel, Karl Oriental despotism: A comparative study of total power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1957
A - Durkheim, Emile "What is a social fact?" in The rules of the sociological method Tr. by W.D. Halls. New York: The Free Press. [1895] 1968 (pp. 50 to 59)
B - Mauss, Marcel The Gift. New York: Routledge. [1923-24] 2002 (Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2, Conclusion)
recommended:
- Durkheim, E. Education and Sociology. Tr. by S. Fox.. New York: The Free Press. [1922)] 1956
- Lévi-Strauss, Claude "Social structure." in Structural anthropology. Tr. by C. Jacobson and B. Schoepf. New York: Basic Books. [first published in 1952]
A - Garfinkel, Harold Ethnomethodology's program: Working out Durkheim's aphorism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2002 (Chapters 6, and then 1, and then 4)
B - Searle, John "What is a speech act?" in Philosophy in America. Edited by M. Black. London: Allen and Unwin. pp. 221-239.
- Jakobson, Roman "Concluding statement: Linguistics and poetics." in Style in language. Edited by T. Sebeok. New York: Wiley. pp. 350-359.
recommended:
- Garfinkel, H. "Passing and the managed achievement of sex status in an 'intersexed' person." in Studies in Ethnomethodology. Cambridge: Polity Press. 1984 (Originally published 1967).
- Hilbert, R. The classical roots of ethnomethodology. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. 1992
- Sacks, Harvey Notes on police assessment of moral character." in Studies in social interaction. Edited by D. Sudnow. New York: The Free Press. 1972. pp. 280-293 AND "An analysis of the course of a joke's telling in conversation." in Explorations in the ethnography of speaking. Edited by R. Bauman & J. Sherzer. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1974. pp. 337-353
A - Latour, Bruno Bruno Laboratory life: The construction of scientific facts New York: Sage Publications. 1979. (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 6)
B - Latour, Bruno Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network theory. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005. (Chapters "Introduction to Part I," "First Source of Uncertainty," "Third Source of Uncertainty," "Fourth Source of Uncertainty," "Introduction to Part II")
recommended:
- Garfinkel, Harold . "The Work of a Discovering Science Construed with Materials from the Optically Discovered Pulsar." Philosophy of the Social Sciences 11, 2: 131-158. 1981
- Kuhn, T. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [first published in 1962]
- Kaplan, A. The conduct of inquiry: Methodology for behavioral science . Scranton, PA: Chandler Publishing Co.. 1964
A - Graeber, David and David Wengrow The dawn of everything (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, Conclusion). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.
B - Boas, Franz "The intepretations of culture" (Chapter 10) in The mind of primitive man . New York: The Free Press. [1911] 1938.
AND Benedict, Ruth "Configurations
of culture in North America," American Anthropologist 34: 1-27. 1932
recommended:
- Benedict, Ruth Patterns of culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Bidney, David "The concept of cultural crisis." American Anthropologist 48, 4:534-552.
- Boas, Franz "The occurrence of similar inventions in areas widely apart." Science 9, 224:486-487. 1887
- "The occurrence of similar inventions in areas widely apart." Science 9, 224:486-487. 1887.
- Hrdy, Sarah Mother nature: Maternal instincts and how they shape the human species. New York: Balentine Books. 1999
- Mead, Margaret Coming of age in Samoa. New York: Morrow. 1928
A - Weber, Max The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. London: George Allen and Unwin. [1905]1962 (Chapters 1, 2, 3)
B - Weber, Max "The Methodological Foundations of Sociology." (c 1897)
recommended:
- Parsons, T. and E. Shils Toward a general theory of action. New York: Harper and Row. 1951
- Bourdieu, P. Outline of a theory of practice. Tr. by R. Nice.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1972 (First published in 1972)
- Parsons, T. and E. Shils Toward a general theory of action. New York: Harper and Row. 1951
- Weber, Max "'Objectivity' in social science and social policy." in The Methodology of the Social Sciences, pp. 49-112 . New York: The Free Press, [1904] 1949. (pp. 1 to 66 in the online version)
A - Geertz, Clifford The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. 1973. (Chapters 1, 2, 4)
B - Geertz, Clifford (in The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. 1973). "Person, time and conduct in Bali," pp. 360-411 [1966]; "Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight." , 412-453 [1972]
recommended:
- Foucault, Michel Discipline and punish. Tr. by A. Sheridan. New York: Penguin Books. [1975] 1978
- Geertz, Clifford "'From the native's point of view': On the nature of anthropological understanding." in Meaning in anthropology. Edited by K. Basso and H. Selby. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. pp. 221-237. 1976
- Ortner, Sherry "Theory in anthropology since the Sixties." Comparative Study in Society and History 26, 1:126-166. 1984
A - Lévi-Strauss, Claude Totemism. Tr. by R. Needham Boston: Beacon Press. [1962] 1963
B - Lévi-Strauss, Claude Wild thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2021. [first published in 1962] (Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9)
recommended:
- Boon, James From symbolism to structuralism: Lévi-Strauss in a literary tradition. New York: Harper & Row. 1972
- Boon, James Verging on extra-Vagance: Anthropology, history, religion, literature, arts ... showbiz. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 1999.
- de Certeau. Michel The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1984 [1980].
A - Holland, Dorothy et al. Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1998. (Chapters 1-3, 8, 13)
B - Gregory, Steven "Placing the Politics of Black Class Formation" (pp. 137-169). in History in Person. Edited by D. Holland and J. Lave. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press. 2001
recommended:
- Sapir, Edward Culture, language and personality: Selected essays. Berkeley: University of California Press. (First published in 1949) 1966
- Wallace, Anthony Revitalizations and mazeways: Essays on culture change, Volume 1. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. 2003
A - Schneider, David "Social dynamics of physical disability in Army basic training." in Personality in nature, society and culture. Edited by C. Kluckhohn and H. Murray. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 386-397. (First published in 1947) 1953. AND Glaser, Barney and Anselm Strauss "Temporal aspects of dying as a non-scheduled status passage." American Journal of Sociology 71:48-59. 1965
B - Lave, Jean and Etienne Wenger Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1991. (pp. 29-58) AND "Estranged Labor Learning" Outlines 1:19-48. 2002.
recommended:
- Benedict, Ruth "Continuities and discontinuities in cultural conditioning." in Personality in nature, society, and culture. Edited by Kluckhohn, C. and H. Murray. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 522-531. 1953 (First published in 1938)
- Garfinkel, Harold "Conditions of successful degradation ceremonies." American Journal of Sociology 61:420-424. 1956.
A - Scott, James The art of not being governed: An anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 2009 (Chapters 1, 5, 7)
B - Barfield, Thomas Shadow empires: An alternative history.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2023 . (Introduction and Chapter 1)
recommended:
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