First-Year Courses in Cultural Anthropology (Division 319)

Winter Term, 2000 (September 8 - December 22, 1999)

Introductory Courses

Section 003 – Ethnography of Writing

Instructor(s): Stephan Senders (ssenders@umich.edu)

First-year seminar,

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

• What is writing?
• How is it different from speech?
• How is writing used in different cultures, and
• how is writing implicated in the constitution of cultural difference?

These are some of the questions we will ask in this anthropological approach to writing. The first half of the course will focus on texts; we will read theoretical and ethnographic treatments of writing, literacy, and textuality. The second half of the course will be devoted to cooperative ethnographic fieldwork in the University and the Ann Arbor area. Readings will include Besnier's Literacy, emotion, and authority: reading and writing on a Polynesian atoll, Bourdieu's Language and symbolic power, Swales' Other floors, other voices: a textography of a small university building, and selected articles. There are no prerequisites for the course outside of a willingness to read and discuss texts and ideas, and to engage in active research. The class will be run as a seminar, and grades will be based on papers and essay exams.

Introductory Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Lisa Young (lcyoung@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Cult archaeology examines popular and fantastic interpretations of archaeological remains presented in the press and on television. We focus particularly on claims that cultural achievements by indigenous peoples are a consequence of contact with superior beings, such as aliens from outer space or other "more advanced" cultures. We will examine the logical flaws in these pseudoscientific explanations and the racist assumptions that underlie them. The goal of this course is for students to learn critical thinking skills that will enable them to assess popular interpretations of archaeological remains in the future, to understand professional ethics, and to appreciate cultural racism and the harm that it does. The course format is lecture and discussion sections. Evaluations are based on section exercises, participation, and three exams. The textbook is Kenneth L. Feder's Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries. A course pack and readings from web sites supplement the text.

Introductory Courses

Section 001 – Ethnicity and Gender in China and Tibet.

Instructor(s): Charlene Makley (makley@umich.edu)

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Chinese and Tibetan peoples have interacted for centuries, but it is only in the last half of the twentieth century that the "Tibet question" in China has risen to global attention. This course looks at modern Sino-Tibetan relations through the lens of ethnicity and gender as a way to understand the contentious process through which the Chinese nation-state and national identity have been constructed. Through lectures, readings, films and discussions, we will explore the diversity of Tibetan and Han Chinese family organization, gender ideologies and ethnic identities just prior to, during and after the Communist revolutionary period. This perspective will shed light on the incorporation of Tibetans as a "minority nationality" in the Chinese "multinational state", the role of such minorities in constructing Han Chinese majority identity, and the differing impact of state policies on men and women. Required readings include four books and a coursepack. There will be a midterm and final exam, as well as a short paper assignment. This course has no prerequisites except curiosity about modern Tibet and China.

Introductory Courses

Section 002 – Hinduism: History and Culture. Meets with SSEA 225 and History 392.001

Instructor(s): Rich Freeman (richfree@umich.edu)

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The religion that we know today as "Hinduism" has a complex history that is intimately tied up with the variety of cultures and ways of life of peoples who have inhabited the Indian subcontinent over some four or five thousand years. This course surveys the major movements of religious and social life across the various regions of India through time, looking at the emergence of popular and regional religious movements, both in relation to the classical literature of Sanskrit texts and Brahmanism, as well as to other religions in South Asia. From a variety of historical and modern ethnographic writings, we will consider notions of kingship, caste and social organization, priestly ritualism, asceticism and yoga, popular devotionalism, festivals, village life and urbanism as all necessarily related to Hindu ways of life and understandings of the world. The overall goal of the course is therefore to grasp the relation of Hinduism to historical and contemporary social life in India, considering both the popular and elite forms of religious practice as they have interacted to produce the varieties of Hinduism we find today, as well as the attempt to forge these varieties into a kind of national religion for the modern Indian state. The format of the course is lecture with discussion, and grading will be based on two short-answer, short-essay exams. No prerequisites.