Fordham University

INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL
ANTHROPOLOGY
ANTH1100
Summer I 2017: Tues./Wed./Thurs. 9:00a.m.-12:00p.m.

Professor:
Amínata Maraesa, Ph.D.
Class Location: LL-
Office Location: 9th Floor Anthro office
Office Hours: after class (by appt. please)
Email: amaraesa@fordham.edu

Course Description:
This course is an introduction to socio-cultural anthropology. Socio-cultural anthropology
offers a way of understanding both the commonalities of the human experience and the
diversity of human societies and cultures. It offers tools for making sense of the experience
of people whose lives are different from our own, as well as casting our familiar world in a
new perspective. Through readings, lectures, discussions, and films, students will become
familiar with the concerns and viewpoints of cultural anthropologists.
The course introduces some of the key concepts that have concerned anthropologist such
as culture, social structure, religion, kinship, race, gender, consumption, community, and
identity, and provides an opportunity to learn about a variety of social and cultural
contexts both within and outside the U.S.

Learning Goals:
• Recognize, appreciate, value, and respect cultural difference and diversity.
• Develop the ability to question your assumptions and interrogate your commonsensical
understandings about the world around you, recognizing that what we take as “natural”
social realities are, in fact, constructed cultural norms that vary according to sociocultural
and historical context.
• Appreciate the relevance of anthropological issues in the contemporary world around
you.
• Ideally, my goal is to make you excited about the field so that you all want to become
majors (or at least take more anthropology courses)!!!

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Learning Outcomes:
• Discuss critically the discipline of anthropology by learning about major figures and areas
of study within the field, as well as the historical and social context of anthropological
knowledge and activity.
• Explain issues of ethnographic authority, authenticity, voice, and the relationship
between knowledge, representation, and power.
• Apply theory to practice by conducting your own mini field-work projects
• Translate your participant-observation into formal written ethnography
• Integrate your classroom learning into your primary research and, eventually, into your
daily lives…

Books to Purchase:
• Augé, Marc. 2002[1986]. In the Metro. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN:
978-0816634378
• Foley, Ellen. 2010. Your Pocket is What Cures You: The Politics of Health in Senegal. New
Brunswick: Rutgers UP. ISBN: 978-0813546681
• Chin, Elizabeth. 2001. Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American Consumer Culture.
Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press. ISBN: 978-0816635115

All books for this course have been ordered through: Fordham Bookstore

Articles:
Required readings listed on the syllabus (other than full-length books) are available on
Blackboard under Content

Course requirements:
25% Attendance and Class Participation
25% Subway Ethnography
25% Oral History Narrative [and CITI certificate]
25% Race/ Class/ Gender Socialization Self-Other Analysis

Attendance and Class Participation:

You are required to attend all scheduled class meetings. You must read all the assigned
material before class and come prepared to participate in class discussions.
Your attendance and participation will count towards 10% of your final grade.

LATENESS IS A PROBLEM! I would rather have you come to class late than not come at all;
however, lateness is disruptive for the group as a whole and disrespectful. If you come to
class late, I expect you to explain to me after class why you were late. Chronic lateness
will be addressed and may result in dismissal from class.

IF YOU ARE ABSENT MORE THAN TWO TIMES TIMES DURING THE SUMMER SESSION
YOU WILL FAIL THIS CLASS!!! (If you have an emergency situation, speak to me
privately; otherwise, attendance is MANDATORY!!!).

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Written assignments:

Subway ethnography – DUE JUNE 14, 2016

4-5 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman/ Cambria, all margins 1 inch
• Using Marc Augé’s book [and other readings up to this point] to inform your analysis,
write a 4-5 page paper based on your observations riding an NYC subway line.
• In your paper make sure you follow these instructions:
• Make sure that you write the number or letter associated with the subway line you
took, the day, date, time, and duration of your trip.
• You must ride the subway from the first to the last station.
• Start your paper by writing a short introduction. In the introduction specify the
themes you planned on observing before riding the subway, if you had to change the
themes after you started the observations explain the reasons for the change.
• Make sure that your observations, description, and analysis are focused on two or
three themes ONLY.
• Write reflexively about the challenges you encountered and things that you learned from
the experience.
To receive full credit, you must incorporate course readings and films into your
analyses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY REQUIRED

Oral History Narrative – DUE JUNE 28, 2016

4-5 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman/ Cambria, all margins 1 inch
• This paper is based on an interview you conduct with a person older than age 70. Your
informant can be a family member, close friend, or a complete stranger.
• You may conduct the interview in any language, but the final paper must be in English
with translated quotations.
• Your interview should be based on inquiries into your informant’s lived experiences of
the past and his/her reflections on/comparisons to current living conditions with attention
to health, illness, and treatment (whether biomedical or alternative).
• Your questions should elicit the kind of ethnographic detail you have been exposed to in
class so far. I specifically want you to probe into questions about childhood experiences,
socialization processes, understandings of the world, as well as his/ her experiences of
illness and healthcare.
• Be sure to include reflexive references to your position in relation to your informant
including a description of the interview process and any significant interactions beyond the
scope of your questioning.
NOTE: you should NOT turn in a transcription of the interview. Rather, you must
condense the information gathered into a coherent narrative that tells a situated
story of your informant’s social/historical existence.
To receive full credit, you must incorporate course readings and films into your
analyses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY REQUIRED

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Race/ Class/ Gender Socialization Self-Other Analysis – DUE JUNE 30, 2016
MUST EMAIL THE PAPER TO: amikole5@gmail.com by 12p.m.
4-5 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman/ Cambria, all margins 1 inch
• Explain what you think the paper title Race/ Class/ Gender Socialization Self-Other
Analysis means using all of the information, theories, and first-hand experiences you
have been exposed to throughout this intense summer session.
• Write reflexively: how do YOU interact with these categories of difference now that you
have learned to critically discern how our social/ cultural world is constructed and
perpetuated!
To receive full credit, you must incorporate course readings and films into your
analyses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY REQUIRED

NOTE: NO LATE PAPERS. If you do not turn in an assignment when it is due, you will
receive an F. NO EXCEPTIONS. NONE AT ALL!!!

Special accommodations:
Qualified students with disabilities will receive appropriate accommodations in this course.
Please speak with me after class or in my office. Also, be prepared to provide a letter from
the Office of Disability Services explaining your needs. The Office of Disability Services (for
students with learning or physical disabilities):
Lincoln Center,
45 Columbus Ave., Suite 106, New York, NY 10023
disabilityservices@fordham.edu
212-636-6282
http://www.fordham.edu/info/20174/disability_services

Academic integrity:
All work in this course is entirely individual. Cheating and plagiarism—whether intentional
or unintentional—will not be tolerated and the consequences will range from receiving no
credit for an assignment or exam to receiving a failing grade in the course, depending on
the severity of the act. This is true also of anyone who aids or abets cheating or plagiarism.

Fordham University regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, cheating on

examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official
documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The College is
committed to enforcing its Undergraduate Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue
cases of academic dishonesty accordingly.
See: http://69.7.74.46/section8/section97/section99/index.html

REFER TO:
http://www.aaanet.org/publications/style_guide.pdf
for a detailed list of proper citation format within text and
bibliographic citations.

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WEEK 1 What is Anthropology? & Early Ethnographies of Culture

Tuesday Introduction to the course:

May 30, 2017 • Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1950 [1922]. Argonauts of the Western Pacific.
New York: Dutton, Foreword, Introduction, chapters 3 and 22.
• Mead, Margaret. 1961[1928]. Coming of Age in Samoa. New York:
Morrow, Preface and chapters 1, 2, 13.

FILM: Character Formation in Different Cultures: Bathing Babies in Three

Cultures, 1951. Dirs. Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead
(12 min.)
FILM CLIP: Babies. 2010. Dir. Thomas Balmes (2 min.)

Thinking about Ethnographic Representation

Wednesday • Fabian, Johannes. 1983. Conclusion. In Time and the Other: How
May 31, 2017 Anthropology Makes Its Object. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Lee, Richard. 1969. Eating Christmas in the Kalahari. In Natural History
78(10): 14-21.
• Geertz, Clifford. 2005 [1973]. Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight.
Daedalus 134(4): 56-86. - READ 56-59; 82-86
• Marcus, George. 1997. The Uses of Complicity in the Changing Mis-en-
Scene of Anthropological Fieldwork. In Ethnography through Thick and
Thin. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pp. 105-132.
• Asad, Talal. 1973. Introduction. In Anthropology and the Colonial
Encounter. New York: Humanities Press.

FILM CLIP: Trobriand Cricket. 1976. Dirs. Gary Kildea and Jerry Leach (8
min.)
FILM CLIP: Shooting with Mursi. 2009. Dir. Ben Young (2 min.)
FILM: Cannibal Tours, 1988. Dir. Dennis O'Rourke

Anthropology of Race & Cultural Display

Thursday • American Anthropological Association Statement on “Race,” 1996.

June 1, 2017 http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm
• UNESCO Statement on Race, 1950.
• Harris, Marvin. 1999. Chapter 5 and first part of Chapter 9 in Theories of
Culture in Postmodern Times. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMiras Press.
• Rydell, Robert. 1984. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis,
1904: “The Coronation of Civilization.” In All the World’s a Fair: Visions of
Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. Pp. 154-183.

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WEEK 2 Cultural Display

Tuesday • Preston, Douglas. 1986. Anthropology. In Dinosaurs in the Attic: An

June 6, 2017 Excursion Into the American Museum of Natural History. New York: St.
Martin’s Press. Pp. 176-195.
• Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1991. Objects of Ethnography. In
Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display, eds. Ivan
Karp and Steven Lavine. Washington: Smithsonian Institute press Pp. 386-
443.

FIELD-TRIP TO THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY – 10am

Looking at the Self

Wednesday • Miner, Horace. 1956. Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. American
June 7, 2017 Anthropologist 58(3):503-07.
• Augé, Marc. 2002 [1986]. In the Metro. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press. READ: Intro-50.

Reflexive Ethnography

Thursday • Augé, Marc. 2002 [1986]. In the Metro. Minneapolis: University of

June 8, 2017 Minnesota Press. READ: 53-Afterword.

FILM CLIP: Chronique d’un Eté, 1961. Dir. Jean Rouch. (2 min.)
FILM CLIP: Petit à Petit, 1971. Dir. Jean Rouch. (2 min.)

WEEK 3 Looking to the Elders - Interview Practicum

Tuesday • Griaule, Marcel. 1965. Conversations with Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to

June 13, 2017 Dogon Religious Ideas. Oxford Univ. Press, Introduction. Pp. 5-15.
• Lyons, Natasha. 2010. The Wisdom of Elders: Inuvialuit Social Memories
of Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century. Arctic Anthropology
47(1):22-38.
• Hermanowicz, Joseph. 2002. The Great Interview: 25 Strategies for
Studying People in Bed. Qualitative Sociology 25(4): 479-499.

FILM CLIP: Dogon Dama, 2003. National Geographic (3 min.)

FILM: Number Our Days, 1976. Dir. Barbara Myerhoff (28 min.)

SUBWAY ETHNOGRAPHY DUE

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 Ethics of Research

Wednesday IN CLASS:
June 14, 2017 Create an account with the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative
at the University of Miami: https://www.citiprogram.org
Complete the HSR Social and Behavioral Basic Course

Health and Medicine

Thursday • Foley, Ellen. 2010. Your Pocket is What Cures You: The Politics of Health
June 15, 2017 in Senegal. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP. READ chapters 1-4

WEEK 4 Health and Medicine con’t

Tuesday • Foley, Ellen. 2010. Your Pocket is What Cures You: The Politics of Health
June 20, 2017 in Senegal. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP. READ chapters 5-7

FILM: What Are We Doing Here?, 2008. Dirs. Brandon Klein, Daniel Klein,
Nick Klein, Tim Klein. (82 min.)

Health and Medicine con’t

Wednesday • Foley, Ellen. 2010. Your Pocket is What Cures You: The Politics of Health
June 21, 2017 in Senegal. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP. READ chapters 8-10

Race, Class, Gender and Consumption

Thursday • Chin, Elizabeth. 2001. Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American
June 22, 2017 Consumer Culture. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
READ Preface, chapters 1-3

FILM: Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, 2008. Dirs.

Adriana Barbaro and Jeremy Earp. (60 min.)

WEEK 5 Race, Class, Gender and Consumption, con’t

Tuesday • Chin, Elizabeth. 2001. Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American
June 27, 2017 Consumer Culture. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.
READ chapters 4-6

FILM CLIP: A Girl Like Me, 2005. Dir. Kiri Davis (3 min.)
FILM: Shopping to Belong, 2007. Dir. Arlene Sosa (30 min.)

ORAL HISTORY NARRATIVE DUE

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 Multiculturalism and Diversity – Gender and Kinship
Wednesday • Dávila, Arlene. 2008. The Hispanic Consumer: That’s “A Lot of Dollars,
June 28, 2016 Cars, Diapers, and Food.” In Latino Spin: Public Image and the
Whitewashing of Race. New York: New York University Press. Pp. 71-94.
• Kessler, Suzanne and Wendy McKenna. 1978. Introduction: The Primacy
of Gender Attribution. In Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach. Univ.
Chicago Press. Pp. 1-20.
• Yngvesson, Barbara. 2007. “Refiguring Kinship in the Space of Adoption”
Anthropological Quarterly 80(2): 561-579.

FILM: Shopping to Belong, 2007. Dir. Arlene Sosa (30 min.)

FILM: I’m 80% Girl, 20% Boy, 2008. Dir. Maxx Ginnane (8 min.)

Thursday FINAL PAPERS DUE –

June 29, 2016 RACE/ CLASS/ GENDER SOCIALIZATION SELF-OTHER ANALYSIS

YOU MUST EMAIL THE PAPER TO:

amikole5@gmail.com by 12p.m.