Anthropology 333

Culture and Interpretation

How This Electronic Syllabus Works

The Course

CULTURE AND INTERPRETATION attempts to understand the central role that the notion of culture has played in anthropology and the human sciences in general. It begins from an indea that has guided considerable amounts of social science thinking over the last century--that human beings are animals, to use Max Weber's language, who live suspended in webs of meaning that they themselves have spun. Culture, on this model, creates different ways of being in the world, one for each distinct community. The centrality of the notion of culture depends on its relationship to a number of other issues that organize social sicence work--the idea of meaning, the place of everyday practice, and the relationship between power and ideology.

No idea in anthropology is more powerful, and no idea is more arguable. CULTURE AND INTERPRETATION lays out the arguments for the idea of culture and then discusses a variety of critiques that call into question the very idea that "culture" can deliver what many social anthropologists think is the anthropological task--giving people of one society the means to understand those of another. Because the concept of culture is bound up with problems of knowing--that is, thinking about standards of justification for claims about knowing something, e.g., that snow is white or meditation produces altered states of consciousness, CULTURE AND INTERPRETATION is also concerned with whether anthropology can be a science, what warrants one interpretation over others, and what role relativism plays in thinking responsibly about the world.

Required Books

• Geertz, Local Knowledge
• Crapanzano, Tuhami: Portrait of a Moroccan
• Dorst, The Written Suburb
• Wolf, A Thrice Told Tale

Reserve Readings

• Crapanzano, "Hermes' Dilemma: The Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description," in James Clifford, ed., Writing Culture, pp. 51-76, on reserve.
• Jameson, "Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, in New Left Review, pp. 53-92, on reserve.
• Harding, "Is there a Feminist Method?", in Harding, ed.,Feminism and Methodology,pp. 1-13, on reserve

Introduction

January 14 (Th)

Found in Translation Geertz, "Found in Translation: On the Social History of the Moral Imagination," in Local Knowledge, pp. 36-54.

January 19 (Tu)

Interpretation and Others Geertz, "From the Native's Point of View: On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding," in Local Knowledge, pp. 55-70. Definitions of Culture

January 21 (Th)

Culture and Coherence Geertz, "Common Sense as a Cultural System," in Local Knowledge pp. 73-93.

January 26 (Tu)

Culture, Economy, and Experience Geertz, "Art as a Cultural System," in Local Knowledge, pp. 94-120.

January 28 (Th)

Relativism Geertz, "On the Uses of Diversity," reprint at the reserve desk.

February 2 (Tu)

Postmodern Bourgeois Liberalism Fights Back Rorty. "On ethnocentrism: A response to Clifford Geertz," reprint on reserve.

February 4 (Th)

Commentary on Geertz DUE

Critiques

February 9 (Tu)

Critique and Challenge Crapanzano, "Hermes' Dilemma: The Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description," in Marcus and Clifford, eds., Writing Culture, pp. 51-76, on reserve.

February 11(Th)

Reflexive or Experimental Ethnography Crapanzano, Tuhami,pp. ix-72.

February 23 (Tu)

Tuhami Morocco on the Web

February 25 (Th)

Tuhami Crapanzano, Tuhami,pp. 73-173.

March 2 (Tu)

The Reflexivist Critique of Geertz Ethnography Paper DUE

March 4 (Th)

Postmodernism Jameson, "Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism," New Left Review, pp. 53-92, on reserve.

March 9 (Tu)

The Written Suburb Dorst, The Written Suburb, pp. 1-100. Hyperreality

March 11(Th)

Chadds Ford as a Postmodern Site Dorst, The Written Suburb, pp. 101-210.

March 16 (Tu)

The Postmodernist Critique of Geertz

March 18 (Th)

Feminism and Postmodernism Harding, "Is there a Feminist Method?", on reserve. The Cyborg Manifesto

March 23 (Tu)

The Hot Spell Wolf, A Thrice Told Tale,pp. 15-92.

March 25 (Th)

The Woman who didn't become a Shaman Wolf, A Thrice-Told Tale, pp. 93-139. Shamanism

March 30 (Tu)

Literature and Ethnography

April 1 (Th)

The Feminist Critique of Geertz

April 5-9

Reading Week

Material requirements for this course include a commentary on the Geertz readings (25%), a short paper of some 6-8 pages that analyzes the ethnography of your choice (30%), and the final, 30%. The remaining 15% depends on class participation.

I value what students have to say, sometimes to the extent of letting people go off on tangents. Hanging 15% of final grades on class participation is a form of coercion, but I believe learning to talk in an academic setting is as important as learning to think analytically or use a computer. Students usually assume that they are being judged on the content of their comments. I judge students merely on whether they say something. There are no dumb comments--there are only students who do not contribute to class and students who do. In my experience, the only mistake a student makes in class is imagining her or his comments are worth airing on every topic. If you are a verbal person, let other people have a chance at it. If you are not verbal, recognize that your ideas are often more incisive than those of people who talk regularly. Make an effort to make your ideas known, whether it is the first day of class or late March.

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My office hours are MW 2:00-4:00, but I work in my office almost every morning and afternoon, and you are welcome to try to find me then or to make an appointment. If you are having trouble (or pleasure) with the readings, the course, or me, please come see me straightaway, 7 Libbey Forum. My policy on late papers is to grant extensions, but to assess a penalty relative to how late the paper turns out to be. A Dean's excuse is one thing; difficulty with getting assignments done on time because you have other obligations, another. If your problem is the latter, I am happy to give you an extension, but the price is having the paper graded down by 1/3 of a letter grade each day, e.g., an "A" paper on Monday becomes a "A-" on Tuesday.

Final Exam - Tuesday, April 13, 1:15 p.m.

All students are responsible for reading and understanding the Bates College statements on academic honesty, crediting of sources, and plagiarism.