ANT110 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Offered at Union College, Fall 2006
Office Hours for Derick Fay:
Tuesday 1:30-2:30 PM, Wednesday 3-4 PM or by appointment
36 Union Ave., Room 205
Course Readings from Prior Weeks
Week Two:

R. Lee, "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari"
from the public archives of Natural History magazine

R. B. Malinowski, "Introduction"
from Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1984 (originally published 1923) -- available via Schaffer Library electronic reserves

L. Bohannan, "Shakespeare in the Bush"
from the public archives of Natural History magazine

Week Three: C. Geertz, "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture
Link has been removed - e-mail me for access

Remaining readings for week three (Barth and both Abu-Lughod readings) are available from Schaffer Library Electronic Reserves -- follow the link for Course Reserves on the left-hand side of the library home page, agree to the copyright agreement, then search by the course number (ANT110) or my last name.


Week Four:
If you didn't turn them in during class, please remember to e-mail me your free lists -- thanks!

Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins, Reading National Geographic chapters 1 & 2
Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1993), pp. 1-46

slides on National Geographic from class 9/25

lecture notes from class 9/25

For Friday, September 29: H. Miner, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema"
from the American Anthropologist, 58(3), 1956, pp. 503-507
Week Five:
Essay #2 assignment (due Weds. 10/4) and Syllabus for Week 5

Paul Farmer, "AIDS and Racism: Accusation in the Center"
from AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame chapter 19 (pp. 208-228). Berkeley: University of California Press (1993)
Week Six:

House of Lim genealogy
small format
large format


Some links of interest:

Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives
from the New York Times, October 5, 2006

Kinship diagram - handout from class, Monday October 9

Linguistic Anthro Top Ten - from Mike Sheridan, Middlebury College

On the origins of the Burakumin in Japan
an unanswered question from Friday....
"The origin of this discrimination has been traced to a combination of: (1) government efforts to control the masses (divide-and-rule theory);...(2) the demand for a constant supply of certain types of occupational labor; and (3) Shinto and Buddhist concepts of filth and the killing of animals that placed a stigma on many occupations previously or subsequently performed by the buraku people....There appears to be no simple explanation of the origins of burakumin and of discrimination against them. The truth of the origins of buraku discrimination lies probably in a combination of some of the many explanations offered.
Week Seven:

B. Simpson, "The Unclear Family"
(on JSTOR -- use the links at the top of the page to print or download)

Margery Wolf, "Uterine Families and the Women's Community"
From Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1972.
Week Eight:

B. Malinowski, "Kula; the Circulating Exchange of Valuables"