Drawing on classic and contemporary examples of ethnographic writing and ethnographic film, this course examines the representation of anthropological knowledge. The goal of the course is to enable students to comprehend and evaluate ethnographic arguments.

Course requirements include (1) preparation for and participation in class discussions, (2) five short essays on assigned readings, (3) a term paper proposal, (4) a term paper outline, and (5) a term paper. Click here for further details.

Books to Purchase (available in the bookstore):

Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa , 1928.

Fredrik Barth, Political Leadership among Swat Pathans, 1959

Fredrik Barth, Balinese Worlds, 1993.

Sarah Lamb, Aging and the Indian Diaspora, 2009.

If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this course, please see me immediately.

Academic integrity is central to the mission of educational excellence at Brandeis University . Each student is expected to turn in work completed independently, except when assignments specifically authorize collaborative effort. It is not acceptable to use the words or ideas of another person—be it a world-class philosopher or your lab partner—without proper acknowledgement of that source. This means that you must use footnotes and quotation marks to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs or ideas found in published volumes, on the internet, or created by another student.

You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. The University policy on academic honesty is distributed annually as section 5 of the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Instances of alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referal to the Student Judicial System. Potential sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the University. If you have any questions about my expectations, please ask.

Week of:

Week 1 (1/20) Introduction [No class Monday]

Week 2 (1/25) Samoan Ethnography I [Essay 1]

Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa , 1928.

Week 3 (2/1)  Samoan Ethnography II

Derek Freeman, "There's Tricks i' th' World," Visual Anthropology Review, 1991, 7:1:103-128.*

Adam Kuper, “Coming of Age in Anthropology?,” Nature, 1989, 338:453-455.*

Paul Shankman, “Culture, Biology, and Evolution: The Mead-Freeman Controversy Revisited.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2000, 29:5:539-556.*

Week 4 (2/8) Ethnographic Reasoning

Stephen E. Toulmin, The Uses of Argument, 2003 (updated edition) [1958], pp. 11-15, 87-134.*

J. Tim O’Meara, “Anthropology as Empirical Science,” American Anthropologist, 1989, 91:2:354-369. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7294%28198906%292%3A91%3A2%3C354%3AAAES%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q

Michael Carrithers, “Is Anthropology Art or Science?,” Current Anthropology, 1990, 31:3: 263-282. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28199006%2931%3A3%3C263%3AIAAOS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D

Week 5 (2/15) No Classes (Winter Recess)

Week 6 (2/22) Ethnographic Rhetoric

George E. Marcus, "Rhetoric and the Ethnographic Genre in Anthropological Research, " Current Anthropology, 1980, 21:4:507-510. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28198008%2921%3A4%3C507%3ARATEGI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P

G. Marcus and D. Cushman, “Ethnographies as Texts.” Annual Review of Anthropology, 1982, 11:25-69. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0084-6570%281982%292%3A11%3C25%3AEAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C

James Clifford, “On Ethnographic Authority,” Representations, 1983, 1:2:118-146. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0734-6018%28198321%290%3A2%3C118%3AOEA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H

Steven P. Sangren, "Rhetoric and the Authority of Ethnography: "Postmodernism" and the Social Reproduction of Texts," Current Anthropology, 1988, 29:405-424. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28198806%2929%3A3%3C405%3ARATAOE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J

Jonathan Spencer, “Anthropology as a Kind of Writing,” Man, 1989, 24:145-164. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28198903%292%3A24%3A1%3C145%3AAAAKOW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6

Johnn Van Maanen, "An End to Innocence: The Ethnography of Ethnography," in Representation in Ethnography (Ed., John Van Maanen), 1995, pp. 1-35.*

Jonathan Spencer, “Ethnography After Postmodernism,” in Handbook of Ethnography (Eds., Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland), 2001, pp. 443-452.*

Week 7 (3/1) Ethnographic Reflexivity [Essay 2]

R. Rosaldo, “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage: On the Cultural Force of Emotions,” in Text, Play, and Story (Ed., M. Bruner), 1984, pp. 178-195.*

C. Geertz, Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author, 1988, Ch. 4.*

P. A. Roth, “Ethnography Without Tears,” Current Anthropology, 1989, 30:5:555-569.http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28198912%2930%3A5%3C555%3AEWT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W

Graham Watson, "Make Me Reflexive--But Not Yet: Strategies for Managing Essential Reflexivity in Ethnographic Discourse," Journal of Anthropological Research, 1987, 43:1:29-41. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0091-7710%28198721%2943%3A1%3C29%3AMMRBNY%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N

Graham Watson, "Definitive Geertz," Ethnos, 1989, 54:I-II:23-30.*

Malcolm Parks, “Where Does Scholarship Begin?” American Communication Journal, 1998, 1:2. http://acjournal.org/holdings/vol1/Iss2/special/parks.htm

Week 8 (3/8) Ethnographic Film [Term paper proposal, 3/10]

Kirsten Hastrup, “Anthropological Visions: Some Notes on Visual and Textual Authority,” in Peter Ian Crawford and David Turton (Eds.), Film As Ethnography, 1992, pp.8-25.*

Peter Loizos, “Admissible Evidence? Film in Anthropology,” in Peter Ian Crawford and David Turton (Eds.), Film As Ethnography, 1992, pp. 50-65.*

Mike Ball and Greg Smith, “Technologies of Realism? Ethnographic Uses of Photography and Film,” in Handbook of Ethnography (Eds., Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland), 2001, pp. 302-319.*

Week 9 (3/15) Swat Pathan Ethnography I

Fredrik Barth, Political Leadership Among Swat Pathans, 1959.

Week 10 (3/22) Swat Pathan Ethnography II

Talal Asad, "Market Model, Class Structure, and Consent: A Reconsideration of Swat Political Organiza­tion," Man (N.S.), 1972, 7:1:75-94. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28197203%292%3A7%3A1%3C74%3AMMCSAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4

Michael Meeker, “The Twilight of a South Asian Heroic Age: A Rereading of Barth's Study of Swat,” Man (N.S.).1980, 15:4:682-701. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28198012%292%3A15%3A4%3C682%3ATTOASA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M

Fredrik Barth, "Swat Pathans Reconsidered," in Features of Person and Society in Swat: Collected Essays on Pathans: Selected Essays of Fredrik Barth, V.II, 1981, Pp.121-181.*

Robert Paine, "The Stamp of Swat: A Brief Ethnography of Some of the Writings of Fredrik Barth," Man (N.S.), 1982, 17:328-39.http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0025-1496%28198206%292%3A17%3A2%3C328%3ATSOSAB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L

Brian V. Street , "Orientalist Discourses in the Anthropology of Iran , Afghanistan and Pakistan ," in Localizing Strategies: Regional Traditions of Ethnographic Writing (ed., Richard Fardon), 1990, Pp.240-259*.

Week 11 (3/29) No Classes [Spring Recess]

Week 12 (4/5) Balinese Ethnography I [No Class Monday] [Term paper outline, 4/7]

Clifford Geertz, “Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight,” Daedalus, 1972, 101:1-37.*

Paul Shankman, “The Thick and the Thin: On the Interpretive Theoretical Program of Clifford Geertz,” Current Anthropology, 1984, 25:3:261-279. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0011-3204%28198406%2925%3A3%3C261%3ATTATTO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2

William Roseberry, “Balinese Cockfights and the Seduction of Anthropology,” Social Research, 1982, 49:1013-28.*

Vincent Crapanzano, “Hermes’ Dilemma: The Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description,” in Writing Culture (Eds., James Clifford and George E. Marcus), 1986, pp. 51-76.*

Mark Hobart, “As They Like It: Overinterpretation and Hyporeality in Bali ,” in The Problem of Context (Ed., Roy Dilley), 1999, pp. 105-144.*

Week 13 (4/12) Balinese Ethnography II. [Essay 4]

Week 14 (4/19) Balinese Ethnography III.

Week 15 (4/26) Indian Ethnography [Essay 5]

Week 16 (5/3) Review. Term Paper Due May 5th.

1. Preparation for and participation in class discussions. The assigned monographs are available in the Bookstore; the reading assignments marked with an asterisk (*) are available on LATTE. You should have read the assigned materials by the beginning of the class for which they have been assigned and you should be prepared to present your views of the materials. Participation implies attendance: you are expected to be present for class meetings; unexcused absences will result in a reduction in your final grade.

 2. Essays. You are required to write five short essays (2-3 pages each) on assigned readings. The essay topics wil be posted to LATTE; the essays should demonstrate a close reading of the assigned materials. The essays, typed and double-spaced, are due at the beginning of the week for which the readings are assigned (1/25, 3/1, 3/22, 4/12, and 4/26).

3. Term paper proposal. The term paper should analyze and evaluate a corpus of ethnographic materials and should focus on a debate about and/or a contested interpretation of a particular people, culture, or society. Your proposal for the term paper, indicating the topic you plan to address and at least three relevant sources, is due on or before the class meeting of Wednesday, March 10th.

4. Term paper outline. The outline for your paper should include your opening paragraph and at least the topic sentences of subsequent paragraphs. The organization of your argument should be evident in the outline. The outline should also include an assessment of what remains to be done to complete your research and analysis. The outline is due no later than Wednesday, April 7th.

5. Term paper. As noted above (3), the term paper should analyze and evaluate a debate about and/or a contested interpretation of a particular people, culture, or society, and should include evidence drawn from the relevant ethnographic corpus. The paper is to be approximately 10-12 pages, typed and double-spaced, not including bibliographic materials. The paper is due on or before the last class meeting of the semester, Wednesday, May 5th.

6. Final Grade. Your final grade will be based on (1) preparation and participation in class discussions, (2) the average of the grades on the essays, and (3) the term paper, each component counting for one third of the grade.