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 and (2) a term paper. Click here for further details. Your final grade will be based on these requirements, each counting for one half of the final grade.

Books to Purchase (available in the bookstore):

Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa , 1928.

Fredrik Barth, Political Leadership among Swat Pathans, 1959

Anne Allison, Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club, 1994

Tone Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnia Way : Identity and Community in a Central Bosnia Village , 1995.

Ellen Schattschneider, Immortal Wishes: Labor and Transcendence on a Japanese Sacred Mountain, 2003

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.

Violations of University policies on academic integrity, described in Section Three of Rights and Responsibilities, may result in failure in the course or on the assignment, or in suspension or dismissal from the University. If you are in doubt about the instructions for any assignment in this course, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification.

Week of:

(1/14) Introduction [No class Monday]

(1/21) Samoan Ethnography I [No class Monday]

Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa , 1928.

(1/28)  Samoan Ethnography II

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

(2/4) 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

(2/11) 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.*

(2/18) No Classes

(2/25) Ethnographic Reflexivity

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

(3/3) Ethnographic Film

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.*

(3/10) Swat Pathan Ethnography I

Fredrik Barth, Political Leadership Among Swat Pathans, 1959.

(3/17) 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*.

(3/24) Balinese Ethnography

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.*

(3/31) Bosnian Ethnography

Tone Bringa, Being Muslim the Bosnia Way : Identity and Community in a Central Bosnia Village , 1995.

(4/7) Japanese Ethnography I

Anne Allison, Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club, 1994

(4/14)  Japanese Ethnography II

Ellen Schattschneider, Immortal Wishes: Labor and Transcendence on a Japanese Sacred Mountain, 2003

(4/21) No Classes

(4/28)  Review. Term Paper Due April 30^th.

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.Term Paper. The term paper should analyze and evaluate an ethnographic representation, 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 12-15 pages, typed and double-spaced, not including bibliographic materials. The paper is due on or before the last class meeting of the semester, Wednesday, April 30^th.

3. Final Grade. Your final grade will be based on your preparation for and participation in class discussions (50%) and on the term paper (50%).