Readings

Required Book

[DH] = Hebdige, Dick. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Routledge, 1979. ISBN: 9780415039499.

Course readings.
SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction to the class
2	Does culture matter?	Bourgois, Philippe. "Understanding Inner-City Poverty: Resistance and Self-Destruction under U.S. Apartheid." In Exotic No More: Anthropology on Front Lines. Edited by Jeremy McClancy. The University of Chicago Press, 2002, pp. 15–32. ISBN: 9780226500133. Lutz, Catherine A., and Jane L. Collins. "A World Brightly Different: Photographic Conventions 1950–1986." In Reading National Geographic. University Of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 87–117. ISBN: 9780226497242. Class Handouts Three Levels of Culture (PDF) Sir Edward B. Tylor's Definition of Culture (PDF)
3	What is culture?	Geertz, Clifford. "The Impact of the Concept of Culture on the Concept of Man." In The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, 1973, pp. 33–54. ISBN: 9780465034253. [Preview with Google Books] Bohannan, Laura. "Shakespeare in the Bush." Natural History 75 (1966): 28–33. Rubin, Caroline. "Writing Against MIT Culture." (PDF) 21A.112 final paper, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008.
4	Thinking anthropologically	Evans-Pritchard, E. E. "The Notion of Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events." In Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic among the Azande. Oxford University Press, 1976, pp. 18–32. ISBN: 9780198740292. Rosaldo, Renato. "Border Crossings." In Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. Beacon Press, 1993, pp. 196–217. ISBN: 9780807046234.
5	Fieldwork now and then	Malinowski, Bronislaw. "Introduction: The Subject, Method and Scope of Inquiry." In Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Waveland Press Inc, 1984, pp. 1–25. ISBN: 9780881330847. Clifford, James. "Spatial Practices: Fieldwork, Travel, and the Disciplining of Anthropology." In Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds of a Field Science. Edited by Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson. University of California Press, 1997, pp. 185–222. ISBN: 9780520206809. [Preview with Google Books]
6	Place and space in anthropological field methods	Bestor, Theodore. "Introduction and Chapter One." In Neighborhood Tokyo. Stanford University Press, 1989, pp. 1–46. ISBN: 9780804714396. [Preview with Google Books] Desjarlais, Robert R. "Five Coefficients—On the Basketball Court." In Shelter Blues: Sanity and Selfhood among the Homeless. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, pp. 39–87. ISBN: 9780812216226.
7	Public space and public culture (thick description)	Geertz, Clifford. "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture." In The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, 1973, pp. 3–30. ISBN: 9780465034253. [Preview with Google Books] Farquhar, Judith. "The Park Pass: Peopling and Civilizing a New Old Beijing." Public Culture 21, no. 3 (2009): 551–76.
8	Spaces of inequalities	Low, Setha M. "The Secret, the Unspeakable, the Unsaid: Spatial, Discourse, and Political Economic Analysis." City & Society 13, no. 1 (2001): 161–5. Caldeira, Teresa P. R. "Imprinting and Moving Around: New Visibilities and Configurations of Public Space in Sao Paulo." Public Culture 24, no. 2 (2012): 385–418.
9	Bodies in space	Foucault, Michel. "Docile Bodies" In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Pantheon Books, 1977, pp. 135–70. ISBN: 9780394499420. Boas, Franz. "Changes in Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants." American Anthropologist 14, no. 3 (1912): 530–62.
10	Power, discipline, and space	Foucault, Michel. "Panopticism." In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Pantheon Books, 1977, pp. 195–231. ISBN: 9780394499420. Shearing, Clifford D., and Phillip C. Stenning. "From the Panopticon to Disney World: the Development of Discipline." Perspectives in Criminal Law: Essays in Honour of John LL.J. Edwards 45, no. 2 (1986): 334–5.
11	Interpretive turn: search for meaning	Geertz, Clifford. "Deep Play: Notes on Balinese Cockfight." In The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, 1973, pp. 412–55. ISBN: 9780465034253. [Peview with Google Books] Fine, Gary Alan. "The Depths of Deep Play: The Rhetoric and Resources of Morally Controversial Leisure." Play & Culture 5 (1992): 246–51. Millar, Susan. "On Interpreting Gender in Bugis Society." American Ethnologist 10, no. 3 (1983): 477–93.
12	Agency, gender and culture	Kaplan, Martha. "Panopticism in Poona: An Essay on Foucault and Colonialism." Cultural Anthropology 10, no. 1 (1995): 85–98.
13	Laughter, carnival, and folk festivities	Bakhtin, Mikhail. "Introduction." In Rabelais and His World. Indiana University Press, 1984, pp. 1–59. ISBN: 9780253348302.
14	Subculture and resistance	[DH] pp. 1–45.
15	The meaning of style	[DH] pp. 46–101.
16	Symbols and consumption	Kearney, Richard. "On Terror." In Strangers, Gods and Monsters: Interpreting Otherness. Routledge, 2002, pp. 109–41. ISBN: 9780415272575. [Preview with Google Books] Tuleja, Tad. "Trick or Treat: Pre-Texts and Contexts." In Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. Edited by Jack Santino. University of Tennessee Press, 1994, pp. 82–94. ISBN: 9780870498121.
17	Student presentations	Clark, Cindy Dell. "Tricks of Festival: Children, Enculturation, and American Halloween." Ethos 33, no. 2 (2005): 180–205. Lam, Sunny S. K. "'Global Corporate Cultural Capital' as a Drag on Glocalization: Disneyland's Promotion of the Halloween Festival." Media, Culture, and Society 32, no. 4 (2010): 631–48.
18	Student presentations (cont.)	Kugelmass, Jack. "Wishes Come True: Designing the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade." In Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. Edited by Jack Santino. University of Tennessee Press, 1994, pp. 187–215. ISBN: 9780870498121.
19	Student presentations (cont.)	Belk, Russell W. "Carnival, Control, and Corporate Culture in Contemporary Halloween Celebrations." In Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. Edited by Jack Santino. University of Tennessee Press, 1994, pp. 106–12. ISBN: 9780870498121.
20	No class—work on papers
21	Resistance and subversion	[DH] pp. 101–40. Finish the book.
22	The fun of the politic and politics of fun	Bayat, Asef. "Islamism and the Politics of Fun." Public Culture 19, no. 3 (2007): 433–59. Rofel, Lisa. "Rethinking Modernity: Space and Factory Discipline in China." In Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology. Edited by Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson. Duke University Press Books, 1997, pp. 155–77. ISBN: 9780822319405. [Preview with Google Books]
23	Gender, style, and space	Bhattacharjee, Anannya. "The Habit of Ex-Nomination: Nation, Woman, and the Indian Immigrant Bourgeoisie." Public Culture 5, no. 1 (1992): 19–42. Murray, Sarah E. "Dragon Ladies, Draggin' Men: Some Reflections on Gender, Drag and Homosexual Communities." Public Culture 6, no. 2 (1994): 343–63.
24	Movie	View in class: Trobriand Cricket. Directed by Gary Kildea and Jerry Leach. Color, 53 min. 1975. Select clips from: Memoirs of a Geisha. Directed by Rob Marshall. Color, 145 min. 2005. Dersu Uzala. Directed by Akira Kurosawa. Color, 144 min. 1975.
25	Reading	Bakhtin, Mikhail. "Popular-Festive Forms and Images in Rabelais." In Rabelais and His World. Indiana University Press, 1984, pp. 196–277. ISBN: 9780253348302.
26	Wrap-up

Required Book

Class Handouts

View in class:

Select clips from: