From Round to Square (and back)

For The Emperor's Teacher, scroll down (↓) to "Topics." It's the management book that will rock the world (and break the vase, as you will see). Click or paste the following link for a recent profile of the project: http://magazine.beloit.edu/?story_id=240813&issue_id=240610

A new post appears every day at 12:05* (CDT). There's more, though. Take a look at the right-hand side of the page for over four years of material (2,000 posts and growing) from Seinfeld and country music to every single day of the Chinese lunar calendar...translated. Look here ↓ and explore a little. It will take you all the way down the page...from round to square (and back again).
*Occasionally I will leave a long post up for thirty-six hours, and post a shorter entry at noon the next day.

Sunday, September 26, 2021

Social and Cultural Theory, Autumn 2021 (a)

 On this date on Round and Square's History 

19 August 2015—China's Lunar Calendar 2015 08-19 
19 Auguat 2015—Social and Cultural Theory Syllabus 2015
19 August 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 08-19
19 August 2014—Social and Cultural Theory Syllabus 2014  
19 August 2013—China's Lunar Calendar 2013 08-19
19 August 2013—From the Geil Archive: Seeking Anthropology  
19 August 2012—Rural Religion in China (15)
19 August 2011—Displays of Authenticity: Fresh Coffee 

Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
 ANTH 206: Weeks 1-8                   ANTH 206: Weeks 9-16

Social and Cultural Theory
Anthropology 206
Autumn 2021
Tuesday and Thursday
8:00-9:45 a.m.

Robert André LaFleur                                                             Office Hours:
Morse Ingersoll 1206                                                               Tuesday   11:45-1:15
363-2005                                                                                   Thursday 11:45-1:15
lafleur@beloit.edu         

Required Books for All Enrolled Students 
Becker, Howard, What About Mozart? What About Murder?
Bowen, Elenore Smith, Return to Laughter 
Bourdieu, Practical Reason
Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (handouts) 
Connell, Evan. Mr. Bridge 
Connell, Evan. Mrs. Bridge 
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, A History of Anthropology
Gordon, Robert. Fifty Key Anthropologists (plus web additions)
Moore, Henrietta and Todd Sanders. Anthropology in Theory: Issues in Epistemology*
Wacquant, Loïc, Body and Soul: Notes of an Apprentice Boxer 
***  ***
LaFleur, Robert. Round and Square (www.robert-lafleur.blogspot.com) 
Becker, Howard. Various Handouts.
Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (handouts)
LaFleur, Longevity Mountain (handouts)
The New York Review of Books (NYRB) 

*We will be using the new second edition of this book. Do not buy the first edition; there are too many changes, and it will not "save" you time or money.

Required Ethnographies (Choose one SET from the list below) 
I will describe the situation with these books in class.

Rosaldo, Renato. Ilongot Headhunting: A History   AND
Rosaldo, Michelle. Knowledge and Passion
                             OR
Schiefflin, Edward. The Sorrow of the Lonely and the Burning of the Dancers  AND
Feld, Steven. Sound and Sentiment. 
All books are on library reserve. 
***  *** 
Building upon ANTH 100 (Society and Culture), this course helps students develop increased sophistication in the way that they frame and think about social and cultural (not to mention historical) phenomena.  Our approach to the subject will be both historical and “pragmatic.”  It is necessary to understand the development of various intellectual strains within anthropology. A good foundation in them gives solidity to analytical constructions (this is precisely the reason that philosophers spend a good number of pages in every work “framing” their subject matters in terms of the history of philosophy).  It is far from being a trifling exercise.  We will also take a “pragmatic” approach, by asking ourselves which perspectives work best for our purposes, and our interests.  Learning to balance these seemingly contradictory (but actually beautifully entwined) approaches is one of the keys to excellent theoretical work in and beyond the field of anthropology.

Evaluation
Quizzes                                                                      10%        Every Class Session
Week One Letter.                                                         5%.       Week One
Theoretical Letter                                                       10%        Week Five
Exam 1                                                                       10%        Week Seven
Bridges to Theory Review Essay                               15%        Week Nine
Ethnography Review Essay                                       15%        Week Twelve
Exam 2                                                                       10%        Week Fifteen
Presentations                                                             10%        Week Sixteen
Final Analysis                                                             20%        Week Sixteen
Class attendance and participation is expected.  
See my class attendance and participation policy.
Late assignments will be penalized—see my late assignment policy.

Anthropology 206
Social and Cultural Theory 
Autumn 2021

Week I
(August 24, 26)

(these will be on the quizzes this week)
Tuesday, August 24
Course overview 
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). All authors with website links are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look.           
          David Riesman (1909-2002) 
          Laura Bohannan (1922-2002) 
Bowen, Return to Laughter (just begin the book)
          Foreword by David Riesman (you must read this—all-important)
          Entire book (it is a straight-through "read") 
***  ***

Now, even though the final assignment is due at the very 
end of the term, your job THIS WEEK is to choose a topic
and write a brief (1,000-word; three-page) version of it.
(due by 5:00 p.m. on August 29) 

Thursday, August 26
(these will be on the quizzes this week)
Round and Square 
          Syllabic Cycles:Introduction (a-d)  Read all four posts, not just “a.” 
From the Geil Archive (read all nine posts)   
          Introduction  
          1-Southern Mountain Museum 
          2-Sacred Mountain Map 
          3-Hat and Cattle 
          4-Seeking Anthropology 
          5-Curly Fives 
          6-How to Write the Book 
          7-Mortarboard Man 
          8-Orator 
Bowen, Return to Laughter (we will finish discussion of the book today)
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish). 
         *Lewis Henry Morgan(1818-1881)
         *Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917)
          William Edgar Geil (1865-1925)
Eriksen, A History of Anthropology, vii-x; 1-19
          Proto-Anthropology 
***  ***

Now, even though the final assignment is due at the very 
end of the term, your job THIS WEEK is to choose a topic
and write a brief (1,000-word; three-page) version of it.
(due by 5:00 p.m. on August 29) 

Week II
(August 31, September 2)  
Check the Chicago Citation Quick Guide

Tuesday, August 31
Round and Square Quotidian Quizzes:Introduction (a-h) (It's fine to skim a-d, but read e-g very carefully (your work in this class depends upon it).
New York Review of Books Click for separate New York Review of Books Syllabus  
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish). 
           *Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) 
Bourdieu, Practical Reason 
            Preface
            Acknowledgments
            Social Spaces and Symbolic Space
            (The "Soviet" Variant and Political Capital)
            The New Capital
            (Social Space and the Field of Power)
            Rethinking the State: The Genesis and Structure...
            (The Family Spirit)
            Is a Disinterested Act Possible?
            The Economy of Symbolic Goods
            (Remarks on the Economy of the Church)
            The Scholastic Point of View
            A Paradoxical Foundation of Ethics

 Thursday, September 2
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish). 
          *Franz Boas (1858-1942))
          *Alfred Kroeber (1876-1950)
          Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) 
          *Ruth Benedict (1887-1948) 
Moore, Anthropology in Theory, xi-xvi; 1-52 
          General Introduction
          Anthropology and Epistemology 
Part I/Section I: Culture and Behavior 
          The Aims of Anthropological Research (Boas)
          The Concept of Culture in Science (Kroeber)
          Problems and Methods of Approach (Bateson)
          The Individual and the Pattern of Culture (Benedict) 
Connell, Mrs. Bridge, 1-54 
          Love and Marriage
          Children
          Preliminary Training
          Marmalade
          Christmas Basket
          Displaced Dummy
          Alice Jones
          Who Can Find the Caspian Sea?
          Of Ladies and Women
          Table Manners
          Alice Jones Again
          Agreeable Conversation
          Guest Towels
          Late for Dinner
          Holiday News
          A Matter of Taste
          Good-by Alice
          Never Speak to Strange Men
          Grace Barron 
          What’s Up, Señora Bridge?
          The Leacocks
           Victim of Circumstances
           Rock Fight
***  *** 
"Theory Letter" Assignment Letters Due  
by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 26
(hard copies in my office—MI 206) 
Late assignments will be penalized—see my late assignment policy.

Week III  
(September 7, 9) 
Tuesday, September 7
Wacquant, Body and Soul 
The Street and the Ring 
     An Island of Order and Virtue
     A Scientifically Savage Practice
     The Social Logic of Sparring
     A Implicit and Collective Pedagogy
     Managing Bodily Capital 
     Fight Night at Studio 104 
     "You Scared I Might Mess Up 'Cause You Done Messed Up"
     Weigh-in at the Illinois State Building
     An Anxious Afternoon
     Welcome to the Studio
     Pitiful Preliminaries
     Strong Beats Hannah by TKO in the Fourth
     Make Way for the Exotic Dancers
    "You Stop Two More Guys and I'll Stop Drinkin"

Thursday, September 9 
Round and Square See separate Round and Square syllabus
New York Review of Books See separate New York Review of Books syllabus
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish).
           Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) 
          *A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)
          *Sir Edmund Leach (1910-1989)
          *Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009) 
Moore, Anthropology in Theory, 53-87 
Part I/Section2: Structure and System  
            Rules for the Explanation of Social Facts (Durkheim)
            On Social Structure (Radcliffe-Brown)
            Introduction to Political Systems of Highland Burma (Leach)
            Social Structure (Lévi-Strauss) 
Connell, Mrs. Bridge, 55-96 
            Advanced Training
            Another World
            Tower
            Sentimental Moment
            Soft Gift
            Nothing Spectacular
            The Search for Love
            Treachery
            No Scenes in Church
            Powerful Vocabulary
            Tobacco Road
            One Summer Morning
            Growing Pains
            Maid from Madras
            Revolt of the Masses
            Minister’s Book
            Lady Poet
            Voting
            Oaths and Pledges
            Another Victim of Circumstances
            Leda
            The Clock
            Countess Mariska

Week IV  
(September 14, 16)   

Tuesday, September 14
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense
of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish).
          *Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942)
          *Julian Steward (1902-1972)           
          *Leslie White (1900-1975)
          Roy Rappaport (1926-1997) 
          J.H.M. Beattie (1915-1990)—this is the best we can do for free 
Moore, Anthropology in Theory, 89-161 
Part I/Section3: Function and Environment 
            The Group and the Individual in Functional Analysis (Malinowski)
            The Concept and Method of Cultural Ecology (Steward)
            Energy and the Evolution of Culture (White)
            Ecology, Cultural and Noncultural (Rappaport) 
Part I/Section 4: Methods and Objects 
            Understanding and Explanation in Social Anthropology (Beattie)
            Anthropological Data and Social Reality (Holy and Stuchlik)
            Objectification Objectified (Bourdieu)

Thursday, September 16
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense
of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish). 
          *Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) Review 
          Karl Marx (1818-1883) 
          Adolf Bastian (1826-1905) 
          *Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) Review 
          Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) 
Eriksen, A History of Anthropology, 20-45
          Victorians, Germans and a Frenchman 
Connell, Mrs. Bridge, 97-151 
           Tea Leaves
            Liberal
            The Private World of Wilhelm and Susan
            Sir William and Sir Thomas
            The Low-pressure Salesman
            Second Lesson in Spanish
            Servant’s Entrance
            Rumpy
            The Chrysler and the Comb
            No Evangelism
            Chaperon
            Good Night
            Suitor
            Ingrid
            Parking
            News of the Leacocks
            The Hat
            First Babies
            Who’s Calling?
            Mademoiselle from Kansas City
            Ruth Goes to New York
            Tornado at the Club
            Non Capisco
            England

Week V  
(September 21, 23) 

Tuesday, September 21
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish). 
         *Marcel Mauss (1874-1950)
         *Clifford Geertz (1926-2006)
          Talal Asad (1932-) 
          *Sherry Ortner (1941-) 
          Malcom Crick (1948-2006) 
          Maurice Bloch (1939-) 
Eriksen, A History of Anthropology, 46-67 
            Four Founding Fathers 
Moore, Anthropology in Theory, 163-220 
Part II/Section 5: Meanings as Objects of Study 
            Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture (Geertz)
            Anthropology and the Analysis of Ideology (Asad)
            Subjectivity and Cultural Critique (Ortner) 
Part II/Section 6: Language and Method            
            Structural Analysis in Linguistics and in Anthropology (Lévi-Strauss)
            Ordinary Language and Human Action (Crick)
            Language, Anthropology, and Cognitive Science (Bloch)

Thursday, September 23
Becker, Social Theory and Research Handouts (posted on our Moodle site)
          "The Outside Game" (The New Yorker)
          "World and Field" (The Sociology of Art)
Connell, Mrs. Bridge, 151-194 
            French Restaurant
            Winged Victory
            Strangers in Paradise
            Intellectual Café
            Sidewalk Artist
            Telegram
            Beautiful Luggage
            Mirror, Mirror
            Psst!
            Peculiar Roman
            Change of Itinerary
            Inside Europe
            Progress, Madness, Defeat
            Robbery at the Heywood Duncans’
            No Questions
            Follow Me Home
            Jules, Niki, et al
            The Rich and the Poor
            Paquita de las Torres
            Extra-sensory Perception
            Frayed Cuffs
            Sex Education
            Words of Wisdom
***  *** 
"Theory Letter" Assignment Letters Due  
by 5:00 p.m. THIS Sunday, September 26
(hard copies in my office—MI 206) 
Late assignments will be penalized—see my late assignment policy.

Week VI  
(September 28, 30)  

Tuesday, September 28
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish). 
          Harvey Whitehouse (1964-)  
          Charles Stafford (1956-) 
          T.M. Luhrman (1959-) 
          Charles Whitehead () 
          Michael Jackson (1940) 
          Emily Martin (1944) 
          Lesley Sharp ()   
Moore, Anthropology in Theory, 221-281 
Part II/Section 7: Cognition, Psychology, and Neuoranthropology 
            Towards an Integration of Ethnography, History and the...(Whitehouse)
            Linguistic and Cultural Variables in the Psychology of Numeracy (Stafford)
            Subjectivity (Luhrman)
            Why the Behavioural Sciences Need the Concept...(Whitehead)  
Part II/Section 8: Bodies of Knowledges 
            Knowledge of the Body (Jackson)
            The End of the Body? (Martin)
            Hybridity: Hybrid Bodies of The Scientific Imaginary (Sharp)

Thursday, September 30
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish). 
          Robert Redfield (1897-1958) 
          *Sir Raymond Firth (1901-2002)
          *E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973) 
Eriksen, A History of Anthropology, 68-95 
            Expansion and Institutionalism 
Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice, vii-viii; 1-15 (handout; in-class)
          Translator’s Foreword
          The Objective Limits of Objectivism 
               Section I: Analyses 
           From the Mechanics of the Model to the Dialectic of Strategies 
Connell, Mrs. Bridge, 194-246 
            Very Gay Indeed
            Local Talent
            Exchange of Letter
            Frozen Fruit             
            Reflections on Montaigne
            Gloves
            Marching with Dr. Foster
            Quo Vadis, Madame?
            Joseph Conrad
            Psychotherapy
            Pineapple Bread
            Carolyn’s Engagement
            Present from Douglas
            Carolyn Marries
            Alice
            Winter
            Tuna Salad
            Old Acquaintance
            Home Again
            Mr. Bridge Adjourns
            Letter from a Buddhist
            All’s Well
            Remembrance of Things Past
            Hello?
***  ***

Week VII
(October 5, 7) 

Tuesday, October 5 
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists 
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish). 
          Max Weber (1864-1920) 
          *Eric Wolf (1923-1999)
          *Jean (1946-) and John Comaroff (1945-)
          Donald Donham () 
Moore, Anthropology in Theory, 283-341 
Part III/Section 9: Coherence and Contingency 
            Puritanism and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber)
            Introduction to Europe and the People Without History (Wolf)
            Introduction to Revelation and Revolution (Comaroff and Comaroff)
            Epochal Structures I: Reconstructing Historical Materialism (Donham)
            Structures and the Habitus (Bourdieu) 
Eriksen, A History of Anthropology, 96-119 
            Forms of Change

Thursday, October 7 
Gordon, Fifty Key Anthropologists
You are responsible for any author with a biography in the Fifty Key Anthropologists book (and they will be on quizzes and tests). These authors have an asterisk next to their names, below. All other authors (those with website links) are provided below only so that you can get a quick sense of who they are/were; just click the link for a quick look if you wish).
          Michael Lambek ()
          Henrietta Moore (1957-)
          Robert J. Thornton ()
          Lila Abu-Lughod ()
          *Marilyn Strathern () 
Eriksen, A History of Anthropology, 120-137
           The Power of Symbols
Moore, Anthropology in Theory, 343-410
Part III/Section 10: Universalisms and Domain Terms
            Body and Mind in Mind, Body and Mind in Body...(Lambek)
            So Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture? (Ortner)
            Global Anxieties: Concept-Metaphors and Pre-theoretical...(Moore)
Part III/Section 11: Perspectives and Their Logics
            The Rhetoric of Ethnographic Holism (Thornton)
            Writing Against Culture (Abu-Lughod)
            Cutting the Network (Strathern)

Week VIII—Autumn Break       
[b] (Agri)Culture RF

Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
 ANTH 206: Weeks 1-8                   ANTH 206: Weeks 9-16


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