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.

Saturday, January 30, 2021

The Other Studies Another Syllabus 2021a

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Syllabic Cycles"

On this date in Round and Square History
[a] Other-Another RF

The Other Studies Another
HIST 310
Spring 2021
Mondays and Wednesdays 7:00-10:00
Every class begins with a quiz, 
and our actual class session will begin at 7:30

Robert André LaFleur                                              Office Hours:
Morse Ingersoll 206                                                  Email me (we're still
363-2005                                                                     in the midst of a pandemic)        
                                                                                   lafleur@beloit.edu
Required Books          
Durkheim, Emile. Selected Writings (Cambridge).
Granet, Marcel. Festivals and Songs in Ancient China. 
Granet, Marcel. The Religion of the Chinese People (.pdf)
James, Wendy. Marcel Mauss: A Centenary Tribute (Berghahn, 1998).
Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Time and Space: 1880-1918. 
Mauss, Marcel. Manual of Ethnography (Berghahn, 2007).
Mauss, Marcel. The Gift. 
Robb, Graham. Discovery of France. 

Evaluation  
Quizzes/attendance                    15%  
Research Prospectus                  20%
Research Presentation               15%
Research Paper                          50%                        
Daily attendance and class participation are expected; absences during the semester will affect your grade. Late assignments will be penalized. 

HIST 310
The Other Studies Another
Spring 2021

Week I
A Big, New World
Monday, February 15
Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days

Wednesday, February 17
Graham Robb, The Discovery of France 
          Part One
                  The Undiscovered Continent
                  The Tribes of France I
                  The Tribes of France II
                  O Òc Sí Bai Ya Win Oui Awè Jo Ja Oua
                  Living in France I: The Face in the Museum
                  Living in France II: A Simple Life
                  Fairies, Virgins, Gods, and Priests
                  Migrants and Communters
       Interlude: The Sixty Million Others
          Part Two
                  Maps
                  Empire
                  Travelling in France I: The Avenues of Paris
                  Travelling in France II: The Hare and the Tortoise
                  Colonization
                  The Wonders of France
                  Postcards of the Natives
                  Lost Provinces
                  Journey to the Centre of France
                  Epilogue: Secrets

Sunday, February 21
1,000-word "miniature" review essay examining themes in Le Tour de la France (including the introduction), Graham Robb's Discovery of France,  and Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days.
This should be written as a brief, but well-structured 
academic essay, and not as an "informal" work.
Due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 21
Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

Week II
Introducing Marcel Granet (1884-1940)
Monday, February 22
Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space: 1880-1918 
                  The Nature of Time
                  The Past
                  The Present
                  The Future
                  Speed
                  The Nature of Space
                  Form
                  Distance
                  Direction
                  Temporality of the July Crisis
                  The Cubist War
                  Conclusion

Wednesday, February 24
Marcel Granet, The Religion of the Chinese People: 1-29
                  Maurice Freedman, “Marcel Granet, 1884-1940, Sociologist” (.pdf)        
Rolf Stein, The World in Miniature: 1-3 (.pdf)
                  In Memory of Marcel Granet                                                     
Robert LaFleur, "Time , Space, and the Calendar in Early Chinese Mythology."
Robert LaFleur, "La Pensée Catégorique: Marcel Granet's Grand Sinological Project..."
Marcel Granet, "Peasant Religion" in The Religion of the Chinese People: 33-56.
                         Preface        
                         Peasant Religion
                              Rural Life
                              Holy Places and Peasant Festivals
                              Ancient Beliefs
                              Popular Mythology and Folklore

I am noting here the rest of the book, so that you can see where "Peasant Religion" fits into the larger context. We won't be reading the material below this module, but the structure of this book fits the entire breadth of Granet's work.

                         Feudal Religion
                              The Life of the Nobles
                              The Cult of Heaven
                              Agrarian Cults
                              The Cult of the Ancestors
                              Mythology
                  The Official Religion
                              The Literati
                              Orthodox Metaphysics and Morality
                              Cults and Beliefs
                  Religious Revivals
                              Taoism
                              Buddhism
                  Religious Sentiment in Modern China
 *** ***

Week III 
Festivals, Songs, Mythology, and Civilization
Monday, March 1
Marcel Granet, Festivals and Songs in Ancient China 
             I  The Love Songs of the Shih Ching 
                   Introduction                                          
                   How to Read a Classic
                   Rustic Themes                                                                 
                   Village Loves                                                                  
                   Songs of the Rivers and Mountains                       
             II  The Ancient Festivals 
                   Local Festivals                                                  
                   Facts and Interpretations                                    
                   The Seasonal Rhythm                                         
                   The Holy Places                                                
                   The Contests                                                                 
                    Conclusion     

Wednesday, March 3
Robert LaFleur, "Rural Religion in China"
This is my "explanation" of what is going on in Granet's "Peasant Religion." It is a long interpretive essay, but it will explain a great deal that wasn't clear before. You might want to read it along with your .pdf copy (if it is printed and you can mark it) of "Peasant Religion."
 *** ***
Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

[b] Louvre One Another RF

Week IV
Marcel Mauss and the Année Sociologique Tradition
Monday, March 8
LaFleur, Writing, History, and Culture (Rob's Writing Guide)
                  Part III—Read first
                  Part I—Read very carefully and take notes
                  Part II—Get a sense of what's there, without taking too much time.
Durkheim and Mauss, Primitive Classification 
                  The Problem
                   The Australian Type of Classification
                   Other Australian Systems
                   Zuni, Sioux
                   China
                   Conclusions
Bronislaw Malinowski and Argonauts of the Western Pacific (blog post)                            Cohen, Preface to History in Three Keys (.pdf file)
LaFleur, "Historiography, Temporality, and Decision-Making..." (.pdf file)
            
Wednesday, March 10
LaFleur, "Smoke Hole at the Center of the Universe" (.pdf file)
Mauss, The Concept of the Person
Mauss, Seasonal Migrations Among the Eskimo
 *** ***
Final Research Essay (10,000 words)
due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4
Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

Week V
Marcel Granet's Final Masterworks—1
Monday, March 15
These are the actual readings for Week V. Weeks VI and VII include the Durkheim materials.
Marcel Mauss, Manual of Ethnography
                  Introduction (please read this carefully)
                  Preliminary Remarks
                  Methods of Observation
                  Social Morphology
                  Technology
                   Aesthetics
                   Economic Phenomena
                   Jural Phenomena
                   Moral Phenomena
                   Religious Phenomena
Marcel Granet, "Religious Sentiment in Modern China" (.pdf file)

Wednesday, March 17
Marcel Mauss, The Gift 
                *Foreword: Puzzles and Pathways by Bill Maurer   
                 *Translator's Introduction: The Gift that Keeps on Giving by Jane Guyer
                   In Memoriam: The Unpublished Works of Durkheim and His Collaborators
                  *Essay on the Gift: The Form and Sense of Exchange in Archaic Societies
                   Selected Reviews
 *** ***
Final Research Essay (10,000 words)
due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4
Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

Week VI
Marcel Granet's Final Masterworks—2
Monday, March 22
While reading these chapters, think always of the "elemental forms," the foundations (according to Granet...and Durkheim) that are still there when social and religious practice becomes much more detailed and complex.
Marcel Granet, The Religion of the Chinese People, 57-119
                  Feudal Religion
                  Official Religion
Emile Durkheim, Selected Writings, 108-154
                  Moral Obligation, duty, and freedom
                  Forms of Social Solidarity
                  The Division of Labor and Social Differentiation

Wednesday, March 24
While reading these chapters, continue to think always of the "elemental forms," the foundations (according to Granet...and Durkheim) that lie at the heart of even the material Granet discusses in these chapters.
Marcel Granet, Chinese Thought, 9-279 (don't worry; see below)
* Skim over the introduction (9-30), without taking too much time on it (pages 
* Read, as carefully as you can, given time constraints, pages 31-126. Look for connections to the Durkheimian writings and the elemental forms.
* Skim over the (extremely long) "Numbers" chapter; look for themes of "cyclicality."
Emile Durkheim, Selected Writings, 219-238
                  Religion and Ritual
 *** ***
Final Research Essay (10,000 words)
due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4
Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy

Week VII
Research Presentations
Monday, March 29
Research Presentations (in class)

Wednesday, March 31
Work on your seminar papers.
 *** ***
Final Research Essay (10,000 words)
due by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 4
Click Here to Review the Late Assignment Policy
[c] Writing One Another RF

Anthony Giddens. Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings, 1-107
                   Durkheim’s writings in sociology and social philosophy
                   The field of sociology
                   Methods of explanation and analysis   
Anthony Giddens, Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings, 108-268
                    The Science of Morality
                    Moral obligation, duty and freedom
                     Forms of social solidarity
                     The division of labour and social differentiation
                     Analysis of socialist doctrines
                     Anomie and the moral structure of industry
                     Political sociology
                   The social bases of education
                   Religion and ritual
                   Secularisation and rationality
                   Sociology of knowledge      
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