On this date on Round and Square's History
18 January 2014—China's Lunar Calendar 2014 01-18
18 January 2013—Channeling Liam: Celsius
18 January 2012—Seinfeld Ethnography: Swimming in East River
Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
The Accidental Ethnographer
History 293/Anthropology 375
Spring 2015
MWF 8:00-9:50 AM
Robert André LaFleur Office
Hours:
Morse Ingersoll 111 Monday
2:30-4:00
363-2005 Wednesday
2:30-4:00
lafleur@beloit.edu …or by
appointment
Required Books
Barzun, Jacques, Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers
Booth, Wayne, The Craft of Research (Third Edition)
Hamilton,
Nigel. How to Do Biography (available
online through the library)
Hexter,
Jack. The History Primer
Peacock,
James. The Anthropological Lens (available online
through the library)
New York
Review of Books
Hacker,
Diana. A Pocket Style Manual
(required in all history courses)
Travel
Reading Packet (Available on
GoogleBooksTM)
Verne,
Jules. Around the World in Eighty Days
(1873)
Hearn,
Lafcadio, Kokoro: Hints and Echoes of
Japanese Inner Life (1907)
Ethnography
Reading Packet (Distributed in
class)
Frazer,
Sir James George. The Golden Bough
(1893)
Mauss,
Marcel. Seasonal Variations Among the
Eskimo (1904)
Boas,
Franz. Tsimshian Mythology (1916)
Granet,
Marcel. Festivals and Songs in Ancient
China (1919)
Malinowski,
Bronislaw. Argonauts of the Western
Pacific (1922)
Mead,
Margaret. Coming of Age in Samoa
(1928
Books By
William Edgar Geil (Distributed
in class)
Geil,
William Edgar. The Isle That is Called
Patmos (1896)
Geil,
William Edgar. Ocean and Isle (1902)
Geil,
William Edgar. A Yankee on the Yangtze
(1904)
Geil,
William Edgar. A Yankee in Pigmy Land (1905)
Geil,
William Edgar. The Great Wall of China (1909)
Geil,
William Edgar. Eighteen Capitals of China
(1911)
Geil,
William Edgar. Adventures in the African
Jungle Hunting Pigmies (1917)
Geil,
William Edgar. China’s Sacred 5 (1926)
Geil, William Edgar. Laodicea; or, the Great Sermon of
the Stones (1897)
Geil, William Edgar. Practical Christianity, or, The Commandments
Up-to-Date (1900)
Geil, William Edgar. Heaven: What, When, and Where? (1900)
Geil, William Edgar. The Men of Galilee (1906)
Geil,
William Edgar. The Men on the Mount (1907)
Books About
William Edgar Geil (available
on DVD; handed out in class)
—, William Edgar Geil, The Missionary-Missioner
(preface, William T. Stead (1910)
Wilson, Philip Whitwell. An Explorer of Changing Horizons:
William Edgar Geil (1927)
Course Description
This course in historical methods and cultural analysis will examine in detail the life of William Edgar Geil (1865-1925). A native of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Geil was well known in and beyond the United States, and was a distinctive voice in fin de siècle (and, indeed, début du siècle) understandings of the world beyond the West. From the late nineteenth century on, he traveled extensively to Africa, New Guinea, and China, writing ten books throughout his career that introduced the customs and histories of various peoples.
Geil's last book, The Sacred 5 of China, is the only account in a Western language of China's five cardinal mountains. He died suddenly in 1925 on a trip to Italy, and his widow sought to extend his legacy with a commissioned biography. It had little influence; he died at almost precisely the "wrong" time—in a decade when academic ethnography was forming into a distinct genre, with its books written by trained fieldworkers eager to cut "amateurs" from their ranks. Geil was largely forgotten until his papers were discovered in 2008 in a barn near Doylestown.
The instructor has examined more than 10,000 documents from Geil's archive, and students will study digital copies of them in the course of their research during the term. By engaging the written record of the life of a world traveler (including his handwritten notebooks), we will study an author who became, in many ways, an "accidental ethnographer"—eclectic and evangelical to the end—who can teach us a great deal about historical research and the history of cultural anthropology.
Evaluation
Quizzes........................................15%
Final Presentation........................15%
Final Paper...................................40%
Class attendance and participation is expected.
Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
The Accidental Ethnographer
HIST 293/ANTH 375
Week I
(January 19-23)
Monday 1/19
Film: Geil of Doylestown
Wednesday 1/21
Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days (first third)
1 In which Phileas Fogg and Passepartout accept each other...
2 In which Passepartout is convinced that he has at last found...
3 In which a conversation takes place which seems likely to...
4 In which Phileas Fogg astounds Passepartout, his servant.
5 In which a new species of funds, unknown to the moneyed...
6 In which Fix, the detective, betrays a very natural impatience.
7 Which once more demonstrates the uselessness of passports...
8 In which Passepartout talks rather more, perhaps, than is...
9 In which the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean prove propitious...
10 In which Passepartout is only too glad to get off with the loss...
11 In which Phileas Fogg secures a curious means of conveyance...
12 In which Phileas Fogg and his companions venture across...
13 In which Passepartout receives a new proof that fortune...
14 In which Phileas Fogg descends the whole length of the...
15 In which the bag of bank-notes disgorges some thousands...
Round and Square
Syllabic Cycles: Introduction (a-d) Read all four
posts, not just “a.”
Friday 1/23
Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days (to the end)
16 In which Fix does not seem to understand in the least...
17 Showing what happened on the voyage from Singapore...
18 In which Phileas Fogg, Passepartout, and Fix go each about...
19 In which Passepartout takes a too great interest in his master...
20 In which Fix comes face to face with Phileas Fogg.
21 In whichthe master of the "Tankadere" runs great risk of losing...
22 In which Passepartout finds out that, even at the antipodes, it is...
23 In which Passepartout's nose becomes outrageously long...
24 During which Mr. Fogg and party cross the Pacific Ocean.
25 In which a slight glimpse is had of San Francisco.
26 In which Phileas Fogg and party travel by the Pacific Railroad.
27 In which Passepartout undergoes, at a speed of twenty miles...
28 In which Passepartout does not succeed in making anybody...
29 In which certain incidents are narrated which are only to be met...
30 In which Phileas Fogg simply does his duty...
31 In which Fix the detective considerably furthers the interests of...
32 In which Phileas Fogg engages in a direct struggle with bad...
33 In which Phileas Fogg shows himself equal to the occasion.
34 In which Phileas Fogg at last reaches London.
35 In which Phileas Fogg does not have to repeat his orders to...
36 In which Phileas Fogg's name is once more at a premium...
37 In whichit is shown that Phileas Fogg gained nothing by his...
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
Week II
(January 26-30)
Monday 1/26
Round and Square
Quotidian Quizzes: Introduction (a-h) Read all eight
posts, not just “a.”
New York Review of Books See separate New York Review of Books syllabus
Geil, Adventures in the African Jungle Hunting Pigmies (1917)
Off For Mombasa
Pigmies of Long Ago
Approaching Africa
Billy is Kidnapped
The Escape From The Fort
Donkeys and Dangers
The Land of the Lions
Sure-Shot, the Missionary
Billy Outwits a Lion
Africa's Inland Sea
Monkeys and Sleeping Sickness
A Human Panther
Over the Swamps Toward Sunset
More Hobnobbing With Royalty
Fever in the Foothills
Termites and Driver Ants
Snakes and Avalanches
A Bag of Jiggers
A Savage Welcome
On a Curious Lake
A Letter From the Explorer
African Dwarfs, and Others
The Forest of Eternal Twilight
Pigmies At Last
The Haunts of the Pigmies
Pigmy Palaver
The Burial of a Pigmy
Lost in the Forest of the Pigmies
A Letter Home
A Visit to the Jolly Pigmies
Still More Pigmies
Wrecked in the Rapids
Noble Lives
Wednesday 1/28
Booth, The Craft of Research: 1-50
Thinking in Print: The Uses of Research
Connecting with your Reader: (Re-)Creating Yourself and Your Reader
From Topics to Question
Barzun, Simple and Direct: xi-xiv, 1-56
Preface
Introduction
Diction, or Which Words to Use
Hexter, The History Primer: 21-42
The Case of the Muddy Pants, the Dead Mr. Sweet, and...
From the Geil Archive (read all five posts)
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive
Explore the site for one hour. Spend the second hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS collection). Send a one-paragraph e-mail response (with analysis) to the instructor by 10:00 a.m. on Friday, 1/30.
Week III
(February 2-6)
***No Class Meeting on 2/2***
Check Your E-mail for the plan (but you need to do the work on the syllabus)
Monday 2/2
Round and Square—See Separate RSQ Syllabus
New York Review of Books See separate NYRB syllabus
Geil, The Sacred 5 of China
Carefully read all front matter...in detail, especially "The Magic of 5" (xv-xix)
Tai Shan, Green Peak of the East
Nan Yo, Red Peak of the South
Sung Shan, Yellow Peak of the Centre
Hua Shan, White Peak of the West
Heng Shan, Black Peak of the North
Wednesday 2/4
Booth, The Craft of Research: 51-101
From Questions to a Problem
From Problems to Sources
Engaging Sources
Barzun, Simple and Direct: xi-xiv, 57-107
Linking, or What to Put Next
Hexter, The History Primer: 43-64
What Makes it So Easy and So Hard, or the Language of History
From the Geil Archive (read all five posts)
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive
Explore the site for one hour. Spend the
second hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at
least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS
collection). Write a one paragraph e-mail to the instructor by 10:00 a.m. on Friday 2/6.
Week IV
(February 9-13)
"Grammar" Week!
Monday 2/9
Round and Square—See Separate RSQ Syllabus
New York Review of Books See separate NYRB syllabus
David Foster Wallace, Tense Present (Dropbox)
Zerubavel The Clockwork Muse (Dropbox)
Barzun, Simple and Direct: 109-144
Tone and Tune, or What Impression Will It Make?
Wednesday 2/11
LaFleur, Rob's Style Sheet (handout)
I.A. Richards, How to Read a Page (Dropbox)
Booth, The Craft of Research: 103-151
Making Good Arguments: An Overview
Making Claims
Assembling Reasons and Evidence
Acknowledgments and Responses
From the Geil Archive (read all four posts)
23 Geil, An Intellectual Bricoleur
Friday 2/13
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive
Explore the site for one hour. Spend the
second hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at
least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS
collection). Write a one paragraph e-mail to the instructor by 10:00 a.m. on Friday 2/13.
Week V
(February 16-20)
Monday 2/16
Round and Square—See Separate RSQ Syllabus
New York Review of Books See separate NYRB syllabus
William T. Stead, "Missionary Missioner," 1-62
The Man and His Methods
Round the World after Missionaries
The Great Melbourne Mission
Across China and Darkest Africa
In Defence of Missions
A Missioner for the Missions
Philip Whitwell Wilson, An Explorer of Changing Horizons, 19-97
The First Book: Apprenticeship
The Horizons
His Inheritance
The Struggles of a Student
The Objective
Towards the Sun
The Twilight of Old Turkey
The Island of Saints
The Seven Lamps
The Arming of Europe
Booth, The Craft of Research, 153-202
Warrants
Planning
Drafting Your Report
Barzun, Simple and Direct, 145-185
Meaning, or What Do I Want to Say?
From the Geil Archive (read all five posts)
24 Voting Rights
28 The Perfect 2
Wednesday 2/18
Work on your letters!
Friday 2/20
Work on your letters!
Letter Assignment Due by 10:00 p.m. on Friday, February 20th (hard copy in MI 111).
See my late assignment policy.
Week VI
(February 23-27)
Monday 2/23
Round and Square—See Separate RSQ Syllabus
New York Review of Books See separate NYRB syllabus
Philip Whitwell Wilson, An Explorer of Changing Horizons, 101-271
The Second Book: Achievement
The Enquiry
Salt of the South Seas
Savor of the Salt
Thresholds of China
Yankee on the Yangtze
From Burmah to Bombay
Across Africa
The Pigmies
The Great Wall
Wednesday 2/25
Booth, The Craft of Research, 203-248
Revising Your Organization and Argument
Communicating Evidence Visually
Introductions and Conclusions
Barzun, Simple and Direct: 187-226
Composition, or How Does It Hang Together?
Hexter, The History Primer, 65-79
Points Without Lines, or the Record of the Past
From the Geil Archive (read all four posts)
32 The Sarawak Museum
Friday 2/27
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive
Explore the site for one hour. Spend the
second hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at
least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS
collection). Write a one paragraph e-mail to the instructor by 10:00 a.m. on Friday 2/27.
Week VII
(March 2-6)
Monday 3/2
Round and Square—See Separate RSQ Syllabus
New York Review of Books See separate NYRB syllabus
Geil, The Isle That Is Called Patmos
A Trip to Patmos
The Monastery of St. John
Persecutions
John and the Revelation
The Geography of Patmos
Georgirene's Description of Patmos
St. John's Visit to Patmos
Patmos in Classical History
The Re-Inhabiting of the Island
The Female Monastery
Home Life on Patmos
Mount St. Elias
Prochorus
Hermits of Patmos
The Monastery of the Apocalypse
A Meditation
Philip Whitwell Wilson, An Explorer of Changing Horizons, 275-372
The Third Book: Association
A Layman's Use of the Bible
The Forest and the Pagoda
Changes in Changeless China
The Mind of China
The Soul Within the Mind
The Book That Never Was Written
The Final Victory
Wednesday 3/4
Booth, The Craft of Research: 249-276
Revising Style: Telling Your Story Clearly
Some Last Considerations
Barzun, Simple and Direct: 227-254
Revision, or What Have I Actually Said?
Hexter, The History Primer, 80-109
The Sown and the Waste, or the Second Record
From the Geil Archive (read all four posts)
36 Sentimental Geil
Friday 3/6
Doylestown Historical Society Online Archive
Explore the site for one hour. Spend the
second hour making a list of a dozen things you noticed (including at
least five specific source references with item numbers from the DHS
collection). Write a one paragraph e-mail to the instructor by 10:00 a.m. on Friday 3/6.
Week VIII
Midterm Break
Click here for the other half of this two-part syllabus post:
