|
|
|
About MARIAL COURSES TAUGHT BY MARIAL FACULTY AND FELLOWS Spring 2001
CHRIS MCCOLLUM Content: Psychological anthropology studies the relationship between culture and human psychology, drawing from psychoanalysis, cognitive science, academic psychology, and developmental psychology. What makes psychological anthropology distinctly anthropological is its desire to understand human diversity, and its motivation to examine people holistically. Through discussion, writing projects, and original research, students will learn how to understand personality and cognition in the context of cultures. A principal goal of the course is to inform students about the social and cultural forces shaping their own thoughts, feelings and motivations. Texts: Particulars: Three short papers based on ethnographic interviews/fieldwork and a comprehensive, take-home final exam. BRADD SHORE and KEITH McNEAL Content: Any appreciation of human behavior must include an understanding of ritual and the human compulsion to collectively organize experience and social relations through the process of ritualization. Ritual is a crucial dimension in the reproduction and transformation of human culture, but it has all too often been considered an exclusive province of religion alone. Thus the course will examine what we mean by ritual and explore the wide and varied range of human ritual behavior in both its secular as well as sacred forms. It will not only address the problem of human ritual from the perspective of history and culture, but also explore its primatological and developmental aspects as well as its complex connections to human play. With this analytical foundation, we will examine ritual in relation to performance more generally, developing comparisons and contrasts with formal theater traditions. What is the relationship between performances and the societies that produce and consume them? And why do humans seem universally compelled to enact and perform roles, identities and narratives under the gaze of an audience? These are fundamental questions that the course will address. Films: Books: MELISSA FISCHER Texts: Arjun Appadurai. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization Pierre Bourdieu. 1998. Acts of Resistance: Against the Tyranny of the Market David Harvey. 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity Ellen Hertz. 1998. The Trading Crowd Angel Kwolek-Folland. 1994. Engendering Business Emily Martin. 1997. "The End of the Body" in The Gender/Sexuality Reader Aiwa Ong. 1999. Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Particulars: There will be one short 5 page critical paper based on a close reading of selected texts, due at the midpoint of the course, weekly student oral presentations, and a 15 page term paper/project. The project will be chosen in consultation with the course instructor. Fieldwork-based projects will be encouraged, but not required. The class will be conducted as a seminar. Class enrollment limited to 18 students: Junior or Seniors only, or permission of the instructor. FELICITY PAXTON Content: Starting with birth and working chronologically
through a series of case studies, this course invites students to
explore the centrality of ritual in modern American life. We will
look closely at rituals that celebrate the human lifecycle as well
as overtly competitive sporting and political rituals. We will examine
rituals that unfold at the local level as well as those that most
Americans experience only via the media. Rituals under examination
will include birthday parties, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, Halloween,
Quincea–eras, proms, graduation, rodeos, homecoming, weddings, beauty
pageants, reunions and funerals. Students will be encouraged to
critically examine their own ritual beliefs and practices and to
consider these and other theoretical questions: What is the status
of ritual in post-industrial culture? What distinguishes popular
from official ritual and secular from religious ritual? How do sociological
variables such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion shape
peopleÕs understanding of, and participation in, modern American
rituals? What role does ritual play in family life? How do contemporary
rituals bond Americans at the local and/or national level? Texts may include: Particulars: Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions and attend approximately 4 scheduled film screenings. There will be 3 short papers (at least one of which will be based on ethnographic fieldwork and/or interviews), and a final take-home exam. PATRICK WEHNER Content: This course will look critically at the inner workings of media organizations and advertising firms, the historical role of marketing and media professionals in the emergence of a consumer culture, and the degree to which these "culture industries" influence everyday life in the United States. We will examine how media professionals have described the relationship between commerce and culture, profit and public service, and how those definitions have shaped their daily routines, organizational policies, and broader understandings of their society. We will explore the interrelationships between cultural change, business pressures, and the development of new communication and marketing strategies. We will consider whether the mass audience has splintered into countless media "niches" and evaluate the factors said to have contributed to this process. Finally, we will explore how audiences' uses of technology, information, commercial messages, and entertainments might or might not be anticipated or even realized by marketing and media decisionmakers. Note that this course is not intended as a training in "how to," but rather, will focus on broader questions of "Why?" and "To what end?" Texts: Readings may include such historical works as Susan Douglas, Listening In, Thomas Frank, The Conquest of Cool, and Lynn Spigel, Make Room for TV; such sociological and anthropological studies as Herbert Gans, Deciding What's News, Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins, Reading National Geographic, and Michael Schudson, Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion; as well as selections from memoirs and business literature. Students will also be responsible for occasional film viewings, either in group screenings or on reserve. Particulars: Attendance and informed participation are basic requirements of the course. Students will also be responsible for group presentations, regular summary briefs of the readings, a journal of short research assignments and responses, a midterm, and a final. JARRETT PASCHEL Content: This course will examine key issues salient to the intersections of economy and society, with an admittedly sociological slant. We'll begin with a comprehensive review of the history of economic sociology before moving on to examine actual case studies of research in this tradition. In particular, we will examine ethnographies of direct selling organizations (Amway, Mary Kay Cosmetics, etc.) as well as the world of fine art. During the second half of the course we will focus our attention more closely on emerging theories of consumption. Specifically, we will attempt to account for the increasing interest in highly differentiated consumer goods and lifestyle items. (Think Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Anthropologie, REI, etc.) Texts: We will include a diverse array of provocative readings by academics, business gurus, CEO's, journalists, and critical theorists. In addition we will likely include films, presentations, field trips (maybe) and other methods of supplementary learning. Selected texts include: "Art Worlds" by Howie Becker, "Charismatic Capitalism" by Nicole Biggart, and "BoBo's in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There" by David Brooks. Particulars: Two Exams, Two short papers, Assignments. |