The History of Anthropology course provides historical and theoretical treatment of the discipline of anthropology from the late 19th century through about 1960. The course offers majors a comprehensive treatment of anthropological writings in the United States, builds a foundation for the graduate-level contemporary theory seminar, and offers a general background in theory for interested non-majors.

ASSIGNMENTS: There are no formal texts. Instead, materials will be assigned on line our via library resources. One of the major kinds of assignments will be "reviews." For each review, different articles or chapters by each of the anthropologists considered in the lectures will be assigned to several students--as often as possible, the readings will be made available in original form to the whole class. As a supplement to lectures and recommended library resources, students will consult the biography listings at the Minnesota State University, Mankato, electronic museum site: http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/information/biography/index.shtml

The biographical sketches at this web site offer a wonderful introduction to the prominent anthropological thinkers of the 20th Century. The class will connect the historical figures who shaped anthropology through the 1960s through direct reference to their writings and the broad theoretical orientations of the discipline of anthropology. All of the books on the recommended library resources are in the UWF library. In addition, on-line resources and selections from the library will be linked on the course Distance2 Learn page.

The assigned discussion leaders will post book reviews or abstracts of articles on the course Distance2Learn web page, expressing key ideas, theoretical developments, and substantive contributions. Other class members will be responsible to respond to the reviews. These on-line discussions, moderated and expanded by the instructor, will relate concepts and individuals to the major theoretical orientations of anthropology.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: The successful student will be able to present and discuss a brief history of the discipline of anthropology based upon its key ideas and the people who first articulated them. The presentation of such background is essential to grounding any current anthropological writing; such basic information about the discipline represents a relatively straightforward body of non-controversial ideas and historical connections. Although not absolutely necessary for admission to graduate programs, the substantive background of this course gives students a head-start toward key material essential to success in the discipline. Our students should also be able to present the ideas of anthropology in terms that can be understood by a non-specialist. In addition, student in this class will be expected to learn the American Anthropological Association guidelines for reference and footnote style. These outcomes can be measured to the extent the substantive information can be explicitly covered in written examinations and expressed in essays required as assignments in the class.

TOPIC OUTLINE AND ASSIGNMENT STRUCTURE

A. Several in-class biographical reviews presented as leads to discussion. (30% of grade)

B. ON-LINE MID-TERM EXAMINATION (30% of grade) Format TBA.

C. ON-LINE FINAL EXAMINATION (30% of grade) Format TBA.

D. OVERALL PARTICIPATION (10% of grade) [Class, online discussions, reviews, exams]

LECTURE AND DISCUSSION SEQUENCE

UNIT I. Opening Lectures

1. Introductions, plan for the course activities, readings, grades, etc.

2. Four and one-half paths of 20th century anthropology.

3. Cultural Evolution - the late 19th century

4. History and Natural History - 1900-1920

5. Functionalism and Social Structure - 1920-1940

6. Ecology, and Evolutionism Revisited - 1940-1960

7. Structuralism - the 1960s

UNIT II--19TH CENTURY EVOLUTIONISTS

8. Sir James Frazer - The Golden Bough and 19th century understandings of the European cultural tradition.

9. L. H. Morgan, E. Tyler, V. Gordon Childe - Native Americans, Europeans, and "Civilization"

UNIT III--HISTORICAL APPROACHES TO ANTHROPOLOGY

10. Franz Boas (Columbia) - Natural science, natural history and the foundation of modern American anthropology

11. Alfred L. Kroeber (Berkeley) - History, culture pattern, culture element studies, diffusion, and cultural process

12. A. L. Kroeber, Leslie Spier (Oklahoma), G. P. Murdock, museum studies, ethnographic-archaeological collections management, anthropogeography, and the culture area concept

13. George Peter Murdock - Culture trait studies and culture area synthesis; the HRAF project

UNIT IV--FUNCTIONALISM

14. A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, functional-structuralism, and British influence on the foundation and analytic tradition of the Chicago School; heritages in the work of Fred Eggan and Sol Tax

15. Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific, functionalism, and comprehensive approaches to ethnographic practice.

16. N.D. Fustel de Coulanges, Marc Bloch, George Homans, Raymond Firth, Erich Wolf, and Fred Eggan.

17. Margaret Mead and Studies of Culture and Personality

UNIT V--NEO-EVOLUTIONISTS AND CULTURAL ECOLOGY

18. Leslie White and Unilinear Evolutionary Theory

19. Marshall Sahlins and Elman Service

20. Julian Steward and Multilinear Evolutionary Theory, The Concept and Method of Cultural Ecology, Culture Core and Culture Area

21. Marvin Harris and cultural materialism

UNIT VI--CONFIGURATIONALISM

22. Clyde Kluckhohn and Configurationalist Theory; configurationalism as a form of structuralist theory.

23. Ruth Benedict’s Patterns of Culture; humanistic characterizations of culture.

24. Morris Opler and the Theory of Cultural Themes;

25. Formal linguistic analysis of culture: Kenneth Pike, componential analysis, and ethnoscience.

UNIT VII--STRUCTURALISM

25. Claude Levi-Strauss, Edmund Leach, Rodney Needham, and the limited impact of French Structuralism on American Anthropology.

26. Semiotics--Thomas A. Sebeok

UNIT VIII--THE TRANSFORMATION OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE 1960s

27. The deaths of Kroeber and Kluckhohn.

28. Perspectives on Post-Modern Anthropology

29. Immanuel Wallerstein and World System Theory

30. Michael Agar and Michael Herzfeld

BOOKS WORTH CONSULTING:

Most of the works on this list are available in the UWF library.  A few items have been added that are not in the library, though they can be obtained through interlibrary loan or for purchase through services like addall.com or other on-line booksellers.

*classic works with which you should be familiar if you plan graduate studies in anthropology
+ Terry’s all-time favorite books list

+ David Abrams, The Spell of the Sensuous
 

Michael Agar  Speaking of ethnography
Michael Agar  The Professional Stranger
+ F. G. Bailey Strategems and Spoils
Keith Basso  Wisdom Sits in Places
Keith Basso  Western Apache Witchcraft
Kathleen Bateson, ed.  About Bateson : essays on Gregory Bateson
Ruth Benedict  An anthropologist at work; writings of Ruth Benedict
*+ Ruth Benedict  The chrysanthemum and the sword; patterns of Japanese culture.
*Ruth Benedict Patterns of Culture
Lewis Binford  In pursuit of the past : decoding the archaeological record
*+ Marc Bloch  The historian's craft
* Franz Boas A Franz Boas reader : the shaping of American anthropology,
       1883-1911
Paul Bohanan  Africa and Africans
+ Joseph Casagrande In the company of man; twenty portraits by anthropologists.
Napoleon Chagnon  Yanomamo : the fierce people  [use a later edition if possible, which includes
       information on revisits and impacts of acculturation]
Scott Cook  Peasant capitalist industry : piecework and enterprise in southern
       Mexican brickyards
Rushton Coulborn, ed. Feudalism in history.
George Dalton  Economic anthropology and development; essays on tribal and
       peasant economies.
* Mary Douglas Purity and Danger
Fred Eggan, et al., Social anthropology of North American Indians
Fred Eggan  Social organization of the western pueblos.
Paul Ezell  The Hispanic acculturation of the Gila River Pimas.
+ Elizabeth Fernea  Guests of the Sheik
Elizabeth Fernea  In search of Islamic feminism : one woman's global journey
Elizabeth Fernea and Robert Fernea The Arab world : forty years of change
Raymond Firth  Man and culture : an evaluation of the work of Bronislaw
                   Malinowski
*+ Raymond Firth  We, the Tikopia : a sociological study of kinship in primitive
       Polynesia,; with a preface by Bronislaw Malinowski. [you may use the 1983 abridged edition]
*+ Sir James G. Frazer  The new Golden bough; a new abridgment of the classic work.
       [Edited, and with notes and foreword, by Theodor H.Gaster].
Reo Fortune  Manus religion; an ethnological study of the Manus natives of the
       Admiralty Islands
Michel Foucault  The archaeology of knowledge.
Robin Fox  The search for society : quest for a biosocial science and morality
Ernestine Friedl  Women and Men: an anthropologist's view
*+ Clifford Geertz  Agricultural involution : the process of ecological change in
       Indonesia
Henry Glassie  Pattern in the material folk culture of the Eastern United States.
*+ Marvin Harris  Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches
+ Marvin Harris, Cultural materialism
Marvin Harris  The nature of cultural things.
Marvin Harris  Theories of culture in postmodern times
* Marvin Harris  The rise of anthropological theory
Marvin Harris  Why nothing works : the anthropology of daily life
+ Michael Herzfeld  The poetics of manhood : contest and identity in a Cretan mountain
       village
James N. Hill  Explanation of prehistoric change
* George Homans  English villagers of the thirteenth century
James Henri Howard  The Southeastern ceremonial complex and its interpretation
*+ Clyde Kluckhohn  Anthropology and the classics.
Clyde Kluchhohn Culture and behavior; collected essays.
Clyde Kluckhohn  Mirror for man; the relation of anthropology to modern life.
Conrad Kottak  Prime-time society : an anthropological analysis of television and
       culture
Conrad Kottak  Researching American culture : a guide for student anthropologists
A. L. Kroeber  An anthropologist looks at history.
A. L. Kroeber  Anthropology: biology & race.
*+ A. L. Kroeber Cultural and natural areas of native North America
* A.L.Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn Culture; a critical review of concepts and definitions
William Labov  Locating language in time and space
Edmund Leach  Political Systems of Highland Burma
* Edmund Leach  Rethinking Anthropology  + "Two Essays on the Representation of Time"
Edmund Leach  Social Anthropology
*+ Winfred Lehmann  Directions for historical linguistics; a symposium.
Oscar Lewis Anthropological essays.
Oscar Lewis  Five families; Mexican case studies in the culture of poverty.
*+ Claude Levi-Strauss  Structural anthropology.
* Claude Levi-Strauss  The savage mind (La pensee sauvage)
+ Claude Levi-Strauss  Totemism
William Longacre  Archaeology as anthropology: a case study
+ Bronislaw Malinowski  Diary in the strict sense of the term. [French.—I will provide you with English
       copy from my volume at home]
*+ Bronislaw Malinowski  Argonauts of the western Pacific; an account of native enterprise
       and adventure in the archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea
+ Alice Marriott  The ten grandmothers
Margaret Mead  And keep your powder dry; an anthropologist looks at America.
Margaret Mead  Male and female, a study of the sexes in a changing world.
* Margaret Mead  Sex and temperament in three primitive societies.
Betty Meggers  Amazonia: man and culture in a counterfeit paradise
John Messenger  Inis Beag: Isle of Ireland (1883 ed.)
Christopher L. Miller Theories of Africans : Francophone literature and anthropology in
       Africa
* Lewis Henry Morgan  Ancient society
*George P. Murdock  Africa: its peoples and their culture history.
*Morris Opler (5 paper packet on the concept of themes) and [inter-library loan]
       Apache odyssey: a journey between two worlds
Karl Polanyi  Trade and market in the early empires; economies in history and
       theory
Paul Rabinow  Interpretive social science : a second look
* A. R. Radcliffe-Brown  The Andaman Islanders.
A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Structure and function in primitive society; essays and addresses.
* Robert Redfield  A village that chose progress : Chan Kom revisited
Robert Redfield  Fieldwork : the correspondence of Robert Redfield and Sol Tax
* Robert, Redfield  Tepoztlan, a Mexican village; a study of folk life
* Marshall Sahlins  Historical metaphors and mythical realities : structure in the early
       history of the Sandwich Islands kingdom
Marshall Sahlins  Stone age economics
Edward Sapir  Culture, language, and personality
* Elman Service  Cultural evolutionism: theory in practice
*+ Ferdinand de Saussure  Course in general linguistics
* Jacques Soustelle  La vie quotidienne des Azteques a la veille de la conquete
       espagnole.
Edward H. Spicer  A short history of the Indians of the United States
*+ Edward Spicer Cycles of conquest; the impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United
       States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533- 1960.
Ron Spores The Mixtec kings and their people.
James Spradley  The cocktail waitress : woman's work in a man's world
*+ Julian Steward  Theory of culture change; the methodology of multilinear evolution.
Sol Tax  Horizons of anthropology.
+ Walter W. Taylor  A study of archeology
*Colon Turnbull  The forest people
*Immanuel Wallerstein  The modern world-system; capitalist agriculture and the origins of
       the European world-economy in the sixteenth century
Weiner, Annette  Inalienable possessions : the paradox of keeping-while-giving
Leslie White  The concept of cultural systems : a key to understanding tribes and
       nations
Leslie White  The ethnography and ethnology of Franz Boas
* Leslie White  The science of culture, a study of man and civilization.
Joseph Whitecotton  The Zapotecs : princes, priests, and peasants
* Eric Wolf  Peasants
* Eric Wolf  Sons of the shaking earth