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- | ~~DECKJS~~ | ||
- | # Go to Bosch Lecture Room 1 # | ||
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- | ## ANTH 1002 is in Bosch Lecture Room 1 ## | ||
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- | Ryan Schram | ||
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- | 27 October 2014 | ||
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- | ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au | ||
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- | Mills 169 (A26) | ||
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- | Available at http:// | ||
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- | With help from Terry Woronov, Emma Young and the ANTH 1002 tutors. | ||
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- | ## An introduction ## | ||
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- | This class is an introduction to cultural anthropology. Anthropology | ||
- | is a study of humanity in all of its diversity. | ||
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- | Cultural anthropology examines this diversity through the lens of | ||
- | culture. | ||
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- | To understand many contemporary issues, you need to understand culture | ||
- | and how culture influences how people think and act. | ||
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- | ## Anthropology, | ||
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- | Major requirements are: | ||
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- | * ANTH 1002 and 1001 (next offered in Summer 2014 and Sem 1 2015). | ||
- | * At least one unit (six credits) in each of the areas of the major, | ||
- | regional, thematic, and theoretical-methodological. | ||
- | * A total of 36 credits of senior units (6 senior units). | ||
- | * One of the 3000-level units, Reading Ethnography or Contemporary Theory. | ||
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- | Students intending to take honours must have a 70 average and also | ||
- | take both 3000-level units. | ||
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- | Your major pathway commences here: | ||
- | http:// | ||
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- | ## Thinking about culture ## | ||
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- | Culture is a system of ideas and values which people acquire from | ||
- | their social environment. It shapes how they see, think and act. It | ||
- | surrounds the person. Culture is like water for a fish. | ||
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- | * What is normal for me, is strange for someone from another culture. | ||
- | * To understand someone' | ||
- | their viewpoint, not ours. | ||
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- | ## Learning to see culture is hard ## | ||
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- | Many people make a few big mistakes about the concept of culture | ||
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- | * " | ||
- | * "Most cultures of the world have already died out, for better or worse." | ||
- | * "Every culture eventually loses its distinctive traditions and | ||
- | becomes modern." | ||
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- | All of these ideas are wrong. | ||
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- | ## Culture is everywhere and everything ## | ||
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- | Anthropologists believe everything we do is determined by our implicit | ||
- | cultural background. | ||
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- | * Gift economies are a type of culture. Capitalism is another type of | ||
- | culture. | ||
- | * Basket-weaving is a cultural practice. Post-Fordist flexible labor | ||
- | is a cultural practice. | ||
- | * Wearing a headscarf is a cultural practice. Wearing sunglasses is a | ||
- | cultural practice. Wearing a T-shirt is a cultural practice. Buying | ||
- | secondhand clothes is a cultural practice. | ||
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- | ## Put another way ## | ||
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- | As Terry Woronov said in her 2013 review of this class: | ||
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- | " | ||
- | dynamics that sustain difference, and **enables the ongoing | ||
- | reproduction of difference**." | ||
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- | ## And another thing ## | ||
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- | Terry also says: | ||
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- | " | ||
- | and many kinds of social changes are **made possible** by the fact | ||
- | that we all live in societies which have a cultural coherence." | ||
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- | ## The themes of this class ## | ||
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- | * Circulation | ||
- | * Commodification | ||
- | * Production | ||
- | * Modernity | ||
- | * Moral and utilitarian domains | ||
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- | ## Circulation ## | ||
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- | **Circulation**: | ||
- | move from place to place? What roles do they play in shaping and | ||
- | giving an order to the lives of people in specific places, and how do | ||
- | the structures of local societies influence global circulation. | ||
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- | ## Commodification ## | ||
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- | **Commodification**: | ||
- | is not a natural law, then what are the other kinds of economic | ||
- | systems besides capitalism? How is capitalism instituted and | ||
- | established? | ||
- | capitalist systems; that is, where can we see the persistence of | ||
- | alternative kinds of value in the market-based society? | ||
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- | ## Production ## | ||
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- | **Production**: | ||
- | relationship does a worker have to a boss? If production can be | ||
- | globalized in the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism, | ||
- | this social relationship enable this to happen? | ||
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- | ## Modernity ## | ||
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- | **Modernity**: | ||
- | opposite of tradition. Well, we hope we have convinced you that it's | ||
- | much more complicated. You cannot define modernity as an either-or | ||
- | proposition. | ||
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- | If that is so, and modernity is not simply progress, then we must ask | ||
- | what it is. What are the kinds of social relationships and forms of | ||
- | personhood that we can find in the global city, in the post-Fordist | ||
- | factory, in churches or mosques, or in the shopping centre or movie | ||
- | theatre? What are the cultural traits that most people call ' | ||
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- | ## Moral and utilitarian domains ## | ||
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- | **Moral and utilitarian domains**: Talking about modernity, capitalism and | ||
- | globalization often feels like a morally-charged debate. Everyone | ||
- | wants to take a stand. What stances do people take? (Consider the | ||
- | polar opposites that our culture teaches us to use to define | ||
- | modernity.) Based on readings about actual people' | ||
- | these stances actually represent different spheres of life, or moral | ||
- | and utilitarian domains. And based on these readings, we also saw that | ||
- | most people really live in between moral and utilitarian domains and | ||
- | constantly have to manage the conflicts and make compromises. | ||
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- | ## Everything is mixed ## | ||
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- | Categories are not dichotomous; | ||
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- | * Tradition / modernity | ||
- | * Developed / undeveloped | ||
- | * Custom / rationality | ||
- | * Gift / commodity | ||
- | * Love / money | ||
- | |||
- | ## The snake and the mongoose ## | ||
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- | Once upon a time there was a snake and a mongoose... | ||
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- | {{: | ||
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- | Many opposites - values, ideas, institutions - are not binary, | ||
- | either-or. They are contradictions and they exist in an ambiguous | ||
- | tension which is both a source of conflict but also creativity. | ||
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- | ## Over to you ## | ||
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- | What questions do you have for me? | ||
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- | What items do you want me to present on Wednesday? | ||
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- | ## Reference ## | ||
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- | Lacock, Hennie. 2013. Cobra and Mongoose. Caters New Agency. http:// | ||
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1002/13.1.1414361916.txt.gz · Last modified: 2014/10/26 15:18 by Ryan Schram (admin)