Unit coordinator and lecturer (weeks 7–12): Ryan Schram
Lecturer (weeks 1–6): Holly High
The complete syllabus (or "unit outline") is available on the official USYD web site.
USYD students who are enrolled in ANTH 1002 can find more information on the class Canvas site.
As humans, culture completes us, but we also create culture through our words and deeds. Social and cultural anthropologists are engaged in both cultural description and cultural criticism: their work contributes to understanding the world and changing it. Anthropologists challenge many dominant beliefs about how the world works. In this class, you will be introduced to the unique perspective of cultural anthropology on human experience through a study of how anthropologists have contributed to debates on contemporary issues of global importance. You will learn how anthropological understandings of culture and society help us to rethink the way we live and the world we inhabit.
ANTH 1002: Anthropology in the world—A guide to the unit
Assignments: Qualitative analysis of a birth interview, Cultural contextualization of an observation about childhood, Assessing Mauss’s influence: An exercise in research skill, Constructive criticism of a colleague’s Mauss research, Critique of your own cultural assumptions, Lecture questions
Class info: Welcome to anthropology, What is anthropology, and why should we care?, What we will do in class, Attendance, timetables, lectures, tutorials, and the hybrid format of this class, Late work, special consideration, and no-disadvantage assessment, The keys to success in this class, How to Zoom to class, Types of scholarly writing, Writing an effective email, Formatting and software requirements for assignments
| Activity | Frequency | Location |
|---|---|---|
| video presentations and study notes | weekly | Canvas |
| assigned and recommended readings | weekly | Canvas |
Nb. All sessions run for an academic hour (50 minutes) and start at 5 minutes after the hour. All times are Sydney local time (UTC+10 until Oct. 4, then UTC+11).
| Day and time | Location |
|---|---|
| Wed. 4 p.m. | Zoom via Canvas |
| Day and time | Code | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Mon. 12 noon | M12A | Carslaw 350 |
| Mon. 1 p.m. | M13A | Carslaw 350 |
| Mon. 3 p.m. | M15A | Zoom via Canvas |
| Wed. 11 a.m. | W11A | Woolley N497 |
| Wed. 12 noon | W12A | Woolley N497 |
| Wed. 12 noon | W12B | Physics Road Learning Hub LG17 |
| Wed. 1 p.m. | W13A | Zoom via Canvas |
| Wed. 1 p.m. | W13B | Zoom via Canvas |
| Wed. 3 p.m. | W15A | Zoom via Canvas |
| Thu. 10 a.m. | R10A | Physics Road Learning Hub LG18 |
Required readings: Eriksen (2015b)
Required readings: Davis-Floyd (1994), Behrmann (2003)
Required readings: Shostak ([1982] 2000)
Required readings: Eriksen (2015c)
Required readings: Briggs (1970)
Required readings: Allison (1991)
Required readings: Eriksen (2015a)
Recommended readings: Mauss ([1925] 1990), Marx ([1867] 1972)
Required readings: Piot (1999)
Recommended readings: Bohannan (1959), Bohannan (1955), Nairn (1976)
Required readings: Cliggett (2003)
Required readings: Gershon (2012)
Required readings: Shankar (2020)
Allison, Anne. 1991. “Japanese Mothers and Obentōs: The Lunch-Box as Ideological State Apparatus.” Anthropological Quarterly 64 (4): 195–208. doi:10.2307/3317212.
Behrmann, Barbara L. 2003. “Uncovering Your Own Birth History.” The Journal of Perinatal Education 12 (4). doi:10.1624/105812403X107008.
Bohannan, Paul. 1959. “The Impact of Money on an African Subsistence Economy.” The Journal of Economic History 19 (4): 491–503. doi:10.1017/S0022050700085946.
———. 1955. “Some Principles of Exchange and Investment Among the Tiv.” American Anthropologist, New Series, 57 (1): 60–70. doi:10.1525/aa.1955.57.1.02a00080.
Briggs, Jean L. 1970. “Inuttiaq’s Children.” In Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family, 109–37. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Cliggett, Lisa. 2003. “Gift Remitting and Alliance Building in Zambian Modernity: Old Answers to Modern Problems.” American Anthropologist 105 (3): 543–52. doi:10.1525/aa.2003.105.3.543.
Davis-Floyd, Robbie E. 1994. “The Ritual of Hospital Birth in America.” In Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology, edited by James Spradley, 323–40. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 2015a. “Exchange and Consumption.” In Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 4th ed., 217–40. London: Pluto Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt183p184.16.
———. 2015b. “Religion and Ritual.” In Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 4th ed., 264–85. London: Pluto Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt183p184.18.
———. 2015c. “The Social Person.” In Small Places, Large Issues, 4th ed., 52–73. An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology (Fourth Ed.). London: Pluto Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctt183p184.8.
Gershon, Ilana. 2012. “Legislating Families as Cultural.” In No Family Is an Island: Cultural Expertise Among Samoans in Diaspora, 114–37. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801464027-008.
Marx, Karl. (1867) 1972. “Capital, Vol. 1 [Selections].” In The Marx-Engels Reader, edited by Robert C. Tucker, 309–43. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Mauss, Marcel. (1925) 1990. “Selections from Introduction, Chapters 1-2, and Conclusion.” In The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies, translated by W. D. Halls, 1–14, 39–46, 78–83. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Nairn, Charlie, dir. 1976. Ongka’s Big Moka. Granada Television. https://sydney.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/61USYD_INST/2rsddf/asp_summonEthnographicVideoOnlineVolume2PostSep2015AustraliaASP2086420_ant2.
Piot, Charles. 1999. “Exchange: Hierarchies of Value in an Economy of Desire.” In Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa, 52–75. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Shankar, Shalini. 2020. “Nothing Sells Like Whiteness: Race, Ontology, and American Advertising.” American Anthropologist 122 (1): 112–19. doi:10.1111/aman.13354.
Shostak, Marjorie. (1982) 2000. “First Birth.” In Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman, 170–91. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
ANTH 1002: Anthropology in the world—A guide to the unit
Assignments: Qualitative analysis of a birth interview, Cultural contextualization of an observation about childhood, Assessing Mauss’s influence: An exercise in research skill, Constructive criticism of a colleague’s Mauss research, Critique of your own cultural assumptions, Lecture questions
Class info: Welcome to anthropology, What is anthropology, and why should we care?, What we will do in class, Attendance, timetables, lectures, tutorials, and the hybrid format of this class, Late work, special consideration, and no-disadvantage assessment, The keys to success in this class, How to Zoom to class, Types of scholarly writing, Writing an effective email, Formatting and software requirements for assignments
This is an acknowledgment that the Sydney University Department of Anthropology <html><strong></html><html><a href=“https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/council/about-council/welcome-to-country” title='More information on the indigenous owners of Sydney'></html>occupies the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation<html></a></html><html></strong></html>, and furthermore that our work as anthropologists brings us into contact with many communities whose sovereignty is denied.