[G] = Graeber, David, and David Wengrow. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. ISBN: 9780374157357. [Preview with Google Books]
Session 1: Overview of Class
No readings assigned.
Session 2: The Problem of “Human Nature” (Plus Introductions)
[G] Chapter 1: Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood.
Session 3: Highlands Trilogy, Part 1
[G] Chapter 2: Wicked Liberty.
Session 4: Cross-cultural Contact
No readings assigned.
Session 5: Highlands Trilogy, Part 2
[G] Chapter 3: Unfreezing the Ice Age In and Out of Chains: The Protean Possibilities of Human Politics.
Session 6: Human Origins and Social Evolution
No readings assigned.
Session 7: Ethnographic Methods and Participant Observation
Abidin, Crystal. “Somewhere between Here and There: Negotiating Researcher Visibility in a Digital Ethnography of the Influencer Industry.” Journal of Digital Social Research 2, no. 1 (2020): 56–76.
Johnson, Norris Brock. “Sex, Color, and Rites of Passage in Ethnographic Research.” Human Organization 43, no. 2 (1984): 108–20.
Session 8: Highlands Trilogy, Part 3
[G] Chapter 4: Free People, the Origin of Cultures, and the Advent of Private Property.
Session 9: Politics and Ritual
No readings assigned.
Session 10: Feels Good Man
Durkheim, Emile. “Origin of These Beliefs (Conclusion): Origin of the Notion of Totemic Principle, or Mana.” Chapter 7 in Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Translated by Karen E. Field. Free Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780029079379.
Wong, Jamie, Crystal Lee, et al. “‘Let’s Go, Baby Forklift!’: Fandom Governance and the Political Power of Cuteness in China.” Social Media + Society 7, no. 2 (2021): 1–18.
Session 11: Ritual and Expressive Culture
No readings assigned.
Session 12: Presentations (1)
No readings assigned.
Session 13: Presentations (2)
No readings assigned.
Session 14: Can Rituals Be Designed?
Gordon-Lennox, Jeltje. “The Rhyme and Reason of Ritualmaking.” Chapter 4 in Emerging Ritual in Secular Societies: A Transdisciplinary Conversation. Edited by Jeltje Gordon-Lennox. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017. ISBN: 9781785920837. [Preview with Google Books]
Lévy, Pierre. “Exploring the Challenge of Designing Rituals.” Paper presented at the 6th International Congress of International Association of Societies of Design Research, Brisbane, Australia, November 2015.
Session 15: Ritual Workshop I: The “Ritual Design Toolkit”
Baxter, W., S. Roots, et al. “Ritual Design Toolkit.” Interaction Foundry, 2020.
Session 16: Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology Field Trip
[G] Chapter 5: Many Seasons Ago.
Session 17: Representing and Displaying Culture
No readings assigned.
Session 18: Bored in Heaven
Jiménez, Alberto Corsín, and Adolfo Estalella. “Ethnography: A Prototype.” Ethnos 82, no. 5 (2017): 846–66.
Farquhar, Judith, and Qicheng Zhang. “Biopolitical Beijing: Pleasure, Sovereignty, and Self-Cultivation in China’s Capital.” Cultural Anthropology 20, no. 3 (2005): 303–27.
Session 19: Ritual Workshop II
No readings assigned.
Session 20: Guest: James Shen, Principal, People’s Architecture Office
[G] Chapter 8: Imaginary Cities.
Session 21: City as Theater
No readings assigned.
Session 22: Nomadland
[G] Chapter 12: Conclusion.
Session 23: Uncertainty, Precarity, Futurity
No readings assigned.
Session 24: Ritual Workshop III: Final Plans and Prototypes
No readings assigned.
Session 25: Ritual Performance
No readings assigned.
Session 26: Ritual Workshop IV: Ritual Performance
No readings assigned.
