Anthropological Theory

Calendar

WEEK #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	What is Theory? Debating the Case of Captain Cook	Sahlins, Marshall. “Captain James Cook, or The Dying God.” Pp. 104-135. Obeyesekerre, Gananath. The Apotheosis of Captain Cook. Chap. 1, 3 and 4 (pp. 3-22, 49-73, 102-119).
I. Collectivity and Structure
2	Emile Durkheim and the Collective Conscience	Durkheim, Emile. The Division of Labor. (Excerpts.) Durkheim, Emile. Rules of Sociological Method. (Excerpts.) Durkheim, Emile. Suicide. (Excerpts.)
3	Marx, History, and Materialism: Political Economy	Marx, Karl. Selections on Historical Materialism and Alienated Labor. Marx, Karl. Selections from Marx Engels Reader: “Society and Economy in History” (pp. 136-142), “Theses on Feuerbach” (pp. 143-145), “The German Ideology,” Part I (up to “The Real Basis of Ideology”), pp. 146-176. Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. Lipsitz, George. Time Passages. (Excerpts). Chambliss, William. “A Sociological Analysis of the Law of Vagrancy.” Hay, Douglas. “Property, Authority, and the Criminal Law.” Thompson, E. P. “The Rule of Law.” Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power. (Excerpts.) Griswold, Wendy. " The Ideas of the Reading Class."
4	Marx, History and Commodity Fetishism	Selections from Marx, Karl. Capital. Vol. 1. Especially:  1.1. “The Two Factors of the Commodity.” 1.2. “The Dual Character of Labor Embodied in Commodities.” 1.4. “The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret.” 2. “The Process of Exchange.” 4. “The General Formula for Capital.” 26. “The Secret of Primitive Accumulation.”
II. Subjectivity and Structure
5	Weber, Rationalization and Modernity	Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber, Max. “The Fundamental Concepts of Sociology.” In The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Weber, Max. “The Ideal Type.” Weber, Max. “The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism.” Weber, Max. Excerpts on Rationalization. Ritzer, George. The MacDonaldization of Society.
6	Structuralism in Anthropology	Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. (Excerpts.)
7	The Foucauldian Subject of Power and Discourse	Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. Vol. 1. (Excerpts.) Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish. (Excerpts.) Foucault, Michel. “Two Lectures.” Foucault, Michel. “Truth and Power.”
8	Categorization	Durkheim and Mauss. Primitive Classification. (Excerpts.) Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger. (Excerpts.) Douglas and Wildavsky. Risk and Culture. (Excerpts.)
9	Negotiating Agency and Structure in Practice	Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Social Space and the Genesis of Groups.” Bourdieu, Pierre. “Time Perspectives of the Kabyle.” Bourdieu, Pierre. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. (Excerpts.) Laberge, Suzanne, and Joanne Kay. “Pierre Bourdieu’s Sociocultural Theory and Sport Practice.”
10	Face to Face Interaction	Goffman, Erving. Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. (Excerpts.) Goffman, Erving.“Fun in Games.” In Encounters. (Excerpts.)
III. Post-Structural Critique
11	Representation in Anthropology	Clifford, James. The Predicament of Culture. (Excerpts.) Clifford, James, and George Marcus. Writing Culture. (Excerpts.) Marcus, George, and Michael Fischer. Anthropology as Cultural Critique. (Excerpts.) Ortner, Sherry. “Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties.” Collier, Jane, and Sylvia Yanagisako. “Theory in Anthropology Since Feminist Practice.” Rosaldo, Renato. “Subjectivity in Social Analysis.” Smith, Dorothy. “No One Commits Suicide.”
12	Globalization and Modernity	Appadurai, Arjun. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” Silbey, Susan S. “Let Them Eat Cake: Globalization, Post-modern Colonialism and the Possibilities of Justice.” Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity.
13	Conclusions