C:\AMIPRO\DOCS\COURSES\436\536S97.SAM

Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences The University of Alabama

Social Anthropology

ANT 536-001
Spring, 1999

Professor: Dr. M.D. Murphy
Class Place and Time: 119 ten Hoor, Wed. . 3-5:30 p.m.
Office: 24C ten Hoor
Office Hrs: Tues 1:30-3:30 p.m.; Wed 1-2 p.m.; by appointment
email: mdmurphy@tenhoor.as.ua.edu

INDEX

Course Objectives

This seminar of lectures, discussions, readings and web page construction will explore the attempts of anthropologists to describe, interpret and analyze the social relations of a wide range of human societies. Lecture topics will include kinship, marriage, descent, residence, modes of production, the control of sexuality and aggression, and social evolution. Each student will take a written examination in the anthropology of kinship and social strucure and will construct a web page leading to an essay and an oral presentation on one of ten theoretical or methodological perspectives in social anthropology.

Reading List

Robert Parkin (1997) Kinship: An Introduction to Basic Concepts. Oxford: Blackwell.
E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1940) The Nuer. Oxford University Press.
Asen Balikci (1989) The Netsilik Eskimo. Waveland Press.
Dennis Gaffin (1996) In Place: Spatial and Social Order in a Faeroe Islands Community. Prospect Heights, Ill: Waveland Press.
Annette Weiner, (1988)The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Michael D. Murphy (1999) A Kinship Glossary: Symbols, Terms, and Concepts

Reserve Reading Room Resources for Essays and Web Assignments

Histories

Bee, Robert (1974 ) Patterns and Processes. New York: Free Press. GN320 .B453
Bohannan, Paul (1973) High Points in Anthropology. New York: Knopf. GN17 .B63 1973.
Robert Borofsky, editor, (1994) Assessing Cultural Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1981) A History of Anthropological Thought. New York: Basic Books. GN17 .E9 1981.
Harris, Marvin (1968) The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture. New York: Crowell. GN320 .H33.
Hatch, Elvin (1973) Theories of Man and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press. GN315 .H36.
Hays, H.R. (1958) From Ape to Angel: An Informal History of Social Anthropology. New York: Knopf. GN 405 .H34.
Kardiner, Abram and Edward Prebles (1961) They Studied Man. Cleveland: World Publishing Co. GN 405 .K3.
Kuklick, Henrka (1991) The Savage Wtihin: the Social History of British Anthropology, 1885-1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. GN308.3 G7 K85 1991.
Kuper, Adam (1983) Anthropology and Anthropologists: the Modern British School. London: Routledge. GN308.3 G7 K86 1983.
Leaf, Murray J. (1979) Man, Mind, and Science: A History of Anthropology. New York: Columbia University Press. GN17 .L39.
Silverman, Sydel (ed) (1981) Totems and Teachers: Perspectives on the History of Anthropology. New York: Columbia University Press.GN17 .T69.
Stocking, George W. (1995) After Tylor: British Social Anthropology, 1888-1951 Madison: University of Wisconsin. GN 308.3 .G7 S74 1995.

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Seymour-Smith, Charlotte (1986) Macmillan Dictionary of Anthropology. London: Macmillan. GN 11 .S49 1986.
Winnick, Charles (1956) Dictionary of Anthropology. New York: Philosophical Society. GN 11 .W5.

Other Resources for Essays and Web Assignments

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (1968) New York: Macmillan: New York: Free Press. REF H .A2 15.
Levinson, David and Melvin Ember (1996) Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology. Four volumes. New York: Henry Holt. REF GN 307 .E52 1996
Pearson, Roger (1985) Anthropological Glossary. Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co. REF.GN 11 .P43 1985
Winthrop, Robert H. (1991) Dictionary of Concepts in Cultural Anthropology. New York: Greenwood Press REF GN 307 .W56 1991.
Barnard, Alan and Jonathan Spencer (1996) Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. London: Routledge. REF GN 307 .E648 1996x
Barfield, Thomas (1997) The Dictionary of Anthropology. Oxford: Blackwell. REF

Schedule

Weeks 1-12 (Jan. 6-March 24): LECTURES
- Principal lecture topics:
  - Anthropology, Culture, Society, Social Evolution & Cultural Complexity, Incest and its Prohibition, Residence, Descent, Marriage, Kinship Terminology
Week 13 (March 31): SPRING HOLIDAY
Week 14 (April 7): EXAMINATION
Weeks 15-17 (April 14, 21, 28): STUDENT PRESENTATIONS
Week 18 (April 3, Monday, 5pm): ESSAYS DUE

Class Participation and Attendance

Attendance is required and excessive absences will lower the student's grade for the course. Classroom participation is an important requirement of the course and it will figure in the final grade.

Written Examination

The written examination (April 7) will test the student's knowledge of the anthropological study of kinship and related topics. The exam will cover the lectures, Parkin's kinship handbook, Murphy's kinship glossary, and the four ethnographic monographs.

Essays

Each student will write an essay outlining and critiquing one of ten methodological and theoretical schools of thought advanced by sociocultural anthropologists during the last 125 years. (See the list below).
Each essay will be a minimum of 15 pages (i.e., 3,750 words) in length.
The paper is due on May 3 (Monday) at 5 p.m.
The essay must be formatted in accordance with the American Anthropological Association Style Guide.

List of Anthropological Schools of Thought

Web Pages:

Social Evolutionism: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/evol.htm
Diffusionism and Acculturation: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/diffusion.htm
Historicism: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/histor.htm
Functionalism: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/function.htm
Manchester School: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/manchest.htm
Culture & Personality: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/cult&per.htm
American Materialism: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/material.htm
Cultural Materialism: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/cultmat.htm
Ecological Anthropology: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/ecologic.htm
Cross-Cultural Analysis: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/crosscut.htm
Cognitive Anthropology: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/coganth.htm
Marxist Anthropology: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/marxism.htm
Feminist Anthropology: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/feminism.htm
Structuralism: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/struct.htm
Symbolic & Interpretive Anthro: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/symbolic.htm
Postmodernism & Its Critics: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/pomo.htm

Potential New Web Pages:

Sociobiology
Anthropology of Practice
Psychoanalytic Anthropology

Web Page Assignments

Each student will construct a web page outlining the material that will be used in the class presentation and which will appear in final form in the essay. On several scheduled occasions, each student will be required to add new material to the web site and these efforts will be graded separately. The aims of this exercise are two-fold. First, it assists the student in preparing the oral presentation assignment and in composing the final essay. Second, it provides study materials for all students who will be taking the comprehensive exams at the end of the semester.

Students will be divided up into three groups for administrative purposes only. On three separate dates the members of each group will submit progressively elaborate web pages for posting and re-posting on the course web site. Each original submission and upgrade will be submitted in three forms: a paper copy,a copy of the file on a floppy diskette, and a copy sent through email. The due dates of these postings and upgrades are as follows:

Group A: Jan 27; Bef 17; Mar 10

James Boschma
Tom Lewis
Tara Robertson

Group B: Feb 3; Feb 24; Mar 17

Scott Hammerstedt
Jon Marcoux

Group C: Feb 10; Mar 3; Mar 24

Gail King
Stacy McGrath

A web page design template can be found at: http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/murphy/pgdesign.htm

Oral Presentations

During the last three weeks of the course (April 14, 21, 28) each student will present a 30-45 minute summary of his or her essay topic for the benefit of the other students.

Grading

Examination (35%), Paper (30%), Web Page Assignment (20%), Presentation (15%)

Course Web Pages

A Kinship Glossary: Learn this by heart for the examination.
Anthropology Department Web Site: This web site provides comprehensive information about UA anthropology programs, faculty and facilties.
Library Research in Anthropology Web Site: A guide to conducting library research in anthropology at UA. Use this site for the essay and web work.
Anthropology on the Internet: A jump site to interesting anthropology sites on the Internet
Anthropological Theories: A Guide Prepared By Students For Students. Access the student constructed pages on anthropological theory here.
Kinship and Social Organization Interactive Tutorial by Brian Schwimmer

Return to M.D. Murphy's Page
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