Syllabus - Introduction to Anthropology

Claudio Sopranzetti

INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY
The anthropological gaze
Course description
This course is a general introduction to the premises, vocabulary, methods, and themes of socio-cultural
anthropology. It starts from the simple statement that anthropology strives to make the familiar
unknown and the unknown familiar. The course is divided in two parts. The first section is built around
a text-book and is structured around some of the traditional fields of anthropological inquiry, such as
space, time, language, relations, and bodies. Each week we will explore one of them and
students will be provided with small ethnographic exercises to conduct outside class which will apply
class material to the analysis of concrete life situations around them. The second section, instead, will
focus on contemporary texts in anthropology and explore the unique contribution that ethnographic
practices are able to provide to the analysis of capitalism, social inequality, social movements,
globalization, and development. Each week we will read one text and investigate what an anthropological
gaze is and how it can inform our understanding of social, economic, and political worlds around us. On
the overall, by the end of this course you will be able to locate and pose anthropological questions and to
apply anthropological theories to specific social facts.
This is a hands-on class, students are required to conduct a small fieldwork projects (textual,
photographic, video-graphic, sonic, etc.) throughout the first part of the semester and as a final project.
These mini-ethnographies will be conducted in the proximity of the University or on campus. In these
projects students will be required to apply what they have learned from their readings and lectures in
concrete empirical exercises supervised by their TA and to be submitted as the final project for the
course.
Course and requirements
The lessons will be divided in two types: larger lectures and smaller discussion groups. Attendance is
mandatory to both of them and your grade will be significantly shaped by active participation. As a
consequence you must read all required readings, whether they are in your textbooks, on the World Wide
Web, or on reserve in the library. Students are thus expected to enter into the discussion of course
topics, both when we break into our smaller discussion groups as well as when we come together as a
class. The amount one speaks, however, is less important than the quality of things which are said. At
the same time, please don't feel that pearls of wisdom are expected to come from your mouth every time
you open it. Literally, the dumbest question is the one left unasked. Often times many people are
wondering the same thing. In short, this class encourages you to think creatively, hash out ideas, and
challenge -- each other as well as me.
While larger lectures will rely mostly on frontal teaching while the discussion groups will run as a
seminar. In them we will focus more on deep and engaged reading and discussion than on covering
extensive bodies of literature. With this in mind, critical participation will be the central focus and
students are required to fully and carefully read and engage the texts listed below, every single week.
Close weekly readings, comparative textual work and detailed in-class discussions of those close readings
will be expected, and will form the backbone of this course. Keep in mind that we are here to develop
analytical and creative intellectual skills.
In addition to the readings, the students are expected conduct five small ethnographic
exercises, take a mid-term exam and final exam, and conduct a small ethnographic research to
be presented as a short final paper (10 pages)
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Syllabus - Introduction to Anthropology

Claudio Sopranzetti

The ethnographic exercises will be assigned weekly at the end of class for the first five weeks and will
entail a mixture of observation, participant observation, and interviews (these methods will be explained
in class). Students are required to submit a 2 pages report for each of these exercises.
Both exams are intended to show not only that one has attended the lectures and completed the readings
but more importantly to demonstrate how well one has understood them. Exceptional performances will
be indicated by how well students are able to reformulate familiar materials in new ways. The midterm
will cover topics discussed during the first part of the term. The final exam will be comprehensive but
will focus on the second half of the course.
The final paper (10 pages) must be a research paper in which you engage in a mini-ethnographic project,
either on campus or in the community around it. Students may choose any subject of their own interest
as long as they also critically address the class readings within the body of the paper. Each student
must meet with me to discuss their final paper at least once and submit an abstract (around 400
words) with annotated bibliography the week after mid-term exam. All written assignments should
follow the American Anthropological Association guide (www.aaanet.org/publications/guidelines.cfm).
Students will be evaluated on the basis of a 100-point system:
Participation
Ethnographic Exercises
Exams
Abstract and Final Paper

25%
15%
30%
30%

There will be absolutely no extensions or incompletes allowed for the final paper without certified
medical reasons. All late final papers without a relevant excuse will be graded down 1/3 of a grade per
day.
A note on plagiarism
Any use of another persons words, ideas either taken directly or indirectly and without citation
is cause for a plagiarism investigation. This includes material from the Internet. You are too smart to
plagiarize. If you have any questions on how to quote sources or materials properly, please consult A
Writers Reference, the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, the Chicago Manual of Style, the AAA style
guide, or contact me.
Required course materials
The following text should be purchased for the class, either online or in a local bookstore. Please let me
know if you have any problems finding it. The rest of the course readings will be available on the class
website.
Bourgois, Philippe. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. 2003 Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Delaney, Carol. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. 2004. Malden:
Blackwell Publisher

Syllabus - Introduction to Anthropology

Claudio Sopranzetti

Ferguson, James. Anti-politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureucratic Power in Lesotho. 1990.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Graeber, David. Direct action: an ethnography. 2009. Oakland: AK Press.
Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. 2009. Durham: Duke University Press.
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. Friction: an ethnography of global connection. 2005. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press.
Please note: Syllabus is subject to change. You will be informed of any changes by
e-mail and on the course website.
PART I: ANTHROPOLOGICAL LOCATIONS
Week 1: Thinking Anthropologically
Geertz, Clifford. Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In The Interpretation of
Cultures
Evans-Pritchard, E.E.. The Notion of Witchcraft explains Unfortunate Events. In Witchcraft, Oracles,
and Magic among the Azande.
Winch, Peter. Understanding a Primitive Society.
Borges, Jorge Luis, The Ethnographer
Week 2: Spatial Locations
Delaney, Carol. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Chapter 2
Caldeira, Teresa Pires do Rio. Fortified Enclaves: The New Urban Segregation. Public Culture 8:303328.
Week 3: All We have is Time
Delaney, Carol. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Chapter 3
Sahlins, Marshall. Other Times, Other Customs: The Anthropology of History. American Anthropologist
85(3):517-44
Week 4: Language: We are what We speak
Delaney, Carol. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Chapter 4
Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. Chapters 1, 2

Syllabus - Introduction to Anthropology

Claudio Sopranzetti

Week 5: Relatives and Relations

Delaney, Carol. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Chapter 5
Schneider, David. American Kinship: A Cultural Account. Chapter 4
Week 6: Our Bodies, Our Selves
Delaney, Carol. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to Anthropology. Chapter 6
Kondo, Dorinne. Crafting Selves Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chapters 1, 3

Mid-Term Exam

PART II: ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE COMTEMPORARY

Week 7: Capitalism and Finance - Is this crisis really unexpected?
Ho, Karen. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. 2009. Durham: Duke University Press.
Week 8: Poverty and Violence - Victims or perpetrators?
Bourgois, Philippe. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. 2003 Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Week 9: Globalization - Is the world really flat?
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. Friction: an ethnography of global connection. 2005.Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press
Week 10: Development: Us helping them?
Ferguson, James. Anti-politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and Bureucratic Power in Lesotho. 1990.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Week 11: Social Movements Social organization without leadership?
Graeber, David. Direct action: an ethnography. 2009. Oakland: AK Press.

Final Exam