Power and change can be volatile processes. This course allows students to understand and

analyse them from an anthropological point of view. We will examine theories of power and

change, and processes at levels from the individual to beyond the state.

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Susan Vincent [Office: JBB 335L; tel: 867_ 5281; email: svincent@stfx.ca]

READINGS: All readings are available through the library's electronic database.

Participation: 10%

Reading arguments: 10%

Presentation: 10%

Paper outline (due 1 February): 10%

Paper (due 19 March): 30%

Take home exam (due 14 April): 30%

1. These dates are fixed and cannot be changed.

2. Assignments must be submitted in HARD COPY. Electronic submissions will NOT be

accepted.

3. Be courteous: inform me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE of the reasons in case you must

miss a test or assignment. If possible, let me know ahead of time. Be prepared to

provide documentation. Written assignments are due at the beginning of class on the day

specified. I WILL NOT ACCEPT LATE PAPERS.

4. You are required to keep a copy of assignments when you hand them in. Keep the

returned marked assignment until the end of the course.

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

Jan. 4 Introduction/Evolution

Jan. 7 Gledhill, John (2009) "Power in Political Anthropology." Journal of Power 2(1): 9-34 Taylor and Francis/Informaworld .http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17540290902760857

Jan. 11 A structural functionalist view: Read Gluckman, Max (1955) "The Peace in the Feud."Past and Present 8:1-14 JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/649774.pdf

Jan. 14 Foucault: Read Shore, Cris and Susan Wright (1999) "Audit Culture and Anthropology: Neo-Liberalism in British Higher Education." The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 5(4): 557- 575 JSTOR URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2661148

Jan. 18 Gramsci and hegemony: Read Kurtz, Donald V. (1996) "Hegemony and Anthropology: Gramsci, exegeses, reinterpretations." Critique of Anthropology. 16(2):103 _ 135. Sage.

Jan. 21 Marxism: Read Wolf, Eric (1990) "Distinguished Lecture: Facing Power – Old Insights, New Questions." American Anthropologist. 92(3): 586-596. JSTOR.

Jan. 25 Applying the theories: In-class exercise.

Jan. 28: Essay topic tutorial: bring ideas and readings you think might be helpful to you

Feb. 1-4: Resistance

Read: Ortner, Sherry (1995) "Resistance and the problem of ethnographic refusal." Comparative Studies in Society and History 37(1): 173-193. JSTOR.

Abu_Lughod, Lila (1990) "The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin Women." American Ethnologist. 17(1): 41_55 JSTOR.

Feb. 8-11: Class, workers, workplace politics

Feb. 15 Read Sacks, Karen Brodkin (1989) "Toward a Unified Theory of Class, Race, and Gender."American Ethnologist 16(3): 534_550. JSTOR

Feb. 18 Read Hale, Charles (1994) "Between Che Guevara and the Pachamama: Mestizos, Indians and identity politics in the anti-quincentary campaign." Critique of Anthropology 14(1): 9-39. Sage

Feb. 22 Read Dunk, Thomas (2002) "Hunting and the politics of identity in Ontario." Capitalism, Nature, Socialism. 13(1): 36-66. ABI/Inform, Proquest Research Library

Feb. 25 Read Stoler, Ann (1989) "Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in 20th_Century Colonial Cultures."American Ethnologist 16(4): 634_660. JSTOR

Midterm Break

Mar. 8 Nations and states: Read Anderson, Benedict R O'G (1999) "Indonesian nationalism today and in the future." Indonesia.67: 1-12. JSTOR

Mar.11 State power: Read Sider, Gerald (2006) "The Production of Race, Locality, and State: An Anthropology." Anthropologica. 48( 2): 247-263. ABI/Inform/Proquest Research Library

Mar.15: Citizenship: Read Ong, Aihwa (2006) "Experiments with Freedom: Milieus of the Human." American Literary History 18(2):229-244; doi:10.1093/alh/ajj012 Oxford Journals.

Mar.18 Fear and terror 1: Read Klinenberg, Eric (2001) "Dying Alone: The Social Production of Urban Isolation." Ethnography 2(4): 501-531. Sage.

Mar.22 Fear and terror 2: Read Isla Alejandro (1998) "Terror, Memory and Responsibility in Argentina." Critique of Anthropology. 18(2):134 _ 156. Sage

Mar.25 Children at war: Read Rosen, David M (2007) "Child Soldiers, International Humanitarian Law, and the Globalization of Childhood." American Anthropologist. 109(2):296-306. JSTOR

Mar.29 Revolution: Read Nash, June (1995) "The Reassertion of Indigenous Identity: Mayan Responses to State Intervention in Chiapas." Latin American Research Review. 30(3): 7_41. JSTOR

Apr. 1 Making a military: Read Kanaaneh, Rhoda (2005) "Boys or men? Duped or ‘made’? Palestinian soldiers in the Israeli military." American Ethnologist. 32(2): 260_275. JSTOR.

Apr. 5 Course conclusion

Exam: The final exam will be composed of essay questions.

Participation and assignments: Students are expected not only to attend class, but to participate in class discussion. This class will be run as a seminar, with input from everyone. You will be expected to have prepared by reading the required readings before class and thought about them. You will also be expected to be able to comment on current events, linking themes from the course to items in the news. There may also be assignments on occasion to provide opportunities to work through some of the material.

Reading arguments: For the reading arguments assignment, students must provide two sentences about five of the required readings in the course. The first sentence states the argument of the reading. The second sentence gives your argument about the reading. It must begin "I agree/disagree with (author) because (the basis for your agreement or disagreement)." Each sentence must be 45 words or less. You may choose which readings you do this assignment on, but must complete five throughout the course. You will be given a pass or fail, depending on whether you can capture the argument of the reading, and on whether you can put together a good reason for agreeing or disagreeing with it.

Presentation: You will present one of the required readings in class on the day scheduled for that reading. Ideally this reading will be one related to your essay topic, however only one student may present on a reading. We will schedule the reading presentations through in-class discussions by 18 January. Your presentation will be 15 minutes in length. It will not simply summarize the reading, but will point to key arguments and evaluate those arguments. You will NOT use audiovisual props such as PowerPoint. You will be expected to summarize the main argument, outline the theoretical approach, explain the kind of evidence the author uses to support it, and critique the argument. To help in your critique you might want to search for articles which engage with the author or the theoretical perspective used by the author. After the presentation you will lead class discussion.

Term paper proposal: This is the first stage of the term essay. The outline MUST include:

a) a title (one that lets the reader know what the paper is about);

b) an introduction to the topic and why it is important to study;

c) a thesis statement (one sentence of no more than 35 words stating what you will argue in your paper);

d) an outline of the sections of your paper that makes it clear how you will structure your argument; include references to the sources you will use in each section and how they will be used (e.g. for theory, for comparative purposes, for ethnographic data, etc.);

e) a list of the major sources that you plan to use in your essay. Note that you must use the proper bibliographic form for your list of sources. You MUST use ethnographic sources to provide the data you will analyse. You MUST use at least one required reading from the theory section of the course for your theoretical framework. You should have between 5 and 10 sources.

The whole assignment should be about 3 to 5 pages long. The major purpose of this assignment is to encourage you to identify the topic; develop a strategy for answering a question about it; and locating appropriate sources to assist you in the analysis.

Term paper: Write a paper which is 12-15 pages in length on one of the topics of the course. You MUST present your topic to me for approval by 1 February (see above re the outline). Style and format MUST follow the guidelines available at http://www.stfx.ca/academic/anthropology/Essay%20Style%20Guide.html. This is American Anthropologist style, and a more detailed presentation of the style can be found at http://www.aaanet.org/publications/style_guide.pdf