.

URBAN ANTHROPOLOGY
(ANTH 210)

Dr. Kenneth Brook
( brookk@mail.montclair.edu )

SCOPE AND CONTENT OF THE COURSE

Urban anthropology is concerned with the origin, development and evolution of cities as well as with the description and comparison of urban life and culture. The primary goal of this course is the comparative study of urban life through time and space. By capturing the range of variability of urban phenomena with the widest possible net, recurrent behavior patterns can be discovered and theories for their occurrence can be developed.

In recent years, cultural anthropologists have shifted their research interests from far-flung, kin-based, small-scale, non-literate peoples to the peoples and peasants who have not been affected by urban influences. In response to the urbanization of the world, anthropologists are actively studying urban life and culture rather than expiring with the primitive past. Keeping their focus on the exotic, it is not unusual to learn of anthropological studies of urban religious cults, the culture of skid row alcoholics or drug addicts, the education of bilingual children, the food and health customs of a variety of ethnic groups, and the operation of various bureaucratic institutions (e.g., mental health centers, hospitals, private corporations).

REQUIRED BOOK:

Gmelch, George and Walter Zenner, eds. Urban Life: Readings in Urban Anthropology. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, l996.

REQUIREMENTS OF THE COURSE:

The requirements for the successful completion of this course are midterm and final examinations.

ASSIGNED READINGS:

Readings will be assigned at the beginning of each week. It is strongly urged that readings be completed on time so as to increase your understanding of and participation in class discussions.

SYLLABUS

A. Urban Anthropology: Fad or Fashion?

  1. Invitation to Anthropology
  2. Conceptual and Political Issues
  3. Anthropological Research Methods
  4. Emergence of Urban Studies in the United States
  5. Early Flirtations with Urban Anthropology
  6. Realm of Urban Anthropology
  7. Significance of Urban Anthropology

B. The Demographic Dimension: World Urbanization

  1. Primary and Secondary Urbanization
  2. Tempo of Urbanization
  3. Industrialization and Urbanization
  4. Urbanization of the Third World
  5. Comparative Rates of Urbanization
  6. City Size and Growth Rates
  7. Metropolitization

C. Conceptions of Being Urban

  1. A Definition of the City
  2. Classical Conceptions of Rural Versus Urban Communities

a. Henry Summer Maine
b. Emile Durkheim
c. Ferdinand Toinnes
d. Max Weber
e. Ralph Linton
f. Robert Redfield
g. Talcott Parsons and Edward Shils

  1. The Demographic View (Louis Wirth)
  2. The Compositional View (Oscar Lewis, Herbert Gans)
  3. The Subcultural View (Claude Fischer)

D. The Origin of Cities: Bane or Blessing?

  1. In the Beginning: Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms
  2. The First Urban Revolution
  3. Social Structure of the Earliest Cities
  4. Theories for the Origin of Cities

E. The Preindustrial City: Appearance versus Space

  1. Life in the Preindustrial City
  2. Technology, Social Organization and Growth
  3. Spatial Arrangements
  4. Transportation and Communication
  5. Table of Work Organization
  6. Sex and Age Roles
  7. Family Organization
  8. Government and Social Control

F. Industrialization and Urban Growth and Development

  1. Life in the Industrial City
  2. Technology, Social Organization and Growth
  3. Spatial Arrangements
  4. Transportation and Communication
  5. Table of Work Organization
  6. Sex and Age Roles
  7. Family Organization
  8. Government and Social Control

G. Urban Ethnography: Caste, Class and Ethnicity

  1. Primary Groups: Social Networks
  2. Groups based on Common Residence
  3. Groups based on Common Culture of Origin
  4. Groups based on Common Occupation
  5. Groups based on Common Stages in the Life Cycle

H. Culture of Poverty: Conception or Misconception?

  1. Culture of Poverty
  2. Ecological Perspective
  3. Radical Critique
  4. Social Policy Implications of Each Perspective

I. Slums, Squatters and Migrants: The Problem of Personal Adjustment and Adaptation to City Life

  1. Slums and Squatter Settlements
  2. The Myth of Marginality
  3. Voluntary Associations and Urban Adaptation

J. Postindustrial Cities

  1. Ecological Perspective
  2. Social, Economic and Political Features
  3. Cultural Roles
  4. United States: First Posturban Nation

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Urban Ethnographies

Bascom, W. The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, l969.

Boggs, Vernon, Gerald Handel, and S. Fava (eds.). The Apple Sliced. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey, l984.

Castells, Manual. The City and the Grassroots. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, l983.

Foner, Nancy (ed.). New Immigrants in New York. New York: Columbia University Press, l987.

Gmelch, George. The Irish Tinkers. Second edition. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, l985.

Lewis, Oscar. The Children of Sanchez. New York: Random House, l96l.

Merry, Sally. Urban Danger. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press, l98l.

Stack, Carol. All Our Kin. New York: Harper and Row, l974.

Susser, Ida. Norman Street. New York: Oxford University Press, l982.

Williams, Brett. Upscaling Downtown. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, l988.

General Texts

Aschenbrenner, Joyce and Lloyd Collins (eds.). The Processes of Urbanism. The Hague: Mouton, l978.

Gulick, John. The Humanity of Cities. Granby, Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey Publishers, l989.

Mullings, Leith (ed.). Cities of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, l987.

top_arrow.gif (377 bytes)
 Return to Anthropology Home Page.