SEMINAR: ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY
(ANTH 401)
Dr.  Andrew H. Maxwell
( maxwella@mail.montclair.edu )

Course Description & Objectives:
This is a reading course offered primarily for anthropology majors. The object of the course is to familiarize students with the development of anthropological theory during the past 100 years.  The course focuses on understanding the major schools of theory, that is the classic explanations of--or answers to fundamental questions about--human similarities and differences across space and through time. Our exploration of the theoretical debates among anthropologists entails a consideration of data on various sociocultural systems from the perspectives of cultural and social anthropology, anthropological linguistics, physical anthropology, and archaeology.

Course Format,  Requirements & Grading:
The course is conducted as a seminar.  Attendance, therefore, is required; student participation is crucial for successful discussions.  Students are required to prepare and present one question and/or a statement about the thesis of each assigned reading. Each meeting will begin with the question or statement.  Grades for the course are based on two take-home examinations. The examinations are weighted as follows:

           Midterm Examination        50%
           Final Examination             50%

Required Reading:

Purchase:

Applebaum, Herbert (ed.)
    1987  Perspectives in Cultural Anthropology. Albany, NY: State University of NY Press.

Garbarino, Merwyn S.
    1983  Sociocultural Theory in Anthropology. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.

Harris, Marvin
    1999 Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Perry, Richard J.
     2003  Five Key Concepts in Anthropological Thinking.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice-Hall.

Library Reserve: Indicated by [R] in Schedule of Classes.

Geertz, Clifford
  1973  The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books Inc., Publishers.

Harris, Marvin
  1980  Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Culture. New York: Vintage Books.

Herskovits, Melville J.
  1969  The Myth of The Negro Past. Boston: Beacon Press.

Leacock, Eleanor Burke
  1973  "Introduction," IN The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Frederick Engels. New York: International Publishers.

Ortner, Sherry B.
  1984  "Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties," Comparative Studies in Society and History. 26:126-166.

Radcliffe-Brown, A.R.
   1965  Structure and Function in Primitive Society. New York: The Free Press.

Redfield, Robert
  1965  The Little Community and Peasant Society and Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Wolf, Eric
  1980  "They Divide and Subdivide and Call it Anthropology," New York Times, November 30, p.E9.

Suggested Reading:

Boas, Franz
  1940  Race, Language and Culture. New York: The Free Press.

Kroeber, A.L.
  1948  (orig. 1923) Anthropology. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. ("What Anthropology Is About," pp.1-13; "The Nature Of Culture," pp.252-310).

Levi-Strauss, Claude
  1966  The Savage Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago  Press.

Lovejoy, Arthur O.
  1973  The Great Chain Of Being. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (especially "Introduction: the Study of the History of Ideas," pp.3-23, and "Plenitude and Sufficient Reason in Leibnitz and Spinoza," pp.144-182).

Lowie, Robert H.
  1937  The History of Ethnological Theory. New York: Holt, Rinehart And Winston.
  1948  Social Organization. New York: Rinehart & Company.

Malinowski, Bronislaw
  1961  Argonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: Dutton.

Morgan, Lewis Henry
  1985  (orig. 1877) Ancient Society. Tucson, AZ: University of  Arizona Press.

Radcliffe-Brown, A.R.
  1965  Structure and Function in Primitive Society. New York: The Free Press. ("Introduction," pp.1-14).

Stocking, George W., Jr.
  1971  Race, Culture, and Evolution. New York: The Free Press.
  1987 Victorian Anthropology. New York: The Free Press.

Ulin, Robert C.
  1991  "Critical Anthropology Twenty Years Later," Critique of Anthropology. 11:63-89.

Schedule of Classes and Assignments

Week 1   Introduction and organization of the course.
Week 2   Introduction: Science and Theory

Readings:
"Research Strategies and the Structure Science," Harris, pp.5-28. [R]
"Science, Objectivity, Morality," Harris, pp.57-62.
Week 3   Part 1, Anthropological Theory

Readings:
"The Nature of Anthropology and Sources of Theory," Garbarino, pp.v-7.

Part 2, "Prologue to Anthropology"

Readings: 
"The Age of Exploration, The Enlightenment, Nineteenth Century  Backgrounds," Garbarino, pp.9-24.
"De-Biologizing Culture: The Boasians," Harris, pp.67-76.
"Introduction," Leacock, pp.7-76. [R]
Week 4  PART 3, "The Beginnings of Sociocultural Anthropology"

Readings: 
"The Early Period of Ethnology," Garbarino, pp.25-41.
"The Science of Culture," Tylor, pp.37-46.
"Ethnical Periods," Morgan, pp.47-59.
Leacock, con't.
Week 5   PART 3, continued

Readings: Leacock, con't.
Week 6   PART 4, "The Early Twentieth Century"

Readings: 
"Anthropology Begins to Diversify...The Rise of Cultural Anthropology in America," Garbarino, pp.43-55.
"The Limitations of the Comparative Method of Anthropology," Boas, pp.70-79.
"The Nature of Culture," Kroeber, pp.80-84.
Leacock, con't.

FILM: "Franz Boas"
Week 7  PART 4, continued

Readings: 
"...The Development of British Social Anthropology," Garbarino, pp.55-62.
"The Group and the Individual in Functional  Analysis," Malinowski, pp.116-120.
"The Mother's Brother In South Africa," Radcliffe-Brown,...[R].
"On Social Structure," Radcliffe-Brown, pp.121-135.
 
Week 8 PART 5, "Anthropology at Mid-Century, 1930-1960"

Readings:
"American Eclecticism...Culture and Personality," Garbarino, pp.63-74.
"A Quarter Century of American Anthropology," Murphy, pp.5-30.
"What Is (Are) Culture(s)?" Harris, pp.19-28.
"The Margaret Mead Controversy: Culture, Biology and Anthropological Inquiry,” Scheper-Hughes, pp.443-454.
Week 9    PART 5, continued

Readings: 
"American Eclecticism...The Folk-Urban Continuum...[and]...Acculturation Studies," Garbarino, pp.63-74.
Murphy, con't.
"The Little Community As...A Community Within Communities," Redfield, pp.113-131. [R]
"Preface," Herskovits, pp.xiii-xxix. [R]
"British Anthropology in Mid-Century...Evolutionism in British Archaeology," Garbarino, pp.74-80.
Week 10 PART 6, "Current Anthropology, 1960-"

Readings: 
"Cognitive...[and]...Symbolic Anthropology," Garbarino, pp.81-84.
Murphy, con't.
"Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture," Geertz, pp.3-30. [R]
"Emics and Etics," Harris, pp.31-47.
"The Nature of Cultural Things," Harris, pp.49-55.
"French Structuralism," Garbarino, pp.84-86.
"Social Structure: Structural Anthropology," Levi-Strauss, pp.411-415. "Post-Modernism," Harris, pp.153-159.
Week 11 PART 6, "Current Anthropology, 1960-"

Readings: 
"Cultural Materialism," Garbarino, pp.87-89.
"Cultural Materialism," Harris, pp.141-152.
"Energy and the Evolution of Culture," White,  pp.236-253.
"Theoretical Principles of Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for A Science of Culture," Harris,  pp.301-306.
Week 12 PART 6, "Current Anthropology, 1960-"

Readings: 
"Multilinear Evolution and Cultural Ecology ...General and Specific Evolution,"  Garbarino, pp.89-91.
Week 13 PART 7, Anthropological Theory, 1970-1990

Readings: 
"The Past and the Future," Garbarino, pp.95-100.
"Theory in Anthropology since the Sixties," Ortner, pp.126-166. [R]
Week 14 “They Divide and Subdivide and Call it Anthropology,” Wolf, [R]

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