ANTH. 410C - ECONOMIC ANTHROPOLOGY
Office: Faner 3539 Office Hours: MW 10:00 a.m.-noon, by appointment
9:00-9:50, MWF, Faner 3515
COURSE OBJECTIVES: This course aims to provide students with anthropological perspectives on economic aspects of the encounter between European-based capitalist economies and other social formations. It deals centrally with the ways that wealth and power are created and transformed. It aims to familiarize students with a range of theoretical approaches and specific case studies.
As the Europe economy expanded world wide following Europe’s discovery and conquest of the Western hemisphere and its intensified commerce with Asia and the Pacific, non-European-based societies have been radically transformed. The modern world system engages all human beings in one web of interdependency and inter-responsibility. This revolutionary new phenomena requires radically new ways of thinking about both the category "economy" and our personal and political relationship to it.
These issues will be examined through studying theoretical writings, anthropological descriptions of non-industrial economies, and analyses of the contemporary encounter of these societies with expanding capitalist and industrial economies. By the end of the course, students should be able to distinguish definitional debates from debates of substance. They should be familiar with the tools of analysis used by different theoretical schools to understand economic processes, understand their strengths and limitations, and be able to apply these to specific ethnographic cases.
REQUIREMENTS:
1. Reading: This course requires a great deal of reading. Students are expected to be familiar with all the required readings. To assure this, students will turn in a one page summary/abstract of each assigned reading. All readings should be on reserve in Morris Library Reserve Room. I may substitute one of two articles, yet to be determined, in the final section. You will be notified by email of any changes. SUMMARIES WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AFTER DUE DATE EXCEPT UNDER EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES.
2. Writing: A term paper of 15-25 pages for graduates, 12-15 pages for undergraduates will be required. Pick a topic by Sept. 14. Turn in a semi-annotated bibliography Oct. 15. First draft of paper due Nov. 12, final draft due Dec. 7.
4. Exams: There will be an in-class mid-term (Wednesday, October 3) and final (Wednesday, Dec. 12, 7:50-9:50 a.m.) which will test for basic concepts and ability to apply them. Each test will have a map quiz. You will be expected to be able to locate each group we have studied. The final may include a take-home synthetic essay, due at the final exam. If the final includes an essay, the question will be given out by Monday, November 26.
5. Attendance: Only three absences are permitted. After three absences, absences result in a drop of one-third (1/3) letter grade per absence, taken from final grade. Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class meeting. Rationale: It is impossible to have intelligent, fruitful discussion if students have missed previous classes.
Grading:
Exams: Midterm: 20 percent
Final: 40 percent
Research paper: 30 percent
Summaries: 10 percent
REQUIRED BOOKS:
Eric Wolf, Europe and the People Without History, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Marcel Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. NY: W.W. Norton & Co. 1967 [1925] (NOTE: The available edition is a poor translation; you may wish to read the reserve copy.]
Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader, 2nd ed. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1978. [cited as MER in assigned readings]
Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins, World Hunger: Twelve Myths. 2nd edition. NY: Grove Press, 1998.
SCHEDULE:
Predecessors to and creation of the modern world system
8/22 Prefaces, Introduction to Europe and the People Without History, pp. ix-23
8/24 Chapter 2, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 24-72
8/37 Chapter 3, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 73-100
8/29, 31 Mauss, The Gift.
9/3 NO CLASS - LABOR DAY
9/5 John V. Murra, "Rite and Crop in the Inca State," in Daniel R. Gross, Peoples and Cultures of Native South America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973. pp. 377-389.
9/7 Helen Perlstein Pollard, "Ecological variation and economic exchange in the Tarascan State," in American Ethnologist 9(2, 1982):250-268.
9/10 Christine Ward Gailey and Thomas C. Patterson, "State Formation and Uneven Development" in J. Gledhill, B. Bender, and M. T. Larsen, eds., State and Society: The emergence and development of social hierarchy and political centralization, London: Unwin Hyman, 19 , pp. 77-90.
9/12 Wrap up Part 1
9/14 Chapter 4, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 101-126. TURN IN PAPER TOPIC.
9/17 R.H. Hilton, "Introduction," and Robert Brenner, "Agrarian Class Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Industrial Europe," in The Brenner Debate, ed. by T.H. Aston and C.H.E. Philpin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Encounters: the first three centuries
9/19 In Search of Wealth and Chapter 5. Europe and the People Without History pp. 127-157
9/21 Carol Smith, "Local History in Global Context: Social and Economic Transitions in Western Guatemala," in Comparative Studies in Society and History 26(1984):193-228.
9/24 Chapter 6, Europe and the People Without History
9/26 Chapter 7, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 195-231
9/28 Chapter 8, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 232-262
10/1 Wrap up Part 2
10/3 Midterm exam
Industrial revolution and the expansion of capitalism
10/5 Part 3, Chapter 9, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 263-295
10/8 Joan Vincent, "Conacre: A Reevaluation of Irish Custom," in Jane Schneider and Rayna Rapp, eds., Articulating Hidden Histories: Exploring the Influence of Eric R. Wolf, University of California Press, 1995, pp. 82-93.
10/10 Chapter 10, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 296-309
10/12 Chapter 11, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 310-353
10/15 Daryl K. Feil, "From pigs to pearlshells: The transformation of a New Guinea Highlands exchange economy." American Ethnologist 9(2, 1982):291-306.
TURN IN BIBLIOGRAPHY.
10/17 Andrew Strathern, "The division of labor and processes of social change in Mount Hagen," in American Ethnologist 9(2, 1982):307-319.
10/19 Chapter 12, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 354-384
10/22 Afterword, Europe and the People Without History, pp. 385-392.
10/24 Jane Adams, "The Decoupling of Farm and Household: Differential Consequences of Capitalist Development on Southern Illinois and Third World Family Farms," Comparative Studies in Society and History 30(3, 1988):453-482.
10/26 Michael Taussig, "The Genesis of Capitalism Amongst a South American Peasantry: Devil's Labor and the Baptism of Money," in Comparative Studies in Society and History 1978:130-155.
10/27-ll/4 FALL BREAK
11/5 Karl Marx, "Society and Economy in History," in MER 136-142
11/7 Karl Marx, "Theses on Feurbach," in MER 143-145
11/9 Morgan Maclachlan, "From Intensification to Proletarianization," in M. Machlachlan, ed., Household Economies and their Transformations., 1987. pp. 1-27.
11/12 M. Estellie Smith, "The Informal Economy," in Plattner, Econ. Anth. pp. 292-317.
TURN IN FIRST DRAFT OF PAPER.
11/14 Joan Smith, "All Crises Are Not the Same: Households in the United States during Two Crises," in Jane L. Collins and Martha Gimenez, Work Without Wages: Comparative Studies of Domestic Labor and Self-Employment. State University of New York Press, 1990, pp. 128-141.
11/16, 19 Guest speaker, film (Adams attending Southern Historical Meetings)
11/21 Alberto Arce and Norman Long, "Bridging two worlds: an ethnography of bureaucrat-peasant relations in western Mexico. in Mark Hobart, ed., An Anthropological Critique of Development: The Growth of Ignorance, pp. 179-208.
THANKSGIVING VACATION NOV. 22-25
11/26 Michael Kearney, Introduction and Chapter 1, "San Jerònimo: A Peasant Community?" in Reconceptualizing the Peasantry: Anthropology in Global Perspective, 1996, pp. 1-22.
Final exam essay question distributed (if this option is taken)
11/28, 30 Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins, World Hunger: Twelve Myths.
12/3, 5. Assignment: Find one article in one of the following journals, 1995-present, that deals with issues of economic development. You may use an article you cite in your term paper. On Monday, December, 8, bring the article and a one-page (250 word) synopsis to class. Make a copy of your synopsis for each member of the class.
Journals: Human Organization, American Ethnologist, American Anthropologist
12/7 Wrap-up. PAPERS DUE.
Wednesday, December 12, 7:50-9:50 a.m. FINAL EXAM.