Course instructor: Dr Daniela Cârstea
SCHEDULE
Week 1. Intro to the course. Cultural anthropology in a globalizing world.
Week 2. Cultural representation and practices
Readings:
Hall, S. Representation. Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Sage, 2012, Ch 1: 15-25.
Packer, J. “Mapping the Intersections of Foucault and Cultural Studies” in J. Packer (ed.) Foucault, Cultural Studies, and Governmentality. UP of New York State, 2003: 23–46.
Week 3. Anthropological representation. Language, thought and culture
Readings:
Lévi-Strauss, C. Myth and meaning. Routledge, 2013, Ch. “The Meeting of Myth and Science”: 3-11.
Habermas, J. Knowledge and human interests. John Wiley & Sons, 2015. (ch. 7): 140-161.
Week 4. Writing culture (I). Ethnology vs. ethnography. Anthropological approaches to community. Interpretive anthropology (Geertz)
Readings:
Geertz, C. “Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture” in The int. of cultures (1973): 5-6.
Gadamer, HG. Truth and Method, (1961) 1989. (Ch. 5: “Language and Hermeneutics”): 384-396.
Week 5. Writing culture (II). The reflexive/literary turn: the partiality of ethnographic truths (Clifford, Rabinow)
Readings:
Clifford, J. “Partial Truths & On Ethnographic Allegory”, (Introduction). Harvard UP, 2003: 1-26.
Rabinow, P. “Representations Are Social Facts: Modernity and Post-Modernity in Anthropology”, in Clifford and Marcus (eds.) Writing Culture. UP of Cali, 2010: 234-261.
Week 6. Anthropological perspectives on identity. Identity as process
Readings:
Sökefeld, M. “Debating self, identity, and culture in anthropology” in Current anthropology 40.4 (2009): 417-448.
Barker, C. Making Sense of Cultural Studies. Sage, 2012. (Ch 7): 259-265.
Week 7. Living in a multicultural world. Identity in a global context
Readings:
Appadurai, A. Modernity At Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. UP of Min, 1996. (Ch. 3: “Global ethnoscapes. Notes for a transnational anthropology”): 48-65.
Barker, C. Making Sense of Cultural Studies, 2002. (Ch. 5): 185-203.
Week 8. Cultural exchanges. Navigating between worlds.
Readings:
Guest, Kenneth. Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age. Norton & Company, 2016. (4.4.3: “The Social Life of Things: The Vanilla Bean” and 4.5.3. “Making a Can of Coke Unfamiliar)
Andrews, C. “Finding the Culture in Acculturation” in Anthropology News, 57.6, 2016: 64–65.
Week 9. Anthropological approaches to religion. Religious, aesthetic, and ‘invisible’ dimensions in human culture. Experiencing the ‘saturated’ nature of the sacred
Readings:
Marion, JL. Being given: Toward a phenomenology of givenness. Stanford UP, 2002: 98-103.
Kawano, S. Ritual Practice in Modern Japan: Ordering Place, People, Action (UP Hawaii, 2005), (Ch. 2): 38-54.
Week 10. Cohesive cultural practices. Heritagization and rebranding
Readings:
Treatonomics: https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/treatonomics-consumer-spending/
National Geographic: “The Viking Origins of your Bluetooth devices”
Week 11. Symbolic violence. Invisible power in cultural practices
Readings:
Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Acumen Publishing; 2012: 41-47.
Agamben, G. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford UP, 1998 (Part 2): 71-87.
Week 12. Rituals and technology in the modern age. Public sphere, communication, and the role of media in modern society. Transition from traditional rituals to modern media consumption
Readings:
Sontag, S. On Photography. London: Picador, 2001, (“The Heroism of Vision”): 65-87.
Benjamin, W. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Penguin Great Ideas, 2008: 2-20.
Week 13. Culture and psychology (I). Knowledge of mind and human culture
Readings:
Rubinstein, Ricardo. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Contemporary Discontents: A Time of Technology, Fanaticism and Pandemics. Taylor & Francis, 2023. (Ch. 4: “New technologies, subjectivity, and addictive tendencies”): 76-97.
Week 14. Culture and psychology (II). Psychoanalytic perspectives on migration
Readings:
White, K. “Migration and loss in a globalised world” in White, K. and Klingenberg (eds.) Migration and intercultural psychoanalysis. Routledge 2021: 30-44.
Czubinska, G. “Migration as an Unconscious Search for Identity: Some Reflections on Language, Difference and Belonging” in British Journal of Psychotherapy, 33, 2017: 159-176.
REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION
- A minimum of 50% attendance
- Participation in class discussions (25% of the final mark)
- Written essay or oral presentation (75% of the final mark)
