For Spring 2018 the Syllabus Will Be Modified and Updated
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Brandeis University Fall 2015 For Spring 2018 the syllabus will be modified and updated. The general aims, learning goals, and nature of assignments will remain the same. However, please don’t purchase any books yet, as these may change. ANTH 144a The Anthropology of Gender
Class: Mon. & Wed. 2:00-3:20, Block K, Abelson-Bass-Yalem Physics 126 Instructor: Sarah Lamb, Brown 226, phone: x62211, email: [email protected] Office Hours: Thurs. 9:45-10:45, Fri. 1-2, and by appointment, Brown 208 (mailbox in Brown 229) TA: Jara Connell, [email protected] (mailbox in Brown 223) Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:30-3:30, Rabb 260
Course description: Gender has to do with the ways people define and experience what it is to be male, female, masculine, feminine, androgynous, gender fluid, trans and/or gender queer. In all societies, people organize social relationships and identities, ideologies and symbolic systems, in terms of gender, but they do so in different ways. Across cultures, two primary genders exist: male and female; and many societies in addition recognize trans, third, or alternative gendered identities. Gender is also intimately connected to forms of sexuality. In this course, we will examine the ways individuals and societies imagine, experience, impose, and challenge gender and sexuality systems in a diversity of social-cultural settings, including those in North and Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania. We will also examine the historical development of anthropological theories of gender, and ways that Western theories can be both useful and problematic in describing non-Western cultures. Specific topics to be considered include the place of the body and biology in theories of sex and gender; the complex relationship between sexual and gendered identities; the vexing question of the universality of women's subordination; the ways gendered difference is produced in relation to other structural inequalities; commonalities in understandings of masculinity around the world; gendered forms of violence and rape; cross-cultural perspectives on same-sex sexualities and transgenders; debates over female genital modifications and abortion; gendered forms of aging; and the impacts of globalization on gender and sexuality systems. One of the aims throughout the course will be to explore other societies as a means of better understanding and critiquing our own. This is a Writing Intensive (wi) class, so some sustained attention to writing, with opportunities for revision and honing writing skills, will take place throughout the course. The course also meets the University requirements for Non-Western and Comparative Studies, and contributes to majors and minors in Anthropology; Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Sexuality and Queer Studies; and International and Global Studies.
The central learning goals of the course are to: Learn about the range of ways persons and societies construct gender and sexuality systems in a diversity of societies Gain knowledge of the historical development of major theories in the anthropological study of gender and sexuality, and of the intersections among anthropological, feminist, and queer-studies approaches to gender and sexuality Develop and enhance critical/analytical thinking, reading, and writing skills Develop skills in interviewing and/or participant observation research (research methodologies to be used for one or more of the class papers) Hone skills in in-class speaking and collaborative discussion
Required readings: Books are available at the bookstore and on reserve in the Goldfarb Library. Additional required articles and book chapters will be available through LATTE, organized by author’s last name. Readings will amount to approximately 100-150 pages per week. Please complete the readings on or before the date listed in the syllabus. Lamb, Anth 144a
Required books (assigned in this order): Marjorie Shostak, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (Harvard University Press 2000) Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories (University of California Press 2008) Gilbert Herdt, The Sambia: Ritual, Sexuality and Change in Papua New Guinea (Wadsworth/Thomson 2006, 2nd edition) Don Kulick, Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes (University of Chicago Press 1998) Emily Wentzell, Maturing Masculinities: Aging, Chronic Illness, and Viagra in Mexico (Duke University Press 2013)
Recommended: Peggy Sanday, Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus (New York University Press 2007)
Course requirements: 1) Three substantial one-page essays @ 10% each = 30% 2) Midterm paper (4-5 pages) = 20% 3) Final paper (8 pages) = 30% (including 2 preliminary sequenced writing assignments of 250 words each) 4) Class participation = 20%
Expected workload: Success in this four-credit course is based on the expectation that students will spend an average of approximately 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, writing papers, research, etc.).
Class participation: This is a significant portion (20%) of your grade. Class participation includes: 1) attendance, 2) timely completion of reading assignments (by the date listed in the syllabus), 3) thoughtful contribution to class discussions, including participation in small-group activities and some pre-posting of ideas on LATTE (requiring careful reading), and 4) occasional "pop” in-class writing responses, in which you will be asked to make critical reflections on the day’s readings.
Since class participation is so important, if you foresee problems attending class, or keeping up with the reading, you should consider dropping this class! Regarding attendance: Students are permitted two free absences; if you need to miss more than two classes for any reason, you may mitigate the negative impact on your class participation grade by submitting via email informal reflections on the day’s readings within three days of the missed class.
Note: Using laptops and smartphones for non-class-related purposes during class on a regular basis will result in lowering your class participation grade by one full grade (so, from an A to a B, or a B+ to C+). We will give one warning only, and after that, it is up to you to put away your devices or suffer the grade reduction.
Written work: Writing assignments will provide the opportunity to work on the key elements of academic writing: thesis, evidence, analysis, structure, style, and revision. Timeliness: Work submitted after the due date and time will be lowered by one third of a grade for each day (or fraction of a day) late, except in cases of documented illness or emergency. Work submitted later than 15 minutes beyond the start of class will be considered one day late.
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One-page essays: The first one-page essay is due no later than Wednesday, September 30th. This first essay will be based on one or more of the assigned reading materials for sections I-III of the course. For the subsequent one-page essays, you will choose which sections to write on, and your essays will be due no later than the first class period immediately following the chosen section (thus, if you choose to write on something in section V, your essay will be due no later than the first day of section VI). Topic: You will decide what to focus your essay on. The essay must have both a thesis, evidence (consisting largely of data, quotes, examples, etc. from the readings), and analysis. Format: Your essay must fit onto one page of an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper –but, you may use any legible font (probably 10, 11 or 12- point), and any spacing (single, double, or 1.5). Grading and revision: If you wish, you may revise the essay(s), and you will ordinarily receive the higher grade. However, after the first one-page essay, if your essay’s original grade is at or below a C+, then the highest cumulative grade you will be able to receive on the essay is a B+; this is to prevent your submitting intentionally sloppy work. Note that we are expecting a serious, organized, rigorous short essay (and not merely a rambling “response paper”)—with thesis and motive, evidence, analysis, structure, and effective writing style. It is perfectly fine if you would like to incorporate materials from the one-page essays into your longer midterm or final essays.
Interview or Fieldwork-Based Midterm Paper: This 4-5-page assignment (due Friday, Oct. 23rd) will give you an opportunity to develop skills in interviewing and/or participant observation research, as you explore a topic related to the themes of this course through your own original fieldwork. You will have the chance to apply what we are learning in the class to a real-world case, and to think about the interrelationship between theory and people’s lived experiences. In the paper, you will analyze your interview or fieldwork data in terms of class readings, making substantive use of at least two course texts in constructing your analysis. More guidelines will be distributed on September 16th. If you are participating in Sages and Seekers, you may use your interview and fieldwork materials from that experience in this paper. This paper will include a required revision, and you will receive an average of the two grades. The due date for the optional revision will be two weeks after you receive back the original, graded paper with feedback from the instructors.
Final Paper: Final paper prompts and guidelines will be available around the middle of the semester. Students who wish to may incorporate fieldwork and/or interviewing into their final paper, and/or further develop materials from earlier course papers. Each paper must make careful use of at least three course readings, and can be based entirely on an intensive analysis of selected course texts (that is, fieldwork is optional but not required for this paper). Some sequenced writing assignments—aimed toward helping you produce the strongest final product—will be incorporated into the assignment. You are encouraged to bring drafts, ideas, outlines, and questions to the instructors before the paper is due.
Writing Intensive: This Writing Intensive course will not require an unusually large quantity of writing, but we will pay focused attention to writing during the term—through some in-class writing exercises, class and peer discussions of writing, detailed comments on papers, and opportunities for revising essays. At least one paper must be revised in the class (revising is the single most valuable process in learning to produce exceptionally strong writing!).
Graduate students have the option of substituting a 15-20-page research paper for the midterm and final essays for 30% of their grade. The research paper could either be an analytical case study of (some aspect of) gender and/or sexuality in a selected society, or an in-depth look at a theoretical question in the anthropology
3 Lamb, Anth 144a of gender. The paper must also make use of theories or data from at least three different course readings. It is perfectly OK, however, to do the regular course requirements in lieu of the research paper. Graduate students may wish to take ANTH 244, the graduate-level Gender and Sexuality Seminar, in lieu of ANTH 144a. ANTH 244 is offered approximately every other spring (and next in spring 2017).
Academic Integrity: You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Please consult Brandeis University Rights and Responsibilities for all policies and procedures related to academic integrity (see section 4: “Maintenance of Academic Integrity”-- http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/srcs/rr/RR14_15version11.4.pdf ). Students may be required to submit work to TurnItIn.com software to verify originality. Allegations of alleged academic dishonesty will be forwarded to the Director of Academic Integrity. Sanctions for academic dishonesty can include failing grades and/or suspension from the university. Remember, you must indicate through quotations and citation when quoting from any outside source (internet or print).
Laptop and hand-held electronic devices policy: Laptops and hand-held electronic devices are not permitted in class, except when specifically accessing a course text for discussion. Please refrain from taking notes on your laptop; instead plan to take hand-written notes. See the note in the class participation section above regarding the grade reduction for using laptops and smart phones for non-class-related purposes.
Accommodations: If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please contact me at the beginning of the term.
A 2-credit Experiential Learning (EL) course—EL 42a Sages and Seekers: A Fieldwork Practicum in Gender across Generations—will be available as an option, by application, to students enrolled in the base class of ANTH 144a Anthropology of Gender in the fall of 2015. For more information, see the EL 42a syllabus posted on the ANTH 144a LATTE site. Some spots may also be available (by application, space permitting) for volunteer students not taking the whole 2-credit course. These students would participate in the 9-week Sages and Seekers program at BOLLI only and be able to use interview and fieldwork materials from the experience in their midterm and final papers.
Entirely optional background reading: Overviews of the history of gender and sexuality studies within anthropology; these could be read now or at some point in the future if you plan to do further research in this area (or skipped altogether): Elizabeth Fee, "The Sexual Politics of Victorian Social Anthropology," Feminist Studies (1972-73), v.7, pp. 23-39. (LATTE) Kamala Visweswaran, "Histories of Feminist Ethnography," Annual Review of Anthropology (1997) 26:591-621. (LATTE) Matthew C. Gutmann, "Trafficking in Men: the Anthropology of Masculinity," Annual Review of Anthropology (1997) 26:385-409. (LATTE) Kath Weston, “The Bubble, the Burn, and the Simmer: Locating Sexuality in Social Science.” In Kath Weston, Long Slow Burn: Sexuality and Social Science. NY: Routledge, 1998: pp. 1- 28. (LATTE) Tom Boellstorff, “Queer Studies in the House of Anthropology,” Annual Review of Anthropology (2007) 36:17-35. (LATTE)
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In general, plan to complete the assigned readings before class on the assigned date. Some
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modest adjustments to the below schedule of readings may be made over the course of the semester.
Schedule of classes and assignments:
I. Introductions and overviews: Anthropological perspectives on gender, sex, and sexuality.
M 8/31 Introduction: 1st day of class. Recommended reading (now or before next class) to provide some background terminology and concepts: Mascia-Lees, Frances E., and Nancy Johnson Black, “The History of the Study of Gender in Anthropology.” In Gender and Anthropology (2000): pp. 1-12. (LATTE) “Let’s Talk About Gender and Sexuality” booklet – http://issuu.com/carlysoos/docs/lets_talk_about_sexuality_and_gender/1 (and on LATTE, alphabetized by title under recommended readings: “Let’s Talk…”).
W 9/2 Anne Fausto-Sterling, “Dueling Dualisms,” in Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (2000): pp. 1-9, p. 11 cartoon, & p. 16 (under “Nature and Nurture”). Feel free to read the rest of the great chapter, too, if you wish! (LATTE) Explore two recent US cultural documents regarding gender: Think about social change, underlying assumptions about masculinity and femininity, conformity and resistance, and what gender is: “If You Are Concerned about Your Child’s Gender Behaviors: A Guide for Parents” by the Outreach Program for Children with Gender-Variant Behaviors and Their Parents—on LATTE, alphabetized by title: “If You Are Concerned…”) “Caitlyn Jenner: The Full Story,” from Vanity Fair July 2015 (by Buzz Bissinger), on LATTE alphabetized under “Caitlyn” and online: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/caitlyn-jenner-bruce-cover-annie-leibovitz
Monday, Sept. 7th: Labor Day—no University exercises. If you can find time over the week between classes, you could get a head start on the three dense yet provocative articles assigned for Wed. and Thurs. of the coming week!
II. Is male dominance universal? The origins of feminist anthropology and attempts to explain universal female subordination.
W 9/9 Gayle Rubin, "The Traffic of Women: Notes on the `Political Economy' of Sex," in Toward an Anthropology of Women, Rayna R. Reiter, ed. (1975), pp. 157-210. (LATTE)
Thursday, September 10th is a Brandeis Monday: This class will meet. Th 9/10 Michelle Rosaldo, "Woman, Culture and Society: A Theoretical Overview," in Woman, Culture and Society, Rosaldo and Lamphere, eds. (1974): pp. 17-42. (LATTE) Sherry Ortner, "Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?" in Woman, Culture and Society (1974): pp. 67-87. (LATTE) In-class thesis workshop.
Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 14-15: No University exercises: Rosh Hashanah If you can find time over the week between classes, you could begin reading the first book for the class: Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman: This is an enjoyable read—could be done in bed, on the train, or under a tree.
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III. Gender in “egalitarian” or non-class societies. Case study: The life and words of a !Kung woman in a foraging society in southern Africa.
W 9/16 Marjorie Shostak, Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (1981), Intro. & chs. 1-7. FILM shown in class: "N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman" (by John Marshall, 1980, 59 min.) [Note: If you must miss class on this day due to Rosh Hashanah, then please view the film on your own time and email by Friday, 9/18 a one-page informal set of reflections on the film and how you see it complementing Nisa, the book.] Hand out midterm (interview/fieldwork-based) paper guidelines and rubric: Due 10/23.
M 9/21 Shostak, chapters 8-12. Kathleen Gough, "The Position of Women," from her “The Origin of the Family,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 33 (Nov. 1971): pp. 767-69. [Also reprinted in Rayna Rapp Reiter, ed., Toward an Anthropology of Women (1975): pp. 69-73.] (LATTE)
Wednesday, 9/23: No University exercises: Yom Kippur.
Monday, 9/28: No University exercises: Sukkot.
Catch up on Nisa and begin reading Writing Women’s Worlds over the week+ break from this class.
Tuesday, 9/29: Brandeis Monday. This class will meet. Tu 9/29 Shostak, finish: chapters 13-15 and Epilogue (and catch up on earlier chapters if you’ve fallen behind!) Eleanor Leacock, "Women's Status in Egalitarian Societies: Implications for Social Evolution," Current Anthropology 19 (1978): pp. 247-249 only [you may skim or skip the rest] (LATTE)
IV. Critiquing universalizing approaches to gender and gender inequality. Local feminisms, intersectionality, and particular lives. Case study: Bedouin women’s stories.
W 9/30 Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories (1993), “Preface,” "Introduction" and chapter 1 (“Patrilineality”): pp. xi-xviii, 1-86. LAST DAY TO SUBMIT (1st) 1-PAGE ESSAY: Please upload one copy onto LATTE and bring one copy to class. (Remember that you may submit this essay any time earlier in the course if you would like.)
Monday, 10/5: No University exercises: Shmini Atzeret. Aim to keep up with Writing Women’s Worlds over the week’s break from this class.
W 10/7 Abu-Lughod, Writing Women’s Worlds, chapter 2 (“Polygyny”): pp. 87-126.
M 10/12 Abu-Lughod, Writing Women’s Worlds: chapter 4 (“Patrilateral Parallel Cousin Marriage”—if short on time, focus on “The Blood of Honor,” pp. 189-202), and chapter 5 (“Honor and Shame”): pp. 205-242.
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V. Power, agency, and resistance.
W 10/14 Lila Abu-Lughod, “The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power through Bedouin Women.” American Ethnologist (1990) 17(1): pp. 41-55. (LATTE) (Read carefully at least the first 2 pages.) Saba Mahmood, “Feminist Theory, Embodiment, and the Docile Agent: Some Reflections on the Egyptian Islamic Revival,” Cultural Anthropology (2001) 16(2): 202-236 or at least the first 5 pages. (LATTE) Reconsider or re-read chapter 5 “Honor and Shame” of Writing Women’s Worlds. Post on LATTE by 12 midnight the Tuesday before class a quote from one of the 10/14 readings and a brief comment. (The quote could be something that excites you, puzzles you, makes sense to you, intrigues you, frustrates you…).
VI. Performance theory over time: Exploring gender as performance.
M 10/19 Judith Butler, “Critically Queer,” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 1 (1993): pp. 17-32. (Note: this is a very dense piece: It’s OK if you’d like to concentrate only on pp. 21-24, “Gender Performativity and Drag”). (LATTE) Kath Weston, "Do Clothes Make the Woman? Gender, Performance Theory, and Lesbian Eroticism," Genders 17 (Fall 1993): pp. 1-17. (LATTE)
W 10/21 Gayatri Reddy, “(Per)Formative Selves: The Construction of Gender,” in With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India (University of Chicago Press 2005): pp. 121-141. (LATTE) Jane Ward, “Gender Labor: Transmen, Femmes, and Collective Work of Transgression.” In Boris and Parrenas, eds. Intimate Labors (2010): pp. 78-93. (LATTE)
Friday, 10/23: MIDTERM PAPER DUE by 5 pm on LATTE. Please also bring a hard copy to class the following Monday. (A revision of this paper with specific instructions for what to work on will be due two weeks after the 1st versions are returned.)
VII. Anthropology of masculinities. Begin case studies: rituals of masculinization in New Guinea. The possibility and implications of female masculinities.
M 10/26 Gilbert Herdt, The Sambia: Ritual, Sexuality and Change in Papua New Guinea, 2nd ed. (2006): Preface and Introduction (pp. xi-xxiv), skim chap. 1, and read chap. 2 (pp. 21-41). Read especially pp. 23-32 on Sambian masculinity (even if you must skim or skip the rest). Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried,” from The Things They Carried (1990): 1-26. (LATTE) Recommended: Judith Halberstam, “An Introduction to Female Masculinity: Masculinity without Men,” from The Masculinity Studies Reader (2002): pp. 355-373. (LATTE) Bring to class a representation of masculinity from our society (for discussion). Submit a hard copy of the Midterm Paper in class (LATTE version due 5 pm on Fri., 10/23).
VIII. Gender and violence. Case study: Sexual violence on college campuses.
W 10/28 Pierre Bourdieu, “Gender and Symbolic Violence.” In Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois, eds., Violence in War and Peace (2004): pp. 339-342. (LATTE) Peggy Reeves Sanday, Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood and Privilege on Campus (2007): “Introduction to the Second Edition” pp. 1-10 (skim or skip pp. 11-21) and ch. 3 “Rape or ‘She Asked for It’?” pp. 83-96 and the chapter’s last 2 paragraphs on pp. 106-107.
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Recommended: Peggy Sanday, “Afterword: 2006—Has Anything Changed?” in Fraternity Gang Rape: pp. 198-236. (LATTE) In class: “The Undetected Rapist” (7 min.: a seven-minute re-enactment of part of an interview conducted by Dr. David Lisak - See more at: https://www.legalmomentum.org/store/undetected-rapist- dvd#sthash.hwJTj5An.dpuf ) Recommended as a supplement: Some may wish to view “The Hunting Ground” 2015 documentary on college rape. This film could be used as a source for a one-page essay or the final paper, if you would like. (Directed by Kirby Dick. Blurb: “An exposé of rape crimes on U.S. college campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families.” Available on LATTE) Hand out Final Paper assignment prompts and guidelines (due on or before December 17th)
IX. Same-sex and queer sexualities, and the complex relationship between sexual and gendered practices and identities. Continue case study on masculinity, “boy-inseminating” rites, and sexual cultures in New Guinea.
M 11/2 Esther Newton, “Of Yams, Grinders and Gays: The Anthropology of Homosexuality” in Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas 229-237. (LATTE) Gilbert Herdt, The Sambia: Ritual, Sexuality, and Change in Papua New Guinea (2006): chs. 3-4: pp. 42-122. FILM excerpts shown in class: "Guardians of the Flutes: The Secrets of Male Initiation" (Paul Reddish and Gilbert Herdt, directors, 1994, 55 min., and on LATTE) Check out this blog by feminist scholar Margaret Cruikshank, “An Old Lesbian Reacts to the Supreme Court Decision on Same-Sex Marriage” (July 11, 2015): http://www.silvercentury.org/polBlogs.cfm? doctype_code=Blog&doc_id=972&Keyword_Desc=#.VctSu_lViko Submit by this date either your 2nd one-page essay or (if you have not completed at least two by now) a note indicating which sections you plan to write your next two essays on and their due dates.
W 11/4 Herdt, chs. 5-6: 123-153 (and complete chapters 3-4 if you have fallen behind).
M 11/9 Herdt, ch. 7: pp. 154-166. Sabine Lang, “Lesbians, Men-Women, and Two-Spirits: Homosexuality and Gender in Native American Cultures.” In Evelyn Blackwood and Saskia Wieringa, eds., Female Desires: Same-Sex Relations and Transgender Practices across Cultures (1999): pp. 91-116. (LATTE)
X. Cross-cultural and historical perspectives on transgenders, transsexuality, and intersexuality. Case studies: materials from Brazil and the U.S.
W 11/11 Don Kulick, Travesti: Sex, Gender and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes (1998): chs. 1-2: pp. 1-95. FILM (shown in class and available for re-viewing on LATTE): "You Don't Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men" (directed by Bestor Cram, 1997, 58 min.)
M 11/16 Kulick, Travesti: chs. 3-4: pp. 96-190. 1st sequenced writing assignment for Final Paper due (250 words).
W 11/18 Kulick, Travesti: ch. 5: pp. 191-238.
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XI. Exploring aging and its relation to gender, sexuality, and the body—in Mexico, the US, and beyond.
M 11/23 Margaret Gullette’s Silver Century Foundation blog: “Caitlyn Jenner: The Messages in the Image” (Opening line: “What the commentators fail to say about Caitlyn Jenner is that when she came out as a woman publicly in Vanity Fair recently, she did not come out as an older woman.”)-- http://www.silvercentury.org/new/polBlogs.cfm? doctype_code=Blog&doc_id=967&Keyword_Desc= Abigail T. Brooks, “Aesthetic Anti-Ageing Surgery and Technology: Women’s Friend or Foe?” Sociology of Health and Illness 32(2) (2010): 238-257. (LATTE) Begin reading Emily Wentzell’s Maturing Masculinities: Aging, Chronic Illness, and Viagra in Mexico (2013): read at least the Introduction and chapter 1: pp. 1-59.
Wednesday, 11/25: No class: Thanksgiving recess. You may wish to use the long weekend to complete the engrossing Wentzell Maturing Masculinities book, the last ethnography of the class.
M 11/30 Wentzell, Maturing Masculinities: chapter 2 (“Sex, Relationships, and Masculinities”), and chapter 4 (“Rejecting Erectile Dysfunction Drugs”): pp. 60-85, 110-135. Sign up for sides of the mock debate on 12/7.
W 12/2 Wentzell, Maturing Masculinities: chapter 5 and Conclusion: pp. 136-185. Re-read Marjorie Shostak, “Growing Older” (chapter 15: pp. 287-308) in Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman (2000/1981 Harvard University Press). 2nd sequenced writing assignment for Final Paper (250 words) due on LATTE and in class. Sign up for sides of the FGM mock debate on 12/7.
XII. The global debate over female genital operations: universal human rights, feminist, and cultural relativist perspectives. (Update for Fall 2015: We will focus instead on the abortion debate in the US instead, and its implications for women and gender.)
M 12/7 To prepare for the in-class mock debate, explore public cultural materials pertaining to abortion in the US, including from the media, legal texts, religious organizations, Planned Parenthood, pro-choice and pro-life discourses, etc., and read: Faye Ginsburg, “Introduction” (to the original edition): pp. 1-19 [skip the new Introduction in the LATTE file unless you would like to read it], and ch. 6, “Interpretive Battlegrounds”: pp. 94- 109, from Contested Lives: The Abortion Debate in an American Community (1998). (LATTE) In-class mock debate on ABORTION. Last day to submit your 2nd one-page essay (although you could be done with all your one-page essays before this point).
The readings on female circumcision are recommended only--if you have interest and/or would like to use them in any papers: Ahmadu, Fuambai, “Rites and Wrongs: An Insider/Outsider Reflects on Power and Excision.” In Shell-Duncan and Hernlund, eds. Female “Circumcision" in Africa (2000) pp. 283- 312. London. Lynne Rienner Publishers. (LATTE) The WHO site on “female genital mutilation”-- http://www.who.int/topics/female_genital_mutilation/en/
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“Fire Eyes” (documentary film on female circumcision in Somalia, made by anti- circumcision human-rights activist Soraya Mire) on LATTE Recommended: Christine Walley, “Searching for Voices: Feminism, Anthropology, and the Global Debate over Female Genital Operations,” Cultural Anthropology 12(3): 405- 438. (LATTE)
XIII. Last day of class.
W 12/9 Synthesis and closing reflections. Final paper workshop. Last day to submit your final one-page essay or any one-page-essay revisions. No one-page essays will be accepted after 2 pm on the last day of class.
FINAL PAPER DUE on or before Wednesday, December 17th by 3 p.m. Please submit one hard copy to Professor Lamb’s mailbox in Brown 229 and upload one electronic copy onto LATTE.
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