Exploring Culture and Gender Through Film an OER Textbook
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Exploring Culture and Gender through Film An OER Textbook Christian Hammons The creation of this work "Exploring Culture and Gender through Film: An OER Textbook" was supported by Open CU Boulder 2020-2021, a grant funded by the Colorado Department of Higher Education with additional support from the CU Office of the President, CU Office of Academic Affairs, CU Boulder Office of the Provost, and CU Boulder University Libraries. Preliminary Edition Copyright Ó 2021 Christian Hammons This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Table of Contents Preface SECTION 1: CULTURE Introduction Chapter 1: The Anthropological Perspective Introduction "Introduction to Anthropology" by Katie Nelson and Lara Braff Now Showing: Hijabi World Thinking Critically Chapter 2: The Concept of Culture Introduction "Culture" by Michael Wesch Now Showing: Honeyland Thinking Critically Chapter 3: Ethnography Introduction "Doing Fieldwork" by Katie Nelson Now Showing: Double Feature: District 9 and Arrival Thinking Critically Chapter 4: Film Introduction "How to Watch a Movie" by Russell Sharman Now Showing: The Eagle Huntress Thinking Critically Chapter 5: Media Anthropology Introduction "Media Anthropology" by Bryce Peake Now Showing: Angry Inuk Thinking Critically SECTION 2: INTERSECTIONS Introduction Chapter 6: Gender Introduction "Gender and Sexuality" by Carol C. Mukhopadhyay, Tami Blumenfield, and Susan Harper Now Showing: I, Tonya Thinking Critically Chapter 7: Race, Nation, and Capitalism Introduction "Race and Ethnicity" by Justin D. Garcia "Economics" by Sarah Lyon Now Showing: 13th Thinking Critically Chapter 8: Class, Colonialism, and the World System Introduction "Globalization" by Lauren Miller Griffith and Jonathan S. Marion Now Showing: Parasite Thinking Critically Chapter 9: Zones of Refuge Introduction "Political Anthropology" by Paul McDowell Now Showing: Winter's Bone Thinking Critically SECTION 3: ENTANGLEMENTS Introduction Chapter 10: Poverty, Structural Violence, and Ethnofiction Introduction "The Good Life" by Michael Wesch Now Showing: The Florida Project Thinking Critically Chapter 11: Nature and Culture Revisited Introduction "Culture and Sustainability" by Christian T. Palmer Now Showing: Double Feature: Blackfish and Anthropocene Thinking Critically Chapter 12: Conclusions Introduction "The Art of Being Human" by Michael Wesch Now Showing: The Social Dilemma Thinking Critically REFERENCES ABOUT THE AUTHOR Preface This book is an Open Educational Resource (OER) designed specifically for the course Exploring Culture and Gender through Film, which I teach every semester at the University of Colorado Boulder. The course began as an introduction to cultural anthropology that used films to illustrate key concepts, but it has evolved over the years to become much more than that. Films can do things that written texts cannot; they can convey knowledge that cannot be conveyed in writing or any other medium. In the course, written texts and films now inform each other. The key concepts in cultural anthropology still provide context for the films, but just as importantly, the films convey a kind of cinematic knowledge that provides context for the key concepts. Together, they offer unique and compelling insights into the human condition. This book introduces the key concepts, but at the end of each chapter, there are sections that begin to connect them to the films. "Now Showing" briefly describes a film that pairs well with the key concepts in the chapter and includes a list of suggested reading. "Thinking Critically" is a question that encourages the reader to connect the key concepts to the film. SOURCES With the exception of this preface, the introduction to each chapter, and the "Now Showing" and "Thinking Critically" sections at the end of each chapter, this books consists of lightly edited chapters from other OER textbooks. Eight of the 12 chapters are taken from Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, edited by Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, and Laura Tubelle de Gonzalez (2020). Three chapters are taken from The Art of Being Human by Michael Wesch (2018), and one chapter is taken from Moving Pictures: An Introduction to Cinema by Russell Sharman (2020). All three books are licensed under the Creative Commons and can be reused with certain limitations. Perspectives has a CC BY-NC license. The Art of Being Human and Moving Pictures both have a CC-BY- NC-SA license. In accordance with Creative Commons rules, this book has a CC-BY-NC-SA license, which means that it can be remixed, adapted, and built upon non-commercially, as long as the authors are credited and new creations are licensed under identical terms. SECTION 1: CULTURE INTRODUCTION This section introduces the most important concept in anthropology - culture - and the almost-as- important concept of ethnography, the description of culture. It also introduces the tools of film analysis and the subfield of media anthropology. Chapter 1: The Anthropological Perspective INTRODUCTION This chapter introduces the anthropological perspective - the unique, holistic view of humans that distinguishes anthropology from other disciplines. The chapter consists of a lightly edited version of "Introduction to Anthropology" by Katie Nelson and Lara Braff (2020). The film is Hijabi World. 11 INTRODUCTION TOTO ANTHROPOLOGY Katie Nelson, Inver Hills Community College [email protected] http://kanelson.com/ Lara Braff, Grossmont College [email protected] 3 4 PERSPECTIVES: AN OPEN INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Learning Objectives Identify the four subfields of anthropology and describe the kinds of research projects associated with each subfield. Define culture and the six characteristics of culture. Describe how anthropology developed from early explorations of the world through the professionalization of the discipline in the 19th century. Discuss ethnocentrism and the role it played in early attempts to understand other cultures. Explain how the perspectives of holism, cultural relativism, comparison, and fieldwork, as well as both scientific and humanistic tendencies make anthropology a unique discipline. Evaluate the ways in which anthropology can be used to address current social, political, and economic issues. The first time I (Katie Nelson) heard the word anthropology, I was seventeen years old and sitting at the kitchen table in my home in rural Minnesota. My mother was stirring a pot of chili on the stove. My dog was barking (again) at the squirrels outside. Her low bawl filtered through the screen door left open on the porch. It was the summer before I was to start college and I had a Macalester College course catalog spread out in front of me as I set about carefully selecting the courses that would make up my fall class schedule. When I applied to college, I had indicated in my application that I was interested in studying creative writing, poetry specifically. But I also had a passion for languages and people: observ- ing people, interacting with people and understanding people, especially those who were culturally dif- ferent from myself. I noticed a course in the catalog entitled “Cultural Anthropology.” I did not know exactly what I would learn, but the course description appealed to me and I signed up for it. Several weeks later, I knew what my major would be– anthropology! Like Katie, I (Lara Braff) started college with a curiosity about people but no clear major. In my second year, without knowing what anthropology was, I enrolled in an anthropology course called “Controlling Processes.” Throughout the semester, the professor encouraged us to question how social institutions (like the government, schools, etc.) affect the ways we think and act. This inquiry resonated with my upbringing: my mother, who had immigrated to the United States in her twenties, often ques- tioned U.S. customs that were unfamiliar to her. At times, this was profoundly disappointing to me as a child. For example, she could not understand the joyous potential of filling up on candy at Halloween, a holiday not celebrated in her country. Yet, her outsider perspective inspired in me a healthy skepticism about things that others take to be “normal.” As I took more anthropology courses, I became intrigued by diverse notions of normality found around the world. If you are reading this textbook for your first anthropology course, you are likely wondering, much like we did, what anthropology is all about. Perhaps the course description appealed to you in some way, but you had a hard time articulating what exactly drove you to enroll. With this book, you are in the right place! 5 WHAT IS ANTHROPOLOGY? Derived from Greek, the word anthropos means “human” and “logy” refers to the “study of.” Quite lit- erally, anthropology is the study of humanity. It is the study of everything and anything that makes us human.1 From cultures, to languages, to material remains and human evolution, anthropologists exam- ine every dimension of humanity by asking compelling questions like: How did we come to be human and who are our ancestors? Why do people look and act so differently throughout the world? What do we all have in common? How have we changed culturally and biologically over time? What factors influence diverse human beliefs and behaviors throughout the world? You may notice that these questions are very broad. Indeed, anthropology is