Anthropology 334 Dr. Judkins Fall 2017 SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

The contributions of British Social Anthropology are firmly and liberally, if with all too little recognition, woven into the very fabric of American Cultural Anthropology. Indeed the central method of Anthropology, i.e., “ethnography,” reached the culmination of its development in British Social Anthropology - even though it was invented here in the U.S., actually right here in the “Genesee Country” of western New York. Understanding and appreciating the subsequent emergence of Social Anthropology in Britain, the development and elaboration of its pre-eminent paradigm of fieldwork and social systems analysis there, and its ultimate and significant impact throughout the anthropologically-aware world is the central purpose of this course.

Understanding British Social Anthropology as a unique, historical school is particularly important for American Anthropology students. Since at least the mid-1950s there has been an ever increasing, ever more complete reintegration of British with American styles of Anthropology (“Social/Cultural Anthropology”). This has resulted in making the unique orientations and contributions of a distinct British Social Anthropology ever less obvious, though actually of increased importance, as “Social/Cultural” Anthropology increases its presence in the curriculum of departments of Anthropology throughout North America.

PREREQUISITES (6 hours minimun) - PLEASE NOTE:

Anth 100 or Anth 101, plus at least one other cultural anthropology or area- studies course

N.B.: This is a Seminar-style course. It is designed as a high-intensity reading, high- intensity engagement/participation/and verbal contribution class. Non-participation/non- engagement in the classroom will be penalized in the final grade. This is a course for prepared, committed upper-division majors…others please speak with the instructor for permission to enter.

GRADING:

Individual classroom participation and contributions: 25% of the course grade Assigned classroom presentations and short papers: 50% of the course grade Final Exam = 25% of the course grade

OFFICE HOURS: Bailey 149 T/Th 11:30 – 1:00 or Wed (by appt only) phone x5433 e-mail: [email protected] TEXTS: (* means purchase required) de Coulanges, F. The Ancient City. Johns Hopkins University Press. 1980 [1864] *Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger. Durkheim, E. and M. Mauss. Primitive Classification. U of Chicago Press. Rodney Needham, translation and “Introduction.” 1963 [1903] *Evans-Pritchard, E.E.Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. Oxford UP. 1969 [1940] *Judkins, R.A. Morgan’s League of the Iroquois. Persimmon Press. 2004 [1851] Maine, Sir H.S. Ancient Law. Book Jungle. 2006 [1861] Mauss, M. The Gift. W. W. Norton. 2000 [1923-24] *Radcliffe-Brown. The Andaman Islanders. *Turner, Victor W. The Forest of Symbols. Cornell University Press. 1990 [1967] van Gennep, A. The Rites of Passage. University of Chicago Press. 1961 [1909]

FINAL EXAM Friday December 15 at Noon COURSE PROGRAM

* Key Concepts: Ethnography: holistic cultural and social systems description - Society = patterns of behavior (relationships of persons & groups) - Culture = patterns for behavior (axiomatic collective meaning) Social Anthropology: intensive, holistic social systems analysis - Structure & Function - Process - System - Homeostasis - Adaptation Systems analysis: open-ended, self-regulating systems Systems analysis: society and adaptation//culture and adaptation

*Readings, theories and concepts marked with asterisks are of the highest priority AND are the primary assigned material for the course section in which they appear. They are “must read/must do” material.

EARLY FIELDWORK: OBSERVATIONS & ETHNOGRAPHY Week 1 (Aug 29 & Sept 1)

Heritage of the Age of Exploration: Capt. Cook to Alfred Russel Wallace * A. R. Wallace. The Malay Archipelago, chapt. 11, “Lombok - Manners and Customs” (compare carefully with the quote from Darwin’s account of his observations on the people of Tierra del Fuego, in Lienhardt 1988) cf: Mark Twain. Roughing It, chapt. 9, compared with Maj. Howard Egan’s observations of Paiute, in C. Coon, A Reader in General Anthropology J.W. Powell. exploration and anthropology of the Colorado River Basin; Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin Series and Annual Reports, a monumental archive of American ethnography and ethnology

Aldof Bastian: Elementary Folk Ideas & the Psychic Unity of Mankind R. H. Lowie. The History of Ethnological Theory, chapt 4. “Adolf Bastian” Note the “unifying” patterns posited by “elementargedanken” and psychic unity vs. evolution with implied hierarchal variation

WHR Rivers & A. C. Haddon: the Torres Straits Expedition; Spencer & Gillen G. Stocking, Jr. After Tylor: Brit. Social Anthropology 1888-1951, chapts. 3, 5 BACKGROUND Week 2 (Sept 5 & 7)

European Intellectual History and Concepts of Structure, Process, and Relationship Debt to Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Thought and Writing: Reading selections, history of Anthropology: A. O . Lovejoy. The Great Chain of Being, chapt. 1 (selections) * F. W. Voget. A History of Ethnology, chapts. 1 and 2 M. Harris. The Rise of Anthropological Theory, chapt.. 2 * R. Darnell. Readings in the History of Anthropology, chapt. 5, “The Renaissance Foundations of Anthropology,” John Howland Rowe Unity of Natural & Social Thought/Patterns of Anthropological Thinking & Worldview: * Loren Eisley. “An Evolutionist Looks at Modern Man” European “Culture History” traditions: E. B. Tylor and Consolidation of the Pattern R. H. Lowie. The History of Ethnological Theory, chapt. 7, “E. B. Tylor” G. Stocking, Jr. After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888-1951, Prologue 19th Century French Functionalist Thought Following Comte: *Fustel de Coulanges. The Ancient City, (Intro.; chapt. 1, plus TBA) *Emile Durkheim, E. The Rules of Sociological Method. (selections; concept and definition of “social fact”) Durkheim, E, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, (selections) *Durkheim & Mauss. Primitive Classification. (Trans: Rodney Needham) *“Introduction.” Needham, R.

19th Century British and American “Stages of Evolution:” rise and fall; impact on the development of modern perspectives of Anthropology; separation of Social Anthropology in England; critical overview: * G. Lienhardt. Social Anthropology, chapt. 1 (emphasis pp. 20-32)

SIR JAMES FRAZER: ANTHROPOLOGY CLIMBS “OUT OF THE BOX” Week 3 (Sept 12 & 14)

Social Anthropology in Frazer * Frazer. The Golden Bough, chapt 3, “Sympathetic Magic” G. Stocking, Jr. After Tylor: Brit. Social Anthropology 1888-1951, chapt 4 Sir James Frazer was the first to hold a university Chair in Social Anthropology. He was also the first great popularizer of Anthropology.

Impact of The Golden Bough and the concept of “divine kingship” * M. Wilson “Divine Kings and the ‘Breath of Men’,” Frazer Lecture 1959

EMERGENCE Weeks 4 & 5 (Sept 19- 28)

*Morgan’s League of the Iroquois, (1) Introduction and (2) Book II “The Spirit of the League” Ethnography Invented; NB collegial role of Ely S. Parker and foundational infusion of Native American (Seneca-Iroquois) categories, thought and associations; “whole systems” thinking and the study of social institutions; this all “counts” even if it is a bit circuitous - as Morgan is the acknowledged “Father of British Social Anthropology” - and there is a strong, easily identified (proto-) functionalist strand in all of his thought and writing, based in his vision as a legal scholar

Lewis Henry Morgan. Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, Part I, chapt II, “General Observations upon Systems of Relationships”

*Sir Henry Sumner Maine. Ancient Law Description vs. Classification; Social Structure *R. Needham, “Introduction,” Primitive Classification. Durkheim and Mauss, Introduction and Translation by Rodney Needham

*Sir Henry Sumner Maine. Ancient Law, (Introduction, chapts. 1 & 2; 5 & 6) Compare this with Morgan (also trained in the law) for an emergent and powerful understanding of social life, process and structures; cf. role of “comparison” Comparative Legal Systems: England vs. India; for Morgan: Roman vs. Iroquois rules *Universitas Juris, Patria Potestas and concepts of Social Person and Social Corporation *Fictive Kinship and the Concepts of Social Adaptation and Perpetuity *- ponder the structural relation of these to the principles axiomatic to “rites of passage” and “prestation” (i.e., rules for transforming transition into permanence and difference into oneness - both of which are fundamental, cognitively and organizationally, to the whole human social enterprise)

BRITISH SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY: PARADIGM ORIGINS Weeks 6 & 7 (Oct 3 & 19)

*Marcel Mauss, M. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies Contributions of Bronislaw Malinowski Ethnography of the Trobriands (1922): the extended field study method B. Malinowski. Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays

Contributions of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown Ethnography of the Andaman Islands (1922) the (unacknowledged) entrance of Durkheimian functionalist sociological insights into Anglophone anthropology Theoretical Contributions: Structure & Function; “Natural Laws of Society” Radcliffe-Brown. Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Introduction; chapts. 1, 4, 5, 7-11

BRITISH SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY: PARADIGM EXEMPLIFIED Weeks 8 & 9 (Oct 17 - 26)

Political and legal systems analysis in Social Anthropology Kinship systems analysis in Social Anthropology Ritual and religious systems analysis in Social Anthropology

E.E. Evans-Pritchard Ethnography of the Azande and the Nuer E.E. Evans-Pritchard. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande. *E.E. Evans-Pritchard. The Nuer E.E. Evans-Pritchard. Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer E.E. Evans-Pritchard. Nuer Religion Theoretical Contributions: Kinship, Politics, and Religion

Meyer Fortes Ethnography of the Tallensi M. Fortes. The Web of Kinship among the Tallensi M. Forest. The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi Theoretical Contributions: Political Anthropology

* M. Myers. Household and Families of the Longhouse Iroquois of Six Nations Reserve. N.B.: Merlin Myers was one of Meyer Fortes’ last PhD students at Cambridge and was thoroughly imbued in Fortesian British Social Anthropology as well as Iroquois Studies. He taught Dr. Judkins Social Anthropology (along with Gary Witherspoon, later a master of Navajo Studies, as undergraduates).

Raymond Firth and Maurice Freedman Ethnography in China, the Pacific and SE Asia Theoretical Contributions: Kinship, Political and Economic Anthropology Freedman, M. Lineage Organization in Southeastern China. Firth, R. Malay Fishermen: Their Peasant Economy and We, the Tikopia

W. Lloyd Warner The Living and the Dead. Chapt. 9, “The City of the Dead.” Yankee City Series, vol 5 A Black Civilization: A Study of an Australian Tribe BRITISH SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY: FULFILMENT OF THE CLASSIC PARADIGM Weeks 10 & 11 (Oct 31 – Nov 9)

E. R. Leach. Political Systems of Highland Burma, “Introduction.” pp. 1-17 Social Process, Social Structure; Ritual Process and adaptation vs. structural form and evolution

M. Gluckman, The Manchester School Custom and Conflict in Africa: seeing through/beyond norms: process and paradox/alternative insights within formal structure - “The Peace in the Feud,” “The Fraility in Authority,” “The Logic in Witchcraft,” and “The Licence in Ritual”

A Sampling of Mid- and Late-Twentieth Century British Social Anthropology

Africa: Fortes, M. and D. Forde (eds.), African Political Systems Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. and D. Forde, African Systems of Kinship & Marriage Monica Wilson. Good Company: a Study of Nyakyusa Age-Villages Lucy Mair, Primitive Government Paul & Laura. Bohannan, The Tiv of Central Nigeria and Return to Laughter Max Gluckman, Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society and Custom and Conflict in Africa; Godfrey Lienhardt, Divinity and Experience: the Religion of the Dinka and Social Anthropology S.F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium: the Kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria and Nupe Religion Evans-Pritchard, E.E., Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande

Asia and the Indo-Pacific: Fredrik Barth, Political Leadership Among Swat Pushtums [Pathans]; Edmund R Leach, Political Systems of Highland Burma; Rodney Needham, Mamboru: History and Structure in a Domain of Northwestern Sumba; article: “Blood, Thunder, and Mockery of Animals” Maurice Freedman, Study of Chinese Society; Chinese Lineage and Society; Family and Kinship in Chinese Society; Lineage Organization in Southeastern China; Chinese Family and Marriage in Singapore SJ Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-east Thailand (see also: Benedict Sandin, The Sea Dayaks of Borneo; Tom Harrisson, The Malays of South-West Sarawak Before Malaysia; C.K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society and Martin C. Yang, Chinese Village: Taitou, Shantung Province) North and South Americas: W. Lloyd Warner. The Living and the Dead: A Study of the Symbolic Life of Americans. in,The Yankee City Series Witherspoon, G., Navajo Kinship and Marriage Ortiz, A., The Tewa World Eggan, F. Social Organization of the Western Pueblos Myers, M. Households and Families of the Longhouse Iroquois at Six Nations Reserve Needham, R., Descent, Category, and Alliance in Siriono Society

BRITISH SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY: EXTENDING & PONDERING THE PARADIGM Weeks 12 & 13 (Nov 14 - 21)

* van Gennep, The Rites of Passage * Victor W. Turner. The Forest of Symbols Myth, Ritual and Symbol Integrating historic influences, plus exploration and innovation Community, person and ritual Symbolism: body and society Liminality and communitas, cf. Durkheim’s “sacred”

Mary Douglas. Purity and Danger Exploration of social and human symbols

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY NOW: WHAT THE TASK & WHITHER THE PARADIGM? Weeks 14 & 15 (Nov 28 – Dec 7)

Social Anthropology and its Base in Ethnography Boasian-American Cultural Anthropological Comparison Clifford Geertz: “Thick Description,” the Ethnography of Nations, and British Social Anthropology Structuralism, Cognative Anthropology, Post-Modernism and Other Directions Enduring Contributions & Strengths of British Social Anthropology

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FINAL EXAM Friday December 15 at Noon COURSE SUMMARY: THEORETICAL “KEY CONCEPTS” OF THE FIRST ORDER*

The Comparative Method (British + Morgan) The Genealogical Method (W. H. R. Rivers) Fustel de Coulanges, Emile Durkheim and French Functionalism Social Fact and Social Function (systems analysis/homeostasis) Social System (systems analysis/homeostasis) Unity of the Lineage Group/Unity of the Sibling Group (A. R. Radcliffe-Brown) Rites de passage (Arnold van Gennep): permanence through transitions Prestation (Marcel Mauss): relationships through obligatory exchange between opposites Liminality (Victor W. Turner): sacred, meaning, font of creation/adaptation

*Social Anthropology...has been inspired by certain general ideas, subtly derived from the early French sociologists, which have had a singular theoretical influence...they are analytical notions such as ‘transition’, ‘polarity’ (opposition), ‘exchange’, ‘solidarity’, ‘total’, ‘structure’, ‘classification’. Now these are not theories but highly general concepts; they are vague, they state nothing. At first sight there is nothing to be done with them...Indeed, their significance is only apprehended after arduous application to the task of understanding social phenomena; the less on knows about human society and collective representations the less they appear to mean. Yet they have proved to possess a great and perennial analytical value, such that it may be claimed that it is they which are essentially [that which E. E. Evans-Pritchard referred to as] the ‘theoretical capital’ of social anthropology.

Rodney Needham, in his Introduction to his English translation of Durkheim and Mauss’ essay, Primitive Classification

REFERENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. GENERAL WORKS IN THE HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND SCIENCE

Annual Review of Anthropology Darnell, Regna. Readings in the History of Anthropology. Harper & Row. New York. 1974 Eiseley, Loren. Darwin’s Century. Doubleday. New York. 1958 Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. [both 1937 and 1963 editions] Harris, Marvin. The Rise of Anthropological Theory. Rowman & Littlefield. Lanham, MD. 2001 Lowie, Robert H. History of Ethnological Theory. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. New York. 1937 Lovejoy, Arthur O. The Great Chain of Being. Harvard U Press. Cambridge. 1936 Stocking, George W., Jr. After Tylor: British Social Anthropology 1888-1951. Wisconsin. 1995 Voget, Fred W. A History of Ethnology. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. New York. 1975 II. CLASSIC FOUNDATIONAL WORKS de Coulanges, Fustel. The Ancient City. Lee and Shepard. Boston. 1873 Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Free Press. New York. 1995 ______. Rules of Sociological Method. Free Press. New York. 1982 Frazer, Sir James G. The Golden Bough (abridged edition). Macmillan and Co. London. 1922 Maine, Sir Henry Sumner. Ancient Law. John Murray. London. 1861 Morgan, Lewis Henry. League of the Iroquois. Sage & Brother. Rochester. 1851 ______. Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. 1871

III. TEXT, OVERVIEWS AND SERIES TITLES IN BRITISH SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the Commonwealth. (publications series) Bohannan, Paul. Social Anthropology. International Thompson Publishing. 1963 Cambridge Papers in Social Anthropology. Cambridge U Press. Cambridge (publications series) Firth, Sir Raymond. Elements of Social Organization. Greenwood Press. Westport, CT. 1981 Freedman, Maurice (ed). Social Organization. Aldine. Chicago. 1967 Kuper, Adam. Anthropology and Anthropologists: The Modern British School. Routledge. 1996 Leach, Edmund. Social Anthropology. Oxford U Press. New York. 1982 Lewis, I. M. Social Anthropology in Perspective. Cambridge U Press. Cambridge. 1994 Lienhardt, Godfrey. Social Anthropology. Oxford U Press. New York. 1988 Mair, Lucy. Introduction to Social Anthropology. Oxford U Press. New York. 1989

IV. STANDARD WORKS OF BRITISH SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Barth, Fredrik. Political Leadership among Swat Pathans. Athlone. London. 1965 Bohannan, Paul. Justice and Judgement Among the Tiv. Waveland. Prospect Heights, IL. 989 ______. Tiv Economy. Northwestern U Press. Evanston, IL. 1968 Douglas, Mary. Natural Symbols. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London. 1996 ______. Purity and Danger. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London. 2002 Evans-Pritchard, E. E. Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer. Oxford UP. New York. 1961 ______. The Nuer. Oxford U Press. New York.1968 ______. Nuer Religion. Oxford U Press. New York. 1970 ______. Theories of Primitive Religion. Oxford U Press. New York. 1965 ______. Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford UP. New York. 1992 Firth, Sir Raymond. Malay Fishermen. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London. 2003 ______. We the Tikopia. Stanford U Press. Stanford. 1893 Forde, Daryll (ed.). African Worlds. Lit Verlag. London. 1999 Fortes, Meyer. The Dynamics of Clanship Among the Tallensi. Humanities. New York. 1969 ______. The Web of Kinship Among the Tallensi. Humanities. New York. 1969 ______and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. African Political Systems. Oxford U Press. 1964 Freedman, Maurice. Chinese Lineage and Society. Brill. Boston. 1971 ______. Family and Kinship in Chinese Society. Stanford U Press. Stanford. 1970 ______. Lineage Organization in Southeastern China. Athlone. London. 1970 Gluckman, Max. Custom and Conflict in Africa. Basil Blackwell. Oxford. 1965 ______. Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society. Aldine. Chicago. 1965 Goody, Jack (ed.). The Developmental Cycle in Domestic Groups. Cambridge U Press. Cambridge. 1962 Leach, Edmund. Political Systems of Highland Burma. Athlone. London. 1977 ______. Rethinking Anthropology. Athlone. London. 1966 Lienhardt, Godfrey. Divinity and Experience. Oxford U Press. New York. 1985 Mair, Lucy. African Kingdoms. Oxford U Press. New York. 1985 Malinowski, Bronislaw. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Dutton. New York. 1961 ______. Magic, Science and Religion. Waveland Press. Prospect Heights, IL. 1992 Middleton, John and Tait, David (eds.). Tribes without Rulers. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London.1970 Nadel, S. F. A Black Byzantium. Oxford U Press. New York. 1942 ______. Theories of Social Structure. MacMillan Publishing. 1964 Radcliffe- Brown, A. R. Andaman Islanders. Free Press. New York. 1964 ______. Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Free Press. New York. 1965 ______and Forde, Daryll. African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. Routledge & Kegan Paul. London.1987 Turner, Victor W. The Forest of Symbols. Cornell U Press. Ithaca. ______. Schism and Continuity in an African Society. Warner, W. Lloyd. Black Civilization. Peter Smith Publisher, Inc. 1969 ______. The Living and the Dead. (Yankee City Series, vol.5). Yale U Press. New Haven. 1959 Wilson, Monica. Good Company. Waveland. Prospect Heights, IL. 1987

V. KEY JOURNALS

MAN / JRAI: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde: Netherlands Social Anthropology: European Association of Social Anthropologists Anthropological Forum: Australia, Pacific and Southeast Asia Oceania Africa Ethnology Current Anthropology