Summer Reading Group May 14th Readings

Hi everyone,

Due to the responses we've received thus far I think we can plan our first meeting together. So far, we will be meeting on Friday, May 14th at the Coffee Pod (click on the link for the address) around 12:30pm. Because this time is still flexible please let us know if that time does not work out for you. If you do, please tell us what time you'd prefer (You can do so by posting a comment on the blog). You can click on the titles of each article below to open it through google docs. From there you should be able to download the article by clicking on the download link at the top of the google doc page.

I thought we could start out our meetings with three basic overviews of some classic issues in anthropology. William Rosenberry's article on Karl Marx's influence on cultural anthropology is a good place to start. Marx's theories of culture, value, and production have not only been an important part of the historical development of sociocultural anthropology, they are essential to understanding how theories of globalization, power, and authority are constructed in contemporary theory. Charles Keye's review of Max Weber's contribution to anthropology is a logical extension of the issues brought up by the article on Marx. Weber, the most important sociologist of in the american tradition, is foundational because anthropologist are still drawing inspiration from many of his ideas, ranging from charisma to secularization. Weber's social theory is also an important antecedent to many theories of culture that have been considered "postmodern," or "interpretive" (important buzz words in anthropological theory throughout the last two decades). Because many of us are exposed to the tradition of cultural anthropology, common here in the U.S., I thought it would be a good idea to top off our readings by reviewing Adam Kuper's article on British Social Anthropology. Kuper, in particular, is an excellent anthropologist/historian whose work is well regarded and considered important to contemporary debates about how anthropology is articulated as a discipline.

Group 1B Consists of optional readings. I will have read these articles and would be happy to discuss them with anyone who is interested. They primarily cover anthropology's historical engagement with enlightenment values. These articles will be particularly stimulating for any students who are interested in philosophy and how anthropology has been tackling some central concerns of the enlightenment since its inception. If you aren't as interested in those issues then you may still want to take a look at the collection of articles that Ian Bashkow edited in the American Anthropologist. They cover Boas' influence on contemporary theory. They are also very erudite and relevant to current debates about American Anthropology. In addition, the next set of readings may devoted to some of the vestiges of Boas' program, such as generalizability, comparison, and relativism. You may be surprised that although Boas is probably spinning in his grave, much of anthropology still still owes a great deal to his contributions, and has, in many respects, not moved past arguing about his agenda.

(Franz Boas, the father of American Anthropology)

Group 1A:

Rosenberry, William (1997). Marx and Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology. 26: 25-46.

Keyes, Charles F. (2002). Weber and Anthropology. Annual Review of Anthropology. 31: 233-255.

Kuper, Adam (2005). Alternative histories of British social anthropology. Social Anthropology. 13.1: 47-64.

Group 1B:

Denby, David (2005). Herder: Culture, anthropology and the Enlightenment. History of the Human Sciences. 18.1: 55-76.

Levinson, Stephen C., & Brown, Penelope (1992). Immanuel Kant among the Tenejapans: Anthropology as Empirical Philosophy. Ethos. 22.1: 3-41.

Bashkow, Ira, et al. (2004). A New Boasian Anthropology: Theory for the 21st Century. American Anthropologist. 106.3: 433-493.

Hastrup, Kristen (2005). Social anthropology. Towards a pragmatic enlightenment? Social Anthropology. 13.2: 133-149.

Kapferer, Bruce (2007). Anthropology and the Dialectic of Enlightenment: A Discourse on the Definition and Ideals of a Threatened Discipline. The Australian Journal of Anthropology. 18.1: 72-94.