MT 2010 HS Prelims Subject 3 Society, Culture, and Environment: Social and Cultural Anthropology

Week 2 Social and cultural anthropology as a discipline Essay question: What is distinctive about the aims and methods of social and cultural anthropology? Illustrate this with reference to the position of history within anthropology. Key readings: Allen, N. J. 2000. The field and the desk: choices and linkages. In Anthropologists in a wider world: essays on field research (eds) P. Dresch et al. Oxford and New York: Berghahn. Carrithers, M. 1990. Is anthropology art or science? Current Anthropology 31: 3, 263-282.* Cohn, B.S. 1987 [1961]. The pasts of an Indian village. In An anthropologist among the historians and other essays. Delhi; Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press [also in Comparative Studies in Society and History 3: 3 (April, 1961), 241-249.*] Collard, A. 1989. Investigating social memory in a Greek context. In History and ethnicity (eds) E. Tonkin et al. London and New York: Routledge. Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1950. Social anthropology: past and present the Marett Lecture, 1950. Man 50, 118-124.* Further readings: Appadurai, A. 1981. The past as a scarce resource. Man 16: 2, 201-219.* Barnes, R.H. 1987. Anthropological comparison. In Comparative anthropology (ed.) L. Holy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Connerton, P. 1989. How societies remember. Cambridge: Cambridge Univeristy Press. Hastrup, K. (ed.) 1992. Other histories. London and New York: Routledge. James, W. 2003. The ceremonial animal: a new portrait of anthropology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Lienhardt, G. 1966. Social anthropology. London: Oxford University Press. MacClancy, J. (ed.) 2002. Exotic no more: anthropology on the front lines. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Parkin, R. 2001. Introduction: the anthropological project. In Perilous transactions: papers in general and Indian anthropology (ed.) R. Parkin. Orissa: Sikshasandhan. Stewart, M. 2004. Remembering without commemoration: the mnemonics and politics of holocaust memories among European Roma. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 10: 3, 561-582.* Tonkin, E. et al. (eds) 1989. History and ethnicity. London and New York: Routledge.

* Available online as e-journal articles.

MT 2010 HS Prelims Subject 3 Society, Culture, and Environment: Social and Cultural Anthropology

Week 4 Gifts, exchange, and social relations Essay question: What can the exchange of gifts tell us about a society? Key readings: Davis, J. 1992. Exchange. Buckingham: Open University Press. Malinowski, B. 1972 [1922]. Argonauts of the Western Pacific: an account of native enterprise and adventure in the archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. [passages on kula: esp. chapters III, XI, XIV, XXII] Mauss, M. 1954 [1925]. The gift: forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. London: Cohen & West. Yan, Y. 1996. The flow of gifts: reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. [see especially Chapter 4: The gift economy and guanxi networks.]

Further readings: Bohannan, P. 1955. Some principles of exchange and investment among the Tiv. American Anthropologist 57: 1, 60-70.* Carrier, J. 1993. The rituals of Christmas giving. In Unwrapping Christmas (ed.) D. Miller. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Davis, J. 1972. Gifts and the UK economy. Man 7: 3, 408-429.* Lambek, M. 1990. Exchange, time, and person in Mayotte: the structuring and destructuring of a cultural system. American Anthropologist 92: 3, 647-661.* Parry, J. 1986. The gift, the Indian gift and the Indian gift. Man 21: 3, 453-473.* Sahlins, M. 1974 [1972]. Stone age economics. London: Tavistock Publications. [see especially Chapter 4: The spirit of the gift]

* Available online as e-journal articles.

MT 2010 HS Prelims Subject 3 Society, Culture, and Environment: Social and Cultural Anthropology

Week 6 Witchcraft and rationality Essay question: Do people in premodern societies think rationally? Discuss using Evans-Pritchards account of Azande witchcraft as the basis of your analysis. Key readings: Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1976 [1937]. Witchcraft, oracles and magic among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press. (abridged edition) Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1965. Theories of primitive religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [chapter IV: Lvy-Bruhl] Finnegan, R. and R. Horton. 1973. Introduction. In Modes of thought: essays on thinking in western and non-western societies (ed.) R. Horton & R. Finnegan. London: Faber & Faber. Horton, R. 1967. African traditional thought and western science. Africa 37: 1, 50-71; 155-87. * Lloyd, G.E.R. 1990. Demystifying mentalities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [see especially Introduction, Chapter 1: Mentalities, metaphors and the foundations of science, and Conclusion] Further readings: Ardener, E. 1970. Witchcraft, economics and the continuity of belief. In Witchcraft confessions and accusations (ed.) M. Douglas. London and New York: Tavistock. Favret-Saada, J. 1980. Deadly words: witchcraft in the Bocage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Geertz, H. 1975. An anthropology of religion and magic I. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 6: 1, 71-89. * Geschiere, P. 1994. Domesticating personal violence: witchcraft, courts and confessions in Cameroon. Africa 64: 3, 323-341. * Hirst, P. 1985. Is it rational to reject relativism? In Reason and Morality. (ed.) J. Overing. London and New York: Tavistock. Winch, P. 1970. Understanding a primitive society. In Rationality. (ed.) B.R. Wilson. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

* Available online as e-journal articles.

MT 2010 HS Prelims Subject 3 Society, Culture, and Environment: Social and Cultural Anthropology

Week 8 Space, place, and landscape Essay question: To what extent are space and landscape cultural constructs? Key readings: Bender, B. 1993. Stonehenge - contested landscapes (medieval to present day). In Landscape: politics and perspectives (ed.) B. Bender. Oxford: Berg. Bourdieu, P. 1970. The Berber house or the world reversed. Social Science Information 9, 151-170. * Corsn Jimnez, A. 2003. On space as a capacity. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 9: 1, 137-153. * Hirsch, E. & M. OHanlon (eds) 1995. The Anthropology of landscape: perspectives on place and space. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [see especially Hirschs introduction and Howard Morphys essay on Landscape and the reproduction of the ancestral past (Chapter 5)] Tilley, C. 1994. A phenomenology of landscape: places, paths and monuments. Oxford: Berg. [see especially Chapter 1: Space, place, landscape and perception; Chapter 2: The social construction of landscape in small-scale societies.] Further readings: Aug, M. 1995 [1992]. Non-places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity. London & New York: Verso. Carsten, J. and S. Hugh-Jones (eds) 1995. About the house: Lvi-Strauss and beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Huber, T. 1999. Putting the gnas back into the gnas-skor: rethinking Tibetan pilgrimage practice. In Sacred spaces and powerful places in Tibetan culture (ed.) T. Huber. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. Humphrey, C. 1974. Inside a Mongolian tent. New Society 31, 13-14. Ingold, T. 1993. The temporality of landscape. World Archaeology 25: 9, 152-174. * Ingold, T. 2000. The perception of the environment: essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. London & New York: Routledge. Lefebvre, H. 1991 [1974]. The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell. [see especially Chapter 2: Social space.] Low, S.M. & D. Lawrence-Zuniga (eds) 2003. The anthropology of space and place: locating culture. Oxford: Blackwell. Schama, S. 1995. Landscape and memory. London: HarperCollins.
* Available online as e-journal articles.