Principles of
Political Anthropology
ANG 6274/Spring 2007
Monday per 6-8, 101
Dr. Brenda Chalfin
bchalfin@anthro.ufl.edu
441
Grinter Hall, 392-2427 x306
Office Hours:
Course Description:
Where does power lie? How are political forms and
relations experienced and reproduced? How
do we come to know them? What insight does anthropology bring to the
conceptualization of power and the diagnosis of its workings in specific social
settings and situations? How do anthropological theorizations of the political,
derived from small-scale non-western societies, both differ from and engage a
political science premised on the study of the modern nation-state.
This course tracks the development of political
anthropology. Familiarizing students with a variety of approaches regarding
power, political activity and political institutions, it traces the field’s emergence,
enduring preoccupations, shifting trends, and major influences. Conveying and
assessing the specific and overarching contributions of anthropology to the
study of political life, the ultimate goal of the course is to prepare graduate
students to comprehend and analyze political phenomena in the context of their
own research.
Moving between societies with few specialized
political institutions and those with highly formalized political realms, the
course seeks to capture political life in the fullest sense.
The class begins with an examination of the
founding concerns of political anthropology with respect to political order in
non-state and non-western societies and ends with a consideration of contemporary
political trends, from ethno-nationalism, to war, incarceration and
imperialism. Over
the semester, we will probe questions of culture and power, hegemony and
symbolic domination, the politics of the everyday, power and resistance, social
movements, democratization and subalterity, violence and militarism. We will equally
attend to the politics of anthropological practice, addressing the ethics of
anthropological research, government surveillance of anthropologists and anthropology
programs, and the place of anthropology in the public sphere.
Course Materials:
Required Texts:
E. Wolf, Pathways of Power,
M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, Vintage,
1979
L. Malkki, Purity and Exile,
T. B. Hansen, The Saffron Wave,
A. Feldman, Formations of Violence,
L. Gill, School of the
Optional Supplementary Texts:
J. Vincent ed. , The Anthropology of Politics
Reader, Blackwell, 2002.
J. Vincent, Anthropology and Politics,
On-line purchase of texts is recommended.
Additional reading material is available on-line,
through UF Library E-reserve or in photocopy form at OBT (309 NW 13th
St/375-2707). Reading for Week 2 (Jan 22) will be available to download from UF
Library E-reserve (www.uflib.ufl.edu). All other reading, besides the course
texts and on-line articles, will be available in a course pack at OBT.
Course Requirements:
1.Weekly Reading Questions: (8 x 3%ea) 25% (1 pg. Submit
via email by
2. Mid-term Essay: 25% (This a 10 pg.
thematic, analytic essay. Due by Mar. 19)
3. Final Project: 30% (Choice of Research
Paper, Research Proposal or Review Essay-15pg.))
4. Class Rapporteur: 10% (Introduce/Evaluate
the day’s material and sum-up discussion)
5. Participation: 10%
Attendance is required. Students must also abide
by the UF Academic Honesty Guidelines.
Course Schedule:
Class 1/January 8
INTRODUCTION AND
OVERVIEW
NO CLASS JAN 15 ML
KING Day (University Closed)
Class 2/January 22
ORIGINS: INSIGHTS AND
OVERSIGHTS
(available on UFLIB
E-reserve):
M. Fortes and EE Evans-Pritchard,
1940, “Introduction,” and EE Evans Pritchard, “The Nuer,” in African
Political Systems,
L. Mair, Introduction,
Primitive Government,
T. Asad, “Two European
Images of Non-European Rule,” and S. Feuchtwang, “The Discipline and Its
Sponsors,” in T. Asad ed, Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter,
E. Wolf, “Facing
Power,” in Pathways of Power, pp. 382-397.
Optional:
J. Vincent, “Politics
in the Comparative Mode,” Anthropology and Politics, pp. 255-276
Class 3/January 29
PERSON, PROCESS AND
LOCAL-LEVEL POLITICS
M. Gluckman, “The
Bridge,” pp. 53-58, R. Frankenberg, “The Bridge Revisited,” pp. 59-64, T. Asad,
“Market Model,” 65-81, F. Bailey, “Stratagems and Spoils,” pp. 90-95, M. Swartz
et al. “Political Anthropology,” pp. 102-108, in Anthropology of Politics Reader,
J. Vincent ed., Blackwell, 2002.
F. Barth, “Anthropological
Models and Social Reality,” in Selected Essays of Frederick Barth,
Routledge, 1981, pp. 15-31.
V. Turner, “Mukanda:
The Politics of Non-Political Ritual,” in Local-level Politics, M.
Swartz et al eds., Aldine, 1968, pp. 135-150.
Wolf, “Kinship,
Friendship…” in Pathways of Power, pp. 166-183.
Class 4/February 5
SYMBOL, CULTURE AND
POWER
C. Geertz, Negara:
The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali,
B. Anderson,
”Introduction,” pp. 1-14, “The idea of power in Javanese Culture,” pp. 17-77, “The
Languages of Indonesian Politics,” pp. 123-151, skim “Cartoon and Monuments,” pp.
152-193, in Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia,
Cornell, 1990.
Optional:
C. Geertz, “Centers,
Kings and Charisma,” in Local Knowledge, Basic, 1983, pp. 121-146
Class 5/February 12
Violence, Predatory
Expansion and Anthropological Ethics
N. Chagnon, Yanomamo,
Holt, Rhinehart and
B. Ferguson, 'A Savage Encounter: Western Contact
and the Yanomami War Complex', in R. Brian Ferguson and Neil L. Whitehead eds.,
War in the Tribal Zone: Expanding
States and Indigenous Warfare, SAR, 1992,pp. 199-227.
P. Tierney, “The Fierce Anthropologist,” The New Yorker,
Borofsy, R. Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy and what
we can learn from it,
D. Winslow, “NSF supports,” pp. 519-521, D. Fassin,
“The end,” pp. 522-524, G. Annas, “Anthropology,” pp. 541-544, American Ethnologist, Nov. 2006, 33/4.
American
Anthropological Association Code of Ethics (www.aaanet.org)
Class Debate: To what
extent can Chagnon be held responsible for his actions? Do the current AAA Ethics
Code and related US Gov’t IRB rules resolve or complicate the ethical perils of
anthropological research?
Class 6/February 19
Power and Resistance
J. Scott, Weapons
of the Weak, Yale, 1985, pp. 1-47, 241-303.
S. Ortner, "Resistance and the Problem of
Ethnographic Refusal," Comparative Studies in Society and History 37 , no.
1 (1995 ): 173 –93
Lila Abu-Lughod, “The
Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin Women,”
American Ethnologist, 1990, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 41-55.
K. Sivaramakrishnan,
2005, “Some Intellectual Genealogies for the Concept of Everyday Resistance,” American
Anthropologist, 107/3, pp. 346-355.
Class Debate: What is
the usefulness of the concept of resistance?
Class 7/February 26
Hegemony and Symbolic Domination
A. Gramsci, Antonio Gramsci Reader:
Selected Writings 1916-1935, D.
Forgacs ed., Schoken, 1988, selections
K. Crehan, Gramsci,
Culture and Anthropology,
J and J Comaroff, Of
Revelation and Revolution vol. 1,
L. Althusser,
“Ideology Interpellates Individuals as Subjects,” in Lenin and Philosophy,
pp. 170-183.
J. Thompson, "Symbolic
Violence : Language and Power in the work of Pierre Bourdieu,” Studies
in the Theory of Ideology,
A. Gupta, 2001, “History, Rule, Representation,” Interventions, 3/1, pp.
40-46.
Class 8/March 5
Disciplinary Regimes
Foucault, Discipline
and Punish, Vintage, 1979. selections
A Feldman, Formations
of Violence: The Narrative of the Body and Political Terror in
B. Aretxaga, “Dirty
Protest,” Ethos, 1995, 23/2, pp. 123-148.
SPRING BREAK – NO
CLASS MARCH 12 – MIDTERM ESSAY DUE BY MAR. 19
Class 9/March 19
Social Movements and
the Subaltern
E. Wolf, “Peasants and
Revolution,” and “Rural Protest in
R. Nicholas,
1973, “Social and Political Movements,” Annual
Review of Anthropology,” 2, pp. 63-84. ON-LINE
M. Edelman, 2001,
“Social Movements: Changing Paradigms and Forms of Politics,” Annual Review
of Anthropology, 30/1, pp. 285-317. ON-LINE
G. Prakash, “Subaltern
studies as postcolonial criticism,” American Historical Review, 1995, 99/5,
pp. 1475-1490.
Sivaramakrishnan, K.
“Situating the Subaltern,” Journal of Historical Sociology, 8/4, pp.
395-439.
I. Rogdrigues ed, The
Latin American Sub Altern Studies Reader , Duke, 2001. selection
Class 10/March 26
Nationalism and Ethnic
Identity
B. Anderson, Imagined
Communities, Verso, 1983/2006, Chs. 1,2,3,6,10
L. Malkki, Purity
and Exile,
E. Renan, “What is a
nation?” in The Nationalism Reader, O. Dahbour and M. Ishay eds,
Humanities, 1995, pp. 143-155.
Robert Hayden,
“Imagined Communities and Real Victims: Self-Determination and Ethnic Cleansing
in
Wolf, “Ethnicity and
Nationhood,” in Pathways of Power
A. Appadurai, 1998,
“Ethnic Violence in the Era of Globalization,” Development and Change,
29/4, pp. 905-925.
Optional:
A. Stoller, “Sexual
Affronts and Racial Frontiers,” in Tensions of Empire, A. Stoller and F.
Cooper, eds.,
EASTER/PASSOVER - NO
CLASS APRIL 2
Class 11/April 9
Democratization
T B Hansen The Saffron
Wave,
A. Appadurai, 2002,
“Deep Democracy: Urban Governmentality and the Horizon of Politics,” Public
Culture, 2002, 14/1, pp. 21-47.
J. Paley, 2002, “Toward
an Anthropology of Democracy,” Annual Review of Anthropology, 31/1, pp.
469-496. ON-LINE
Class 12/April 16
Imperialism Old and
New
L.
C. Lutz, “Empire is in
the Details,” American Ethnologist, Nov. 2006, 33/4, pp. 593-611
M. Hardt and A. Negri,
Empire, Harvard, 2000, Chs. 1.1, 1.2, 1.3., 2.5
G. Packer, “Knowing
the Enemy,” The New Yorker,
D. Price, 2002,
Interlopers and Invited guests: On Anthropology’s Witting and Unwitting Links
to Intelligence Agencies,” Anthropology Today, 18/6, pp. 16-21
C. Fluehr-Lobban, “Ethical Challenges for Anthropological Engagement in
National Security and Intelligence Work, in Anthropology News, January
2007, p. 4.
Class 13/ April 23
Wrap-up and
Presentations