Course Description

This year's First Year Program asks the question, "With so many claims of what is true and good, how then shall we live?" In the fall semester, we will consider how perceptions of truth and knowledge relate to culture. Is truth, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder? How much does what we know depend on who we are and where we find ourselves, in terms of culture, social status, race, ethnicity, gender, class, or political system? As globalization leads to an increased sense of connectedness, but also of conflict, around the world, it is more important than ever that we consider how human beings who share so much can sometimes see the world in such very different ways.This course will consider questions of knowledge, truth, objectivity, religion, and science cross-culturally from an anthropological perspective. We will explore how attempts to understand different viewpoints, particularly those from cultures other than those with which we personally identify, might challenge or reinforce our perspectives on the world. Topics include depictions of cultural difference in National Geographic, sexual practices in Samoa, medicine and the body, socialism and history, and Islamic practices of veiling.

As part of the First Year Program, this course is simultaneously interdisciplinary and grounded in the field of anthropology. The interdisciplinary elements of the course will be most evident in the texts, discussions, and co-curricular activities that we will share in common with other FYP sections. The anthropological perspective will emerge in two key ways: First, the course starts from the anthropological premise that human beings are sociocultural creatures who shape and are shaped by their social and cultural contexts in complex and profound ways, and that focusing on the particularities of individual and group experiences in all their diversity can help us to understand larger social, cultural, economic, and political processes. Second, many of the authors we will read are anthropologists who are primarily concerned with issues of culture and/or write ethnographically about the particular experiences of the people with whom they did their research.

Throughout the semester, these two approaches -- interdisciplinary and anthropological -- will come together in several key questions: How do people come to know what they claim to know? What is culture? What role does culture play in the creation of knowledge? How are approaches that seek to learn "truth" -- science, philosophy, literature, and religion -- also reflections of particular cultural and historical contexts? With what consequences?

Class meetings

The class meets three times per week and follows a seminar format. Students will be expected to attend class meetings (attendance will be taken), to complete the readings as scheduled on the syllabus, and to come to class prepared to engage in a focused discussion of the issues raised by the readings. Most weeks, students will write a brief journal entry (2-3 pages) on an assigned topic. These will serve as the basis for group discussion.

Course Requirements

Course grades will be based on written work and class participation, broken down as follows:

1. Class Discussion and Participation (20%)

This seminar promotes an active approach to learning. Not only are you required to attend class meetings, but you will be expected to engage actively in group discussions in ways which demonstrate your critical reflection on the readings. Because involvement in class activities is so important, more than two unexcused absences during the semester will result in the lowering of your participation grade by one-half a percentage point for each additional class missed.

2. Reading reflection journal (30%)

Overview: Each week, you will be asked to write briefly (2-3 pages) on issues raised by the readings. Journal entries are not formal papers, but they do require you to explore insights you have acquired from the readings, develop points that intrigue you, compare the author's perspective to those of others you have read or discussed (in this class or others), relate the issues considered to your own experiences, or evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of an author's argument. Although these reflections might be personal and less formal in tone than those of a longer paper, they should still be scholarly/intellectual, in that you critically, but fairly, consider the views offered by the reading, develop your own ideas, and suggest concrete supporting points through evidence and logic.

Topics: For each set of readings, study guide questions will be posted to the course website http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/aleshkow/fyp/fypsgquestions.html). These questions are intended to get you thinking about themes that we may discuss in class. Use one of those questions as a starting point for your journal entry. For some days/readings, you will be free to choose whatever question appeals to you. At other points, you will be asked to address a specific question or set of themes. Instructions will be included with the questions for each week.

Intellectual Approach: A journal entry can be an essay, complete with a thesis statement and a logical progression of ideas and evidence to support your argument. But it also might be a less structured musing or stream of consciousness reflection on the issues surrounding the question. It could also take a comparative approach in which you consider the question in light of other works you've read or experiences you've had. Follow whatever approach seems most interesting to you for the particular topics and themes we're considering that week. Feel free to experiment with different writing styles or modes of analysis as the semester progresses. Whether you adopt the more formal tone of an essay or the freer discursive style of stream of consciousness, make sure that you consider the questions of logic and evidence appropriate for an intellectual journal. Why do you think or feel the way you do about the issue you're describing? What other approaches might one take? What are their relative strengths and weaknesses? Keep in mind our primary goal of critical thinking in which you explore diverse ideas so that you can come to informed conclusions which you will be able to support.

Format: Journal entries should be typed, double-spaced, in 12 point font, with margins of at least one inch on all sides. Please print the entries out and bring them with you to class on Friday. Entries will be collected and returned the following week with feedback.

Grading: Eleven journal entries are assigned over the course of the semester. You need to submit ten. You may submit an eleventh entry, in which case the lowest grade will be dropped. Journal entries will be evaluated on a scale of check plus, check, and check minus. These designations roughly correspond to the traditional letter grades of A, B, and C. Your overall journal grade will be an average of these assessments, but it will also incorporate other factors such as improvement over time, consistency of effort, etc. I encourage you to meet with me at any time and as frequently as you would like to discuss your entries.

3. Two 5-7 page essays (25%)

In weeks 5 and 11, you will be asked to submit a 5-7 page (double-spaced) essay on an assigned question. These essays will require you to make a critical, insightful, and compelling argument that synthesizes issues raised by at least two readings from previous weeks. Each paper will count for 12.5% of your course grade. Papers will be due by 5pm on Friday, September 29 and Friday, November 10. Unexcused late papers will be penalized one portion of a grade (e.g. an A becomes an A-) for each day late.

4. Final paper (25%)

At the end of the semester, you will write a final paper (15-20 pages) in response to two essay questions that require you to evaluate critically several readings in order to explore central themes of the course. The questions for the final paper will be distributed during class on November 20. Papers will be due in Professor Leshkowich's office on Friday, December 8 by 5 p.m. Unexcused late papers will be penalized one portion of a grade (e.g. an A becomes an A-) for each day late.

Grade Calculation

The 5-7 page essays, final paper, and course grades will be calculated according to a 100-point scale. The grading scale is as follows:

A, 93 and above	C+, 77-79.99
A-, 90-92.99	C, 73-76.99
B+, 87-89.99	C-, 70-72.99
B, 83-86.99	D+, 67-69.99
B-, 80-82.99	D, 60-66.99
	F, 59.99 and below

Office Hours

My office hours are listed at the top of this syllabus, and I encourage you to visit with me during the semester. I am available to discuss specific issues arising from the course, as well as to exchange more general insights and chat about experiences from your studies or my research.

Course Website (http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/aleshkow/fyp/fyp.html)

The website for this course is a center for important information: syllabus, writing assignments, study guide questions, essay questions, and announcements. Please check it frequently and feel free to pass along suggestions for additional links and information which should be included. Also, check out my homepage at:
http://college.holycross.edu/faculty/aleshkow/homepage.html

Readings

The following books (marked with ** on the reading list) are available for purchase at the bookstore:

Postman, Neil. 2005. Amusing Ourselves to Death. Penguin. ISBN: 014303653X (common reading)
Lutz, Catherine and Jane Collins. 1993. Reading National Geographic. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 0226497240
Mead, Margaret. 2001. Coming of Age in Samoa. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. ISBN: 0688050336
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1997 (paperback, 1998). ISBN: 0374525641.
Martin, Emily. 2001 [1987]. The Woman in the Body. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN: 0807046450.
Grant, Bruce. 1995. In the Soviet House of Culture. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 0691044325.

All other readings are available through ERes. The course password is knowledgeculture.

Course Schedule

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW: What is culture? What is knowledge? How do they relate to each other? How much of what we think to be true is a product of our cultural context?

Wednesday, 8/30
Discussion of course themes, organization, and requirements.

Friday, 9/1
Customs, magic, and rationality. Preview of next week's common text
Read: Miner, "Body Ritual among the Nacirema"
Evans-Pritchard, "Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events"
Journal Entry #1 due in class

KNOWLEDGE IN THE AGE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Our first common reading for the year considers how contemporary print and electronic media technologies that determine how we communicate might also shape what we can communicate, and hence what we can know. Is the medium the metaphor? Are the effects of technology universal or do they vary according to culture?

Monday, 9/4
Read: **Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Introductory sections and Part I

Wednesday, 9/6
Read: **Postman, Part II

Thursday, 9/7
Begin e-media fast at 6pm
FYP Talk: Professor Robert Garvey, 7pm, Haberlin 103

Friday, 9/8
Read: Miller, "The Young and the Restless in Trinidad" (article)
End e-media fast at 6pm

Monday, 9/11
Journal Entry #2 (about e-media fast) due
Debate in class on Postman and Miller

CONSTRUCTING KNOWLEDGE OF THE OTHER
Through our discussions of Postman's book, we have started to consider how forms of media might shape what we can know and the extent to which cultural context might alter media messages. But how does the media shape our sense of what cultures are, and of the boundaries between ourselves and others? We will consider the impact of one of the most venerable American magazines on our sense of cultural differences.

Wednesday, 9/13
Read: **Lutz and Collins, Reading National Geographic, chapters 1-3

Friday, 9/15
Read: **Lutz and Collins, chapters 4-6

Monday, 9/18
Read: **Lutz and Collins, chapters 7-9, epilogue
Journal Entry #3 due in class

SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVITY AND THE STUDY OF CULTURE
Margaret Mead, perhaps the most famous anthropologist of the 20th century, viewed the study of other cultures as a way of gaining critical insight on our own notions of what is normal and appropriate. Her earliest work, however, has been accused of taking this goal too far by offering a distorted depiction of Samoan adolescence in order to support her critique of American childrearing and educational practices. How can we make sense of starkly different depictions of a group of people? Can culture and behavior be studied objectively or scientifically? How do our notions and beliefs shape the way we perceive others?

Wednesday, 9/20
We will finish discussing Lutz and Collins (overall argument, methods in chapters 8 and 9, and how Postman might respond to their ideas). We will then turn to the context for Margaret Mead's work in Samoa. In preparation, consider these quotes from Lutz and Collins: "By arguing that people are basically the same under the veneer of culture, National Geographic photography both denies fundamental differences and reifies the cultural boundary that it depicts" (278). "It is the superficial 'humanizing' of others, rather than the empathetic probing of different lifeways, experiences, and interests that creates the crises of understanding that break open at times of war" (283).
Read: **Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa, Preface, Introduction (chapter 1), A Day in Samoa (chapter 2)
Click here for notes on Margaret Mead

Friday, 9/22
Read: **Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa, chapters 3-9 (The Education of the Samoan Child - The Attitude towards Personality)

Monday, 9/25
Read: **Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa, chapters 10-14 (The Experience and Individuality of the Average Girl - Education for Choice)
Journal Entry #4 due in class

Wednesday, 9/27
Read: Derek Freeman, Margaret Mead and Samoa, chapters 16, 19, and 20 (article)
Click here for study guide questions on Freeman.
Movie in class: Margaret Mead and Samoa

Friday, 9/29
Read: review Mead and Freeman and prepare for debate
Optional reading: Shankman, "The History of Samoan Sexual Conduct and the Mead-Freeman Controversy" (article)
Debate in class on the Mead-Freeman controversy

Monday, 10/2
Read: No new reading; review Mead and Freeman
First 5-7 page essay due by 5pm. Your essay should be emailed to: aleshkow@holycross.edu.

SCIENCE, THE BODY, AND POWER
Both Mead and Freeman tend to describe values and behaviors as shared by members of a culture. But can we generalize about individuals within a society? Or is one's perspective shaped by one's position? To explore these questions, we'll first consider Michel Foucault's groundbreaking work on bodies, discipline, and science. How is knowledge implicated in inequality and structures of control? What is power, and how does it operate? How are culture and interpretation implicated in power? Next, we'll read Emily Martin's analysis of how different women's experiences of menstruation, childbirth, and menopause compare to the medical models of these processes offered in textbooks. Is medicine a cultural system? How do issues such as class, race, and age affect one's relationship to dominant models of knowledge? How should we understand culture when its members are so diverse?

Wednesday, 10/4
Read: Foucault, Discipline and Punish, "The Body of the Condemned" (pages 3-31) and "Docile Bodies" (pages 135-169) (article)

Friday, 10/6
Read: Foucault, Discipline and Punish (article), "The Means of Correct Training" and "Panopticism" (pages 170-228)
Journal Entry #5 due in class

Wednesday, 10/11
Read: **Martin, The Woman in the Body
Everybody will read chapters 1, 2, and 5. Those in the menstruation and menopause groups wil read chapter 3, while those in the birth group will read chapter 4.

Thursday, 10/12
Trip to Body Worlds 2 at the Museum of Science, Boston. Bus will leave Holy Cross at 5pm.

Friday, 10/13
Read: **Martin, The Woman in the Body
Everybody will read chapters 11 and 12. The menstruation group will read chapters 6 and 7, the birth group will read chapters 8 and 9, and the menopause group will read chapter 10.
Journal Entry #6 will be due in class on Monday 10/16

SECOND COMMON READING
Monday, 10/16
Read: **Plato, The Republic, Book 1
Journal Entry #6 due in class today

Wednesday, 10/18
Read: **Plato, The Republic, Book 2

Friday, 10/20
Read: **Plato, The Republic, Book 7
Required FYP event: Movie, The Conformist, showings at 3:30pm (Stein 120) and 6pm (Haberlin 103).

Monday, 10/23
Read: No new reading, review The Republic
Required FYP event: Movie, The Conformist, showing at 3:30pm (Stein 120).
Talk by Prof. Vineberg at 7:30 pm, Hanselman Common Room.

Wednesday, 10/25
Class canceled so that you may attend the talk by Dr. Wangari Maathai, founder of the Greenbelt Movement and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. The talk will be in Saint Joseph Memorial Chapel from 11-12:30. You can find out more about Dr. Maathai's work on environment, democracy, and women's rights at http://www.holycross.edu/publicaffairs/features/2006-2007/maathai or at http://greenbeltmovement.org/.

Friday, 10/27
Read: No new reading, review The Republic
Journal Entry #7 due in Prof. Leshkowich's office by 11am

MEDICINE AND SPIRITS
Continuing our consideration of how medical and scientific notions of bodily function and dysfunction might differ from how we experience our bodies, we will explore connections and clashes between "scientific" and "spiritual" or "cultural" conceptions of the body. How do notions of bodily function and dysfunction vary across cultures? Is medical science really distinct or "better" than other belief systems? What is the relationship between the individual body and the social body? How are ideas about bodily experience used to constitute or control communities?

Monday, 10/30
Read: **Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, chapters 1-6

Wednesday, 11/1
Read: **Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, chapters 7-12

Friday, 11/3
Read: **Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, chapters 13-19
Journal Entry #8 due in class

POLITICS AND THE PRODUCTION OF CULTURAL TRADITIONS
Returning to the question of how cultural differences are identified and differences between people assessed, we will consider the particular role of states in creating regimes that classify people. Our case study will focus on how Soviet economic and cultural policies affected both the concrete living conditions and the self-perceived identities of the Nivkhi of Sakhalin Island.

Monday, 11/6
Read: **Grant, In the Soviet House of Culture, chapters 1-3
Study Guide Questions for Grant

Wednesday, 11/8
Read: **Grant, In the Soviet House of Culture, chapters 4-5

Friday, 11/10
Read: **Grant, In the Soviet House of Culture, chapters 6-8
Second 5-7 page essay due Sunday, 11/12 by 11:59 pm

THIRD COMMON READING
Monday, 11/13
Read: **Diamond, Collapse, chapter 7

Wednesday, 11/15
Read: **Diamond, Collapse, chapter 8

Friday, 11/17
Class cancelled (Prof. Leshkowich out of town for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association)

Monday, 11/20
Read: **Berry, "The Gift of Good Land" and "Solving for Pattern"
Journal Entry #9 due in class
Questions for Final Paper will be distributed in class.

POLITICIZED CULTURAL MEANINGS: GENDER AND VEILING
To many in North America and Western Europe, veiling signifies women's subordination among the Islamic populations who practice it. If this is the case, why are many educated, modern women choosing to wear the veil, a garment that their mothers might have rejected just one generation ago? What multiple meanings surround veiling, and how can they be interpreted? Can an item of clothing be used politically to challenge cultural perceptions? To oppress? With what effects?

Monday, 11/27
Read: el Guindi, Veil, chapters 10-12, pages 161-185 (article)
Movie in class: Under One Sky: Arab Women in North America Talk about Hijab

Wednesday, 11/29
Read: Brenner, "Reconstructing Self and Society: Javanese Muslim Women and 'the Veil'"(article)

Friday, 12/1
Read: Abu-Lughod, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others" (article)
Journal Entry #10 due in class

For more information, contact: aleshkow@holycross.edu