ANTHROPOLOGY 322: WRITING ABOUT CULTURE

Dr. Paul Aspelin
Office: Chester Building 146; Phone: 687-2167 (secretary, 687-2414)

Introduction.

This course is designed to help students learn about anthropology and develop their writing skills in a one-to-one context with the professor and in a small-group context in class. The emphasis is on style, organization, and writing for proper effect. The course is not designed as a repeat of basic English and does not dwell on such things as spelling and punctuation, which it assumes you have already mastered.

We will be reading five books which show different styles of writing about culture. ~ It may be difficult to find them in a library. In the order in which we will read them, they are:

1. Benedict, Ruth. PATTERNS OF CUL TURB. Houghton-Mifllin. 2. Lewis, Oscar. FIVE FAMILIES. Basic/Harper.

3. Femea, Elizabeth & Robert Femea. NUBIAN ETHNOGRAPHIES. Waveland Press. 4. Wolf, Margery. A THRICE-TOLD TALE. Stanford.

5. Querry, Ronald. THE DEATH OF BERNADETTE LEFTHAND. Bantam.

None of these was written as a textbook. Their purpose is to show different ways to write about culture other than the purely academic, with which you are probably already too familiar.

For each book, you will be asked to write a 5-page paper. The format will vary for each one; you may be asked to write about the book or some topic it raises, in the style of the author, or in a differing, contrastive style, etc. There may also be some short writing assignments, some to be done in class, some outside. Some of these papers may be read (after your name has been removed) by your classmates.

I will critique and return each of these papers. Each then must be rewritten and resubmitted within the time frame specified, as many times as necessary until all of my suggestions and/or criticisms have been dealt with satisfactorily. Your course grade will then be based on the average of the grades for these 5-page papers.

The class will meet as a group once or twice a week, as necessary, with the remainder of our meetings devoted to individual student-teacher conferences. It is imperative that you attend all class meetings and conferences and keep up with the rest of the class. If you miss a class, please call a colleague to obtain necessary information regarding assignments, schedules, etc., all of which are subject to change.

READING ASSIGNMENTS:

Benedict: Foreword, Preface, Acknowledgements; Ch. 1,2,4,5

~: Acknowledgements, Introduction, Foreward; The Setting; the Martinez Family; the Castro Family; plus ~ a/the Gomez, Gutierrez, or Sanchez Families

Fernea & Fernea: Entire

Querry: Entire

Schedule:

1/2 Benedict -- -- W & F, 1/21 & 1/23; M & F 1/26 & 1/30 3 -- Benedict -- F, 2/6

4/5 Lewis -- Benedict F, 2/13 & F, 2/20 6 -- Lewis (B2) F, 2/27

7/8 Femea -- Lewis F,3/5 & F, 3/12 Spring Break: 3/15 - 3/19

9 -- Femea (L2) F, 3/26

10/11 Wolf -- Femea F, 4/2 & F, 4/9 12 -- Wolf (F2) F,4/16

13 Bernadette -- Wolf F,4/23

14 -- Bernadette (W2) F,4/30

15 -- -- Bernadette F, 5/7