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-~~DECKJS~~
-# We are all anthropologists now #
-## We are all anthropologists now ##
-Ryan Schram
-October 2015
-ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
-Mills 169 (A26)
-Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/1002/13.1
-With help from Terry Woronov, Emma Young and the ANTH 1002 tutors.
-## An introduction ##
-This class is an introduction to cultural anthropology. Anthropology
-is a study of humanity in all of its diversity.
-Cultural anthropology examines this diversity through the lens of
-culture.
-To understand many contemporary issues, you need to understand culture
-and how culture influences how people think and act.
-## Anthropology, the major ##
-Major requirements are:
-* ANTH 1002 and 1001 (next offered in Summer 2014 and Sem 1 2015).
-* At least one unit (six credits) in each of the areas of the major,
-  regional, thematic, and theoretical-methodological.
-* A total of 36 credits of senior units (6 senior units).
-* One of the 3000-level units, Reading Ethnography or Contemporary Theory.
-Students intending to take honours must have a 70 average and also
-take both 3000-level units.
-Your major pathway commences here:
-http://sydney.edu.au/arts/anthropology/undergrad/major.shtml
-## Thinking about culture ##
-Culture is a system of ideas and values which people acquire from
-their social environment. It shapes how they see, think and act. It
-surrounds the person. Culture is like water for a fish.
-* What is normal for me, is strange for someone from another culture.
-* To understand someone's cultural system, we have to see it from
-  their viewpoint, not ours.
-## Learning to see culture is hard ##
-Many people make a few big mistakes about the concept of culture
-* "Everyone else is influenced by their culture, but I am not."
-* "Most cultures of the world have already died out, for better or worse."
-* "Every culture eventually loses its distinctive traditions and
-  becomes modern."
-All of these ideas are wrong.
-## Culture is everywhere and everything ##
-Anthropologists believe everything we do is determined by our implicit
-cultural background.
-* Gift economies are a type of culture. Capitalism is another type of
-  culture.
-* Basket-weaving is a cultural practice. Post-Fordist flexible labor
-  is a cultural practice.
-* Wearing a headscarf is a cultural practice. Wearing sunglasses is a
-  cultural practice. Wearing a T-shirt is a cultural practice. Buying
-  secondhand clothes is a cultural practice.
-## Put another way ##
-As Terry Woronov said in her 2013 review of this class:
-"Globalization does not wipe out difference--it **produces** new
-dynamics that sustain difference, and **enables the ongoing
-reproduction of difference**."
-## And another thing ##
-Terry also says:
-"Globalization
-and many kinds of social changes are **made possible** by the fact
-that we all live in societies which have a cultural coherence."
-## The themes of this class ##
-* Circulation
-* Commodification
-* Production
-* Modernity
-* Moral and utilitarian domains
-## Circulation ##
-**Circulation**: If the world is globalizing, what are the things that
-move from place to place? What roles do they play in shaping and
-giving an order to the lives of people in specific places, and how do
-the structures of local societies influence global circulation.
-## Commodification ##
-**Commodification**: What is the commodity? If the exchange of commodities
-is not a natural law, then what are the other kinds of economic
-systems besides capitalism? How is capitalism instituted and
-established? What kinds of tensions and contradictions exist within
-capitalist systems; that is, where can we see the persistence of
-alternative kinds of value in the market-based society?
-## Production ##
-**Production**: If labor is a commodity, what kind of a social
-relationship does a worker have to a boss? If production can be
-globalized in the shift from Fordism to post-Fordism, what changes in
-this social relationship enable this to happen?
-## Modernity ##
-**Modernity**: Most people think modernity is easy to define. It's the
-opposite of tradition. Well, we hope we have convinced you that it's
-much more complicated. You cannot define modernity as an either-or
-proposition.
-If that is so, and modernity is not simply progress, then we must ask
-what it is. What are the kinds of social relationships and forms of
-personhood that we can find in the global city, in the post-Fordist
-factory, in churches or mosques, or in the shopping centre or movie
-theatre? What are the cultural traits that most people call 'modern'?
-## Moral and utilitarian domains ##
-**Moral and utilitarian domains**: Talking about modernity, capitalism and
-globalization often feels like a morally-charged debate. Everyone
-wants to take a stand. What stances do people take? (Consider the
-polar opposites that our culture teaches us to use to define
-modernity.) Based on readings about actual people's lives, we saw that
-these stances actually represent different spheres of life, or moral
-and utilitarian domains. And based on these readings, we also saw that
-most people really live in between moral and utilitarian domains and
-constantly have to manage the conflicts and make compromises.
-## Everything is mixed ##
-Categories are not dichotomous; Many opposites are actually co-present.
-* Tradition / modernity
-* Developed / undeveloped
-* Custom / rationality
-* Gift / commodity
-* Love / money
-## The snake and the mongoose ##
-Once upon a time there was a snake and a mongoose...
-{{:snake.mongoose.jpg|}}
-Many opposites - values, ideas, institutions - are not binary,
-either-or. They are contradictions and they exist in an ambiguous
-tension which is both a source of conflict but also creativity.
-## Over to you ##
-What questions do you have for me?
-What items do you want me to present on Wednesday?
-## Reference ##
-Lacock, Hennie. 2013. Cobra and Mongoose. Caters New Agency. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2013-10/29/132841640_11n.jpg.
-## A guide to the unit ##
-{{page>1002guide}}

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