Course syllabus

 Economy and Culture

Anthro 242

2^nd Semester 2016

 

Convenor: Dr. Peter Chaudhry  ( email: p.chaudhry@auckland.ac.nz)

Course Director: Dr. Phyllis Herda ( email: p.herda@auckland.ac.nz)

 

Contact and Office Hours

Peter’s office hour is Monday 4.30pm – 5.30pm, or by appointment. You do not need to make an appointment to see him during his office hour—just drop by! You can also see him at other times by making an appointment. Email is the preferred method of communication.

Lectures

This course meets on:

Tuesdays, 4-6pm, in Room 303-G16 (Science, Maths & Physics Building, Room G16)

Thursdays, 5-6pm, in Room 201E-704 (Human Sciences Building East, Room 704)

It is important that you attend all lectures as some will be illustrated with photographs and films which will not be available outside class meetings. It is also important that students come prepared to talk, as discussing ideas is an important part of student learning.

Although there are no formal tutorials in this course, there will be time set aside each week for questions and discussion during the lectures. The second hour of the Tuesday session will also be an opportunity for students to talk, work together, and discuss their ideas. It is very important that you keep up with the readings, so that you are in a position to ask questions and participate fully in these discussions. 

Course Content

This course examines selected aspects of production, exchange and consumption from a comparative perspective. Among the topics we will study are cultural understandings of land, technology and work; concepts of poverty and inequality; similarities and differences between gifts and commodities; forms of reciprocity and redistribution; money; spheres of exchange; markets; and connections between power and material conditions of life. The relation between gender, ethnicity and economy will be addressed throughout the course. The course will also consider cultural metaphors in terms of which people in different societies describe their economies and the implications of such metaphors for anthropological understanding of economic life, including the appropriateness of economic models developed in capitalist societies for the understanding of non-capitalist societies.

Although case studies and examples will be drawn from across the globe, particular focus will be placed on Southeast Asia and, to a lesser extent, the Pacific. Many examples will be drawn from Peter’s recent ethnographic fieldwork in the uplands of northern Vietnam, a region with a rich and diverse cultural heritage and with a similarly complex and ongoing relationship with processes of economic development.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of the course, students are expected to:

• understand the relationship between culture and economy;
• recognise the cultural bases of economic concepts;
• understand the various ways in which people make a living;
• be able to identify various types of reciprocity and redistribution;
• understand the ways in which economic activities and concepts are embedded in social relations; and
• understand the significance of culturally-specific ideas of the person for economic activities.

Reading

Reading and writing are amongst the most important skills that students need to develop during their university educations. They are the means through which students acquire new knowledge and make it their own.

Readings for the course are listed in the Lecture Programme below. In some lectures we will deal directly with course readings, but in other lectures we will not. It is your responsibility to read the readings assigned for each lecture before that lecture. All readings are available on Canvas.

Assessment

You will be assessed on the basis of three items of written work—two essays and an examination. The relative weightings of these components are as follows:

Essay Proposal (500 words)      10%         Due Friday, 19 August at 3pm

Essay (2,000 words)                   40%         Due Friday, 30 September at 3pm

Final Exam (2 hours)                 40%         Date, time and place to be announced

Participation                               10%        Participating regularly in discussion

A list of essay questions will be posted on Canvas, as an assignment sheet.

The Department of Anthropology’s General Guide to Essay Writing is available on the course Canvas page. Your essays must conform to the conventions outlined in that guide for citations, references, and other matters. Your grade will be reduced if you do not conform to these conventions.

You must hand in your course work by the dates and times given above. If you are going to be late, contact the convenor. Extensions must be requested before the due date. We will accept late course work without penalty provided we have granted an extension and the essay is accompanied by an adequate and documented explanation. Essays not accompanied by such explanations or for which we have not given an extension will be penalized at the rate of one point (i.e. 1% of your final grade) per day (including weekends and holidays).

Information about the final exam will be distributed in the penultimate week of lectures.

Please note that all assessments in this course are compulsory. To pass the course, you must submit the essay proposal and the essay, and you must take the final exam. If you do not, you will receive a DNC.

The participation component of assessment can be earned by contributing regularly to class discussions in a way that demonstrates you have read and thought about the readings for the week. It is important that students develop the ability to express their thoughts in a coherent way, and this assessment component is designed to reflect student’s progress towards this goal. Please note that you will be assessed on demonstrating effort in participating in discussions, listening and reflecting on the thoughts of others, not simply on attendance.

Plagiarism

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student’s own work, reflecting his or her learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the world-wide web.

In this course, both coursework assessments must be submitted to Turnitin.com, an electronic plagiarism detection service. Instructions on how to use Turnitin.com will be provided with the assignments.

Your attention is also drawn to the University of Auckland’s position on Academic Honesty and Plagiarism and to specific guidelines for the Conduct of Coursework and Conduct of Research. This information can be found on the University’s web site at:

http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/about/teaching/plagiarism/plagiarism_home.cfm

Academic Problems

Please contact the course convenor, Peter Chaudhry, in the first instance, if you are having problems with any aspect of this course. Peter will be happy to see you and help you get the most out of this course. The Course Director, Phyllis Herda, is also available to discuss any problems you may be having. We can be most helpful if you see us when you first have a problem, before the problem gets too big. We are also happy to see you if you are not having a problem, but would just like to discuss any aspect of the course.

Help can also be obtained from Student Learning Services, which facilitates the development of effective learning and performance skills in students and helps those who encounter difficulties in their studies. Student Learning Services offers support to students in a wide range of areas through workshops, one-on-one consultation and online courses.

There are also special programmes such as Te Fale Pouāwhina for Māori and Pacific students, and an English language enrichment programme. International students whose first language is not English can find help there.

The website is http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/services/student-learning . Check it out!

 

ANTHRO 242: Economy and Culture lecture schedule

Week No.	Week   beginning	Tuesday 4-6 PM	Thursday 5-6 PM	Required reading	Notes
1	18-Jul	What is economic anthropology?	Theory in economic anthropology	Altman 2009 Gregory & Altman 1989, Gudeman 2001	Election of student representative, Thurs 21 July
2	25-Jul	Video: To find the Baruya story	Culture, labour and exchange in upland Southeast Asia: Zomia and it’s critics.	Godelier 1977 Scott 2009, Lieberman 2010
3	1-Aug	Moral economy versus political economy	Production	Scott 1976, Popkin 1979 Walker 2012, Turner 2012
4	8-Aug	Land	Gifts and reciprocity	Kawharu 1977, Li 2014 Malinowski 1962, Li 2014
5	15-Aug	Commodities	Markets	Kopytoff 1986, Stengs 2005 Alexander 1987, Fairhead 1992	Essay proposal due Friday 19th August 3pm
6	22-Aug	Video: Black harvest	Poverty and Inequality	Sturgeon 2011, or Collins 2000 Gros 2011, Chaudhry 2016
MID-SEMESTER STUDY PERIOD
7	12-Sep	Money	Work	Zelizer 1989, Geismar 2004 Schwimmer 1979, Minh 2015 or Bourgois 2003
8	19-Sep	Consumption and desire	Globalisation	High 2014, Mills 1997 Appadurai 1996, Stoller 2002
9	26-Sep	Fashion and Globalisation (Maureen Molloy)	Tourism and the commodification of culture	Molloy & Larner 2013 MacClncey 2002, Swain 2011	Essay due Friday, 30th September, 3pm.
10	3-Oct	Video: Cannibal Tours	Missionaries and work discipline (Christine Dureau)	Thompson 1967
11	10-Oct	The Project	Financialisation, crisis and the precariat	High 2014, Walker 2012 Blim 2012, Standing 2011
12	17-Oct	Tie up lecture and reflection on the themes of the course	Course recap and revision clinic for exam	Miller 2004	Friday 21 October lectures end
	24-Oct				Exams - 27 Oct - 14 Nov. Final exam date to be announced.