ANTH 591-V
Syllabus
Marc L. Moskowitz
Office: HM
209
Tel: (803) 777-1536
Office Hours: T/Th 2:00-3:30 and by appointment.
E-mail:
moskowit@gwm.sc.edu
Web Page: http://people.cas.sc.edu/moskowitz
Classroom:
Hamilton 318
Time: T/Th 12:30-1:45
Course Description
This course will cover a range of
theoretical issues concerning visual anthropology in relation to mass media and
new technologies. This will include an examination of the presentation of
cultures in advertising, cinema, ethnographic film, photography, television,
and on the internet. We will also address cultures that are produced
with these mediums including internet communities, the shifting narratives
and methodologies in ethnographic film production, and visual
representation as a means of invented traditions.
Adrian, Bonnie. 2003. Framing the Bride: Globalizing Beauty and Romance in Taiwan's Bridal Industry. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ginsburg, Faye, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Brian Larkin. 2002. Media Worlds: Anthropology on New Terrain. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Articles
Grade Points and Requirements
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Student Presentations |
50 |
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Attendance and Participation |
100 |
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3 two-page Papers |
100 points each |
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Midterm |
250 |
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Final Exam |
300 |
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Total Possible Points |
1000 |
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Attendance
Everyone is allowed four absences. I assume that they will be for a good reason so you do not have to tell me why you miss class. Be careful, though. This does not mean that you have two days to skip class and then I will give you extra days if you have a doctor’s note—these two days are to cover medical and other emergencies. Coming late to two classes equals one absence.
Movies and Documentaries
The films may appear on the exams. If you miss class it is your responsibility to get notes from a classmate and/or try to see it. I will put the films on library reserve but I cannot guarantee that you will be able to see them at the library. I do not lend my movies out. I also reserve the right to show a movie on a day other than the one it is scheduled for. Attendance is therefore important in this way as well.
Learning Outcomes
Upon the successful completion of the
course, the student will:
Recognize and
apply basic anthropological terminology and concepts.
Have a
command of the most important theoretical approaches in visual anthropology.
Understand
the methodology of ethnographic film.
Understand
the ethical dimensions of ethnographic film.
Recognize the
interdependency of technology and culture.
Recognize the
defining characteristics of different kinds of societies.
Understand
the affects of the modern world on traditional cultures, including our own.
Academic Honesty
In order to protect the majority of students who are honest, anyone who is caught cheating will flunk the class (not just the assignment) and I will report him or her to the dean.
Reading Schedule
You should complete
the readings before class on the days that they are
assigned.
Th
8/21
Introduction—No
assigned reading for today
T 8/26
Fiske, John. [1987] 2001. "Intertextuality." In Popular Culture: Production
and Consumption, ed. C. Lee Harrington, and Denise D. Bielby, 219-233. New York:
Blackwell Publishers.
Th 8/28
Dibbell, Julian. 1993. "A Rape in Cyberspace; or How an Evil Clown, a
Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database
into a Society." Village Voice. December 21: 36-42.
T 9/2
Documentary—Nanook
of the North.(Robert Flaherty, dir. 1922. 55 min.)
Becker, Howard S. 1974. "Art as Collective Action." American Sociological
Review 39.
Th 9/4 Paper 1 Due
Medhurst, Andy. 1991. "Batman, Deviance, and Camp." In The Many Lives
of Batman: Critical Approaches to a Superhero and His Media, ed.
Roberta E. Pearson and William Uricchio, pp. New York: Routledge.
and
Allen, Robert C. 1983. "On Reading Soaps: A Semiotic Primer." In Regarding
Television, ed. E. Ann Kaplan. Frederick, MD: University Publications of
America.
T 9/9 Student Presentations
Baudrillard, Jean. 1985. "The
Masses: The Implosion of the Social in the Media." New Literary History:
On Writing Histories of Literature 16(3): 577-589.
and
Collier, John Jr. "Photography and Visual Anthropology." [1974] 2003. In
Principles of Visual Anthropology, ed. Paul Hockings, 481-491. New York:
Mouton de Gruyter.
Th 9/11
Sontag, Susan. [1973] 1977. On Photography, 3-24. New York:
Picador.
T 9/16
Framing the Bride.
Introduction.
Framings.
Framing the Bride.
Chapter 1. How
Can This Be? Ethnographic Contexts and History.
Th 9/18 Student Presentations
Framing the Bride.
Chapter 2. Fantasy for Sale:
The Modern Bridal Industry.
Framing the Bride.
Chapter 3. Inner and Outer Worlds in Changing Taipei.
T 9/23 Student Presentations
Framing the Bride.
Chapter 4. Family Wedding
Rites and Banquets.
Th 9/25 Student Presentations
Framing the Bride.
Chapter 5. Making Up the
Bride.
and
Framing the Bride.
Chapter 6. Romance in
the Photo Studio.
T 9/30
Framing the Bride.
Chapter 7. Contextualizing
Bridal Photos in Taiwan's Visual Culture.
and
Framing the Bride.
Chapter 8. The Context of Looking: What Taipei Viewers See.
and
Framing the Bride.
Conclusion. Reframings.
Th 10/2
Midterm
T 10/7
Documentary—!Nai
Hendry, Joy. 1997. "Pine, Ponds and Pebbles: Gardens and Visual Culture." In
Rethinking Visual Anthropology, ed. Marcus Banks and Morphy, 240-255. New
Haven: Yale University Press.
and
D.P. Martinez. "Burlesquing Knowledge: Japanese Quiz Shows and Models of
Knowledge." In Rethinking Visual Anthropology, ed. Marcus Banks and
Morphy, 105-119. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Th 10/9 No Class—Fall Break
T 10/14 Student
Presentations
Appadurai, Arjun. [1990] 1996. "Disjunctures and Difference in the Global
Cultural Economy." In Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimension of Globalization,
Arjun Appadurai, 27-47. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Th 10/16 Student Presentations
Rofel, Lisa. 1999. "Museum as Women's Space: Displays
of Gender in Post-Mao China." In Spaces of
Their Own: Women's Public Sphere in Transnational China, ed. Mayfair Mei-hui
Yang, 116-132. Minnesota: The University of Minnesota Press.
T 10/21
Movie—Ten Canoes (Rolf de Heer and
Peter Djigirr, dir. 2006. 90 min.)
Metcalf, Peter. "Hulk Hogan in the Rainforest." In Global Goes Local: Popular
Culture in Asia, ed. Timothy J. Craig and Richard King, 15-24. Vancouver:
USB Press.
Th 10/23 Paper 2
Due
Pollock, Griselda. 2003. "Holocaust Tourism: Being There, Looking
Back and the Ethics of Spatial Memory." In Visual Culture and Tourism,
ed. David Crouch and Nina Lübbren,
175-189. New York: Berg Press.
T 10/28 Student Presentations
Media Worlds.
Chapter 1. Faye D. Ginsburg—Screen
Memories: Resignifying the Traditional in Indigenous Media.
and
Media
World. Chapter 2. Harald E. L. Prins—Visual
Media and the Primitivist Perplex: Colonial Fantasies, Indigenous Imagination,
and Advocacy in North America.
Th 10/30
Student Presentations
Media Worlds. Chapter 3. Terence Turner—Representation,
Politics, and Cultural Imagination in Indigenous Video: General Points and
Kayapo Examples.
T 11/4
Documentary—Onka's Big Moka
Media Worlds.
Chapter 4. Meg McLagan—Spectacles
of Difference: Cultural Activism and the Mass Mediation of Tibet.
and
Media Worlds. Chapter 5. Lila Abu-Lughod—Egyptian
Melodrama--Technology of the Modern
Subject?
Th 11/6 Paper 3
Due
Media Worlds. Chapter 6. Purnima Mankekar—Epic
Contests: Television and Religious Identity in India.
T 11/11
Student Pesentations
Media Worlds.
Chapter
7. Annette Hamilton—The
National Picture: Thai Media and Cultural Identity.
and
Media Worlds.
Chapter 8.
Richard R.
Wilk—Television, Time, and the National Imaginary in Belize.
Th 11/13 Student
Presentations
Media Worlds.
Chapter
9. Mayfair Mei-hui
Yang—Mass Media and Transnational Subjectivity in Shanghai: Notes on (Re)Cosmopolitanism
in a Chinese Metropolis.
T
11/18 Movie—Water. (Deepha Mehta, dir.
2006. 117 min.)
Media Worlds. Chapter 10. Ruth Mandel—A
Marshal Plan of the Mind: The Political Economy of a Kazakh Soap Opera.
and
Media Worlds.
Chapter 13. Arlene Dávila—Culture
in the Ad World: Producing the Latin Look.
Th 11/20
Media Worlds. Chapter 14.
Tejaswini Ganti—And
yet My Heart is Still Indian": The Bombay Film Industry and the (H)Indianization
of Hollywood.
T 11/25
Media Worlds. Chapter 15. Jeff D. Himpele—Arrival
Scenes: Complicity and Media Ethnography in the Bolivian Public Sphere.
and
Media Worlds. Chapter 16. Brian
Larkin—The Materiality of Cinema Theaters in Northern Nigeria.
11/26-11/30 No Class—Thanksgiving Break
T 12/2
Media Worlds. Chapter 19. Mark Hobart—Live
or Dead? Televising Theater in Bali.
Th 12/4 No Reading Today—time for review.
Final Exam—Thursday December 11. 2:00 pm.