ANT208 – Summer 2012ANT208 – Summer 2012
The Cool Culture Soul Machine: The Anthropology of Everyday Life
The Cool Culture Soul
Machine:
The Anthropology of Everyday Life
University of Toronto
Time-space: Mon/Wed 11AM-1PM, CC1140
(no tutorials)
Instructor’s
office: HSC 354; Office hours: Thurs, 1-3PM.
"Virtual office hours" online at Blackboard: always glad to answer
questions on our Blackboard discussion board.
This course will
introduce students to culture and social theory via the lens of popular
culture. Commodities, advertising, and new technologies will be
considered in light of their cultural content. The course may consider
the marketing of identities, gender, sexualities, bodies, ethnicity,
religion, and ideology, as well as resistance.
This course requires a good deal of reading. If you
are unable to read a lot for this class, you should consider dropping
the course. If you miss a quiz, there will not be a make-up. No
make-ups, that is, except for medical emergencies and religious
holidays (as approved by diversity officer on campus). Attendance in all lectures is strongly recommended. .
Course texts:
· Nearly all of our texts will be provided to students at no charge, on Blackboard, or via Internet links. Students are required to print texts and bring the day’s reading to class.
· Recommended book for purchase: Mackey, Eva, 2002 [1998]. The House of Difference: Cultural Politics and National Identity in Canada. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press. (We will read many pages of this book, but pages will also be available for viewing on Blackboard.)
________________________________________
*
Reading is to be done by the start of class.
* Read both text and illustrations, except as noted.
* Do not fall behind. The reading is too challenging and
extensive to cram before an exam. When you have done your reading you
will have a far greater comprehension of the lectures.
* Please bring the day’s assigned readings to class.
SUMMER SESSION 2011
May 7: What is a university?
Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS). 1962. Excerpt from Port Huron Statement, Port Huron, Michigan.
(about 7 pages).
Penny, Laurie. 2010. "This isn't just a student protest. It's a children's crusade." The
Guardian. 24 Nov. 2010. (about 2 pages)
Petsko, Gregory A. 2010. "A Faustian Bargain." Genome Biology 2010, 11:138
(3
pages)
(also
on Blackboard).
Couldry, Nick and Angela McRobbie. 2010. "Death of a University, English Style," Culture
Machine. Nov. 2010. (posted on Blackboard).
Key, Tony. 2010. "The Betrayal of the Academic Enterprise,"
University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA), August 30, 2010.
(about 3 pages)
Video, for class:
"Second wave of student protests begins" The Guardian, 24 Nov 2010. (5 minutes)
Optional
videos:
Hedges, Chris. 2010. "Death
of the Liberal Class," lecture given at The Sanctuary
for Independent Media, Troy, NY, October 15, 2010. (about 45 mins)
Democracy Now! 2012. "On
Strike:
Quebec
Students
Boycott Classes for 12 Weeks To Protest
Proposed Tuition Hikes," Monday May 7, 2012.
Optional reading:
Klein, Naomi. 2000. "The Branding of Learning: Ads in Schools and Universities," pp. 87-106; chapter 4 in No Logo. NY: Picador. [Be careful to print only what you need! Use Print Preview and select a limited number of pages, before printing. Otherwise, you will print the entire book!]
May 9: What is a "Canadian"?
Mackey, Eva, 2002 [1998]. "Settling the West: gentle Mounties and picturesque 'Indians'," pp. 34-7, in The House of Difference: Cultural Politics and National Identity in Canada. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press. (posted to Blackboard)
Mackey, Eva, 2002 [1998]. "The Land as Unifier of Diversity," pp. 74-6, in The House of Difference: Cultural Politics and National Identity in Canada. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press. (Available on Blackboard)
Woodcock, George. 1988. Selected pages from "The Earliest Immigrants" and "The Moment of History," chapters, 1 and 2 in A Social History of Canada. Markham, ON: Viking. (Available on Blackboard)
Cormack, Patricia. 2008. "'True
Stories'
of
Canada:
Tim Horton's and the Branding of National Identity." Cultural
Sociology, 2.3:369-384. [Or here.]
http://www.telefilm.gc.ca/en/catalogues/production/first-canadians (just skim the web page)
Videos, for class:
The first Canadians? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_dr0ZVRvR0 (History of Canada)
Claiming the land:
http://www.videopediaworld.com/video/42095/Canada-A-Peoples-History--Jacques-Cartier (A People’s History of Canada)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjXtTks9XxY (Ray Mears)
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. n/d. [Old sign-off from CBC broadcasts.].
Molson Beer, "The Rant."
Tim Horton’s = Canada. http://youtu.be/RlYfqSDJ6ig
Tim Horton’s = military patriotism, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwgb2BCpfyU
First Nations boy, before/after http://www.skeptic.ca/Native_Residential_SChools.htm
Optional reading:
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. "Cultural Roots,' pp. 9-36, in Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism, revised edition. NY: Verso. (Available on Blackboard)
May 14: What is an "Indian"? What is "wilderness?"
Cronon, William. 2003 [1983]. "Bounding the
Land," chapter 4 in Changes in the Land, Revised
edition, pp. 54-81. NY: Hill & Wang. [posted on Blackboard]
Mackey, Eva, 2002 [1998]. "Northern wilderness and settler
national identity," pp. 40-9, in The House of Difference: Cultural
Politics and National Identity in Canada. Toronto:
Univ.
of
Toronto
Press.
(posted
to Blackboard)
Mackey, Eva, 2002 [1998]. "Making the Indians Ethnic," pp. 60-3, in The House of Difference: Cultural Politics and National Identity in Canada.Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press. (posted to Blackboard)
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. 1953 [1935]. "The Tall Indian," pp. 226-37
and "Indian War-Cry," pp. 286-301 in Little House on the Prairie.
NY:
Harper-Collins.(posted
on
Blackboard)
Berenstain, Stan and Jan. 2006. "The Berenstain
Bears Out West," pp. 21-5. NY: Harper-Collins. (posted on
Blackboard)
Optional videos:
· Popular images of "Indians" in films.
· Excerpts from "The Searchers." For example, these scenes and "Behind the scenes." And a contemporary critique of representation in the Searchers and its "Behind the Scenes."
Optional reading:
Francis, Daniel. 1992. The Imaginary Indian: The Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp.
Day, Richard R. F. 2000. "The First Others of the New World," and "Conversion and Extermination: The Cases of the Huron and the Iroquois," pp. 75-84 in Multiculturalism and the history of Canadian diversity. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press. (to be posted on Blackboard)
May 16. Who is modern (and who is not)?
Peterson, Mark Allen. 2011. “Making Kids Modern: Agency and Identity in Arabic Children’s Magazines,” cha. 2 from Connected in Cairo: Growing Up Cosmopolitan in the Modern Middle East. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, pp. 29-60 [posted on Blackboard].
Williams, Rosalynd. “Dream Worlds of Consumption.” [posted on Blackboard], pp. 187-93
Optional Reading:
Chandler, Daniel. 2007. "Denotation, Connotation, and Myth," Semiotics for Beginners, 2nd edition. NY: Routledge.
May 21 Victoria Day. No
class.
May 23. What is Old Spice? (or, Why do boys put odoriferous chemicals in their armpits?)
Chandler, Daniel. 2007. "Encoding/Decoding," chapter from Semiotics for Beginners. 2nd edition. NY: Routledge.
Khosravi, Shahram. 2008. “A Passage to Modernity: Golestan," pp. 91-121, in Young and Defiant in Tehran. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania. [posted on Blackboard]
Videos (about a minute each), to watch in class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLTIowBF0kE (Old
Spice
ad,
2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE (Old
Spice
ad,
2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBeP8yc5P64
(Old
Spice
ad,
1971)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL5S6cm7J5g
(3
Old
Spice
ads from the 1970s)
Taio
Cruz, "Dynamite. (A commercial before the commercial? A
commercial within the commercial?)
Hall, Stuart.
1997. "Stuart Hall: Representation and the Media." (first 1/2
hour). Media Education Foundation.
Optional MP3 audio:
Jhally, Sut. 2002. "Advertising and the End of the World," MP3,
lecture given at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC; March 1,
2002. (1 hour).
Optional video:
Jhally, Sut. Advertising and the End of the World. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XLAheQ7hY
Jhally, Sut. “Dreamworlds
3”
(on
YouTube)
(about
music
videos and sexism)
May 28: Midterm
Exam
2
hrs. True/false, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, short
essays. The 'objective' questions will mostly check to see that
you did the reading and comprehended it, and that you attended the
lectures, took notes, and comprehended the lecture content. The
short essays will ask students to utilize and apply their knowledge.
May 30: What is a hamburger?
Hanrahan, Karen. 2008, "1996 McDonald's Hamburger." The
Best of Mother Earth. http://bestofmotherearth.com/
Clark, Dylan. 2002. "The Hamburger." St. James Encyclopedia of
Popular Culture.
Clark, Dylan. 2004. "The
Raw
and
the
Rotten:
Punk
Cuisine," Ethnology, Vol. 43,
No. 1 (Winter, 2004), pp. 19-31.
Yates-Doerr, Emily. 2012. "Meeting the demand for meat?" Anthropology Today, vol. 28, no.
1: 11-5. (Blackboard)
Kelley, Robin D. G. 1996. "OGs in Post-Industrial Los Angeles," excerpt
from "Writing Black Working Class History from Way Way Below," Race
Rebels:
Culture,
Politics,
and the Black Working Class. (As
reprinted in Duncombe, Stephen. 2002. Cultural Resistance
Reader. NY: Verso, pp. 96-9). [posted on Blackboard].
Film for class:
Kenner,
Robert. 2008. "Food, Inc." LA: Magnolia Pictures (excerpts).
“The Meatrix”
http://www.themeatrix.com
Optional video:
InformInc. 2010. "The Secret Life of Beef." NY: InformInc. (about 6 minutes)
June 4: What are the commons?
Banksy. (No date). Quote: "People
are
taking the piss out of you everyday."
Chang, Ha-Joon. 2010. "Thing
1: There is no such thing as a free market," IN Chang, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About
Capitalism. NY: Bloomsbury, pp. 1-10. [Blackboard]
Darlington, Susan M. 2011.
"The Ordination of a Tree: The Buddhist Ecology Movement in Thailand,"
IN Kathleen M. Adams and Kathleen A. Gillogly (eds.), Everyday Life in Southeast Asia,
Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, pp. 154-64. [posted on Blackboard]
Klein, Naomi. 2001. “Reclaiming the Commons.” Talk
presented at Center for Social Theory & Comparative History, UCLA,
April 1, 2001. http://ethicalpolitics.org/blackwood/klein.htm
Tierney, John. 2009. “The non tragedy of the commons,” The New York Times. http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/the-non-tragedy-of-the-commons/ (a page or two long)
Videos for class:
Banksy et al. "Exit Through the
Gift Shop", (First 30 mins.)
Optional video:
Ostrum, Eleanor. 2010. "Sustainable
development
and the tragedy of the commons," Stockholm whiteboard
seminar. Ostrum is the 2009 Nobel laureate in Economics and
discussed in Tierney.
June 6: What is a "White" person?
Chang, Ha-Joon. 2008. "Lazy Japanese and
thieving Germans," IN Chang, Bad
Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of
Capitalism. NY: Bloomsbury, pp. 182-202. [Blackboard]
McIntosh, Peggy. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack."
(about
3
pages)
Mackey, Eva, 2002 [1998]. "White locality," pp. 91-5, in The House of Difference: Cultural
Politics and National Identity in Canada. Toronto: Univ.
of Toronto Press. ([Blackboard]
Wise, Tim. 2008. "This is Your Nation on White Privilege (Updated)," www.timwise.org.
(a
couple
of
pages long)
Videos to watch during class:
The original Budweiser commercial about the "truth" of Blackness.
Budweiser's
parallel
ad
about
the "truth" of Whiteness (without due
respect to the non-White actor).
The
same actors, get together, 8 years later, to support Obama's
campaign for US President.
Eddie
Murphy
goes undercover as a White man
Into Darkest Austria
June 11: What is a groove?
Lipsitz, George. 1994 [2002].
"Immigration and Assimilation: Rai, Reggae, and Bhangramuffin," IN
Stephen Duncombe (ed.) Cultural
Resistance Reader, NY: Verso, pp. 231-9. [to post on
Blackboard]
Weiss, Brad. 2009. "Chronic Mobb Asks a Blessing: Apocalyptic Hip
Hop and the Global Crisis," IN Weiss, Street
Dreams
&
Hip
Hop Barbershops: Global Fantasy in Urban
Tanzania. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp.
197-221. [Blackboard]
Khosravi, Shahram. 2008. Excerpt from "Cultural Crimes," pp. 19-24,
in Young and Defiant in Tehran. Philadelphia:
Univ. of Pennsylvania. [Blackboard]
Videos:
Students are invited to go to the
Discussion Board to nominate their grooviest songs. Please note
that "groovy" does not have to mean James Brown, but can be Beethoven,
Beyonce, or Brittany. Okay--not Brittany--but any and all music
besides Brittany Spears.
Optional reading:
* Keil, Charles. n/d. Born to
Groove. Self-published online at http://borntogroove.org/
* Farmelo, Allen. 1997. "The Unifying Consequences of Grooving: An
Introductory Ethnographic Approach to Unity Through Music."
Published online.
Video, to view in class:
Melodysheep. 2012. "Mister Rogers Remixed: Garden of Your Mind," PBS Digital Studios.Optional
video:
Excerpt
from
the
film
"Persepolis." This film (and graphic novel) is
about living in Iran. It should compliment the Khosravi
readings.
Melodysheep. 2009. "Symphony of
Science: We are all Connected."
June 13: What is a head
covering?
Smith-Hefner,
Nancy.
2011.
"Javanese
Women and the Veil," IN Kathleen M. Adams
and Kathleen A. Gillogly (eds.), Everyday
Life
in
Southeast
Asia, Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, pp.
154-64. [Blackboard]
Ramachandran, Tanisha. 2009. "No woman left covered: unveiling and the politics of liberation in multi/interculturalism." Canadian Woman Studies 27(2-3):33-39. [Blackboard]
Ruby, Tabassum F. 2006. "Listening
to
the
voices
of
hijab," Women's Studies International
Forum, (January 2006), 29(1), pg. 54-66.
Videos,
for class:
Hofmann, Kanna Ines. 2007. (un)veiled: Muslim Women Talk About Hijab, Watertown, MA: Documentary Educational Resources.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/07/201076171111616492.html Princess Hijab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWta4xB4gQ0 ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) news story on French banning of head coverings, from 2004.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7IrvkhUb3Y Professor Bronwyn Winter analyzes the hijab ban in France, weighing freedom of choice against sexual and class politics
June 14: Participation portfolios due. (Alternate papers due here, if preferred). Use UTM SUBMIT for the
text portion of your assignment [In other words, for all of your own
typed-up thoughts: save as a .doc and upload to UTM Submit, by 1:30
PM.] Printed copy on paper: place in Anthropology drop box [if it
won't fit in either, please hand in to department secretary.] The
printed copy is due by Friday the 15th at 2PM. We will mark them
in the order of hard copies received. In other words, first
submit electronically, then submit hard copy by the 15th.
It is recommended that you submit your hard copy by the 15th, so that
the TA has time to mark it by the final exam. Any copy received
after the 18th is at risk of not being marked at all.
June 18: What does a revolution look
like?
Graeber,
David.
2011.
"Occupy
Wall
Street
Rediscovers
the
Radical
Imagination," and "Occupy
and
anarchism's
gift
of
democracy," The
Guardian, Sept 25 and Nov. 15, 2011
Roubini, Nouriel. 2011. "World
Class
Warfare: Why almost every continent on Earth is experiencing social
and political turmoil," Slate, Oct.
13,
2011.
The Swaraj Foundation. "What is Swaraj?" and "Decolonization
of
the
Mind."
Shahine, Salim H. 2011. "Youth
and
the
Revolution
in Egypt, Anthropology
Today
(April 2011), 27(2), pp 1-3.
Taskale, Ali Riza. 2012. "Debt as a mode of governance," Critical Legal Thinking, April 12,
2012.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2011. "The
contradictions
of
the
Arab
Spring." Al Jazeera,
Nov. 14, 2011.
Videos:
Ken Robinson. 2012. "Changing Education Paradigms," RSA Animate.
Shaaban, Tamer. 2011. "Egypt:
Take
What
is
Yours."
El Din, Safwan Nasser. 2011. "The Birth of a New
Egypt."
Eltahawy, Mona, 2011. 'Tunisia, Arab Youth, Rebellion and Twitter," TIME magazine video.
"Danny Glover Speaks
to Occupy Oakland, October 15, 2011"
RSA Animate -- Changing Education Paradigms
Exit Through the Gift Shop?
Optional videos:
What's
Trending. 2011, "Influencer: Occupy
Wall Street," Interview with Micah White (Adbusters). Oct. 4, 2011.
Journeyman Pictures. 2008. "Egypt's Facebook Face Off - Egypt," Journeyman Pictures, July 2008.
Eltahawy, Mona, 2010. "Muslims Online Encourage Debate, Not Hate," TIME Magazine video.
Shaaban, Tamer. 2011. "Egyptian Revolution: The World Calls for Peace."
West, Cornel. 2011."Cornel
West
on
Occupy
Wall
Street:
It's
the
Makings
of
a U.S. Autumn Responding to the Arab Spring."
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 2011. "Tamer Shaaban: Behind Egypt's Viral Video." CBC News, February 1, 2011.
Optional reading:
Gandhi, Mohandas K. 1938. "Excerpts
from 'Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule," Ahmedabad:
Navajivan.
Khosravi, Shahram. 2008. "Culture of Defiance," pp. 138-68, chapter 5 of Young and Defiant in Tehran. Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania. [To post on Blackboard]
Beyond
June 22
..
3
hour
FINAL EXAM.
5-8PM, IB 110.
Bring UTOR ID and no study aids. Exam will
emphasize material from the midterm onward, but will include many
concepts that integrate the semester. Studying lecture
notes, films, and texts since
the midterm is recommended. It is probably best not to spend time
with texts or notes from before the midterm.
________________________________________
Expectations, Policies, and Common Courtesy
Attendance: Strongly recommended.
Punctuality: You are expected to arrive and be settled in your
seat by the beginning of class and to remain until the end of class. Students who violate this policy will be
penalized on their participation mark. Unless you become ill, do not
begin packing up books or stand to leave before the end of class,
because this is distracting to all. If you know you cannot stay for the
entire period, please sit near the door and leave very quietly.
Courtesy in Class: Every student is expected to pay close attention
in the lecture or film. Refrain from talking during lectures and films,
except to ask or respond to a question from the instructor. Even quiet
talking is distracting and disrespectful for your fellow students and
your instructor. Turn off pagers and mobile phones. You are
encouraged to thoughtfully ask and answer questions, but please, no
confidential, whispered conversations. Anything you say should be
directed to the class as a whole.
Email
Communication: Emailing with
your professor or TA is a form of professional communication. Please
write courteously and clearly; do not use text-messaging abbreviations
or slang. Please clearly indicate your questions or concerns. Be sure
to provide a summary of the email topic in the Subject line (do not
just write “Hi”or leave the Subject blank, or your email may be
rejected as junk mail by the UTM server). You should always use your UT
email address if at all possible. The UT server regularly rejects
Hotmail and Yahoo accounts as potential spam. Your message should be
very brief, polite, and to the point.
Please try to limit
your email to the professor. Can't find the reading? Ask a
friend, or ask your comrades on Blackboard. Did you miss class
one day? Please ask a friend or a peer for her notes. Not
sure which pages to read? Unsure of what is on the final?
All of these good questions are better posed to the discussion board on
Blackboard. Your classmates can help you and you can help
them. The professor will also be a frequent contributor on
Blackboard. And, if you have a question
about the material, please post it to the discussion board on
Blackboard. Still seeking an answer? After talking
with your peers and posting to the Discussion Board, and still needing
help, then it may be time to visit office hours. Please
remember
that
office
hours are limited and that there are only so many
hours to divide between hundreds of students.
There is seldom a reason to explain your missing presence, missing
papers, etc. Generally speaking, something came up and you missed
class. It is your responsibility to get notes from another student. Back up your computer files, start projects
long before they are due, and study hard. You will not be excused from
your work: just get the job done. In severe situations (death in the
family, disabling illness, etc.) provide written proof.
If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability,
please submit to me a letter from the proper UTM authorities in a
timely manner so that your needs may be addressed. UTM has procedures
to determine accommodations based on documented disabilities. If you
have religious scheduling concerns, please report these in the first or
second week of class. I will do my utmost to respect disabilities
and religious issues if they should arise.
Examinations
Both the mid-terms and the final exam will consist of multiple choice
and short answer questions on ALL materials presented in the class
(readings, lectures, AND films). The final exam may be
cumulative, but likely will feature material from after the midterm. Final decisions about exam materials will be
announced in class.
Missed exams
Avoid missing an exam - the procedure for taking a make-up exam is
strictly regulated by the university, and these policies will be
followed in all cases. Please notify the instructor by email or phone as
soon
as
possible
if you miss an exam. Ideally, you should
notify the professor before you miss the exam or the day of the exam. Any student who misses an exam, must contact
the instructor on email within 24 hours, unless physically unable to do
so. The instructor may refuse a make-up
exam to students who do not provide a valid excuse and who fail contact
the instructor in one day.
* For the Mid-term
Exam, see Section 7.9 “Term Tests” in the UTM Calendar for 2009-2010. A
valid doctor's excuse or similar university-approved excuse will be
required to take the make-up for the mid-term. ONE makeup will be given
for the mid-term, the week after the regular exam. All makeup exams
will be short answer format only.
* For the Final Exam, see Section 7.14 “Examinations” in the UTM
Calendar for 2009-2010. You will have to submit a petition to
Registrarial Services, among other requirements, and re-take the exam
during the Deferred Examinations Period). Makeup exams are likely to be
essay format only.
Plagiarism on exams and written work: You may get lecture
notes from other students for days when you are absent, but the answers
you submit must be your own independent work. Exercises
in
which
duplication
is detected will be severely penalized. For more
details, see Academic Honesty; and the Code of Behaviour on Academic
Matters in the UTM Calendar for 2009-2010 under Code of Behaviour on
Academic Matters. It is your responsibility to be familiar with this
code, and adhere to it. IF you have any questions about what is
or is not plagiarism, please see http://www.plagiarism.org/. Students will be required to submit
their course essays to Turnitin.com. Instructions
will be provided. By now you should be aware that the university
expects your work to be done independently. The university takes
this issue very seriously. Any attempt to gain undue advantage
over your classmates by plagiarizing or other forms of cheating will be
dealt with according to the Code of Behaviour on Academic
Matters. The terms that apply to the University's use of the
Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web
site.
Late exercises: (1) Late exercises will be penalized per
calendar day, including weekends (Turnitin.com will register the
time/date of your submission). The penalty is 4% on the first day
late, then 2% per day thereafter. Professor may refuse to mark
work that is more than 10 days late, if unexcused and deadline
unextended.
Marking. Course marks will be computed as follows: first exam, 35%, participation portfolio or term paper, 20%, final exam 45%.
Negative marks: students who disrupt lectures through talking, texting, Internet surfing, leaving late, leaving early can and will be penalized. The instructor may deduct marks from participation. Students who need to leave early should check in with the instructor before class and sit near the door.
last updated: June 13, 2012.