16F ANTH 3155-001 (CGAS)                                                                                                                 Prof. Frederick H Damon

10304                                                                                                                                                                         206 Brooks Hall

MWF 10:00AM - 10:50am, Brooks Hall 103                                                                                       924-6826//fhd@virginia.edu

Scheduled Final Exam: Friday, December 9, 2016: 9-12n                                   OH: Thursday: 2-5 & by appointment

 

Introduction to Transforming Everyday Life in America

Anthropology 3155–Fall 2016

(‘FINAL’ SYLLABUS)

 

COURSE ABSTRACT:    SPECIAL EDITION! THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REQUIRE A SHIFT IN THE STANDARD FORMAT FOR THIS LONG-RUNNING COURSE—IT WILL FOCUS ATTENTION ON THE INSTITUTIONAL DYNAMIC TO THIS DEVELOPING MOMENT IN US AND WORLD HISTORY. The course begins by examining US election system as a ritual structure.  Although some of its forms have pan-human significance, the US practice comes out of 19^th century concerns with order; it is not an accident that our contemporary sports scene comes together in the second half of the 19^th century. The second part of the course then takes on, from an anthropological point of view, fundamentals of American production, exchange and mythological systems. The concluding third part sums the first two by focusing on the place of housing in US culture. Students will write three short papers on each of these parts then turn one of them into a longer final paper moving towards a research paper or proposal for a semester (or dmp) devoted to the topic. The course will satisfy the Second Writing Requirement.

 

For this course you have to read some articles or chapters, 7 or 8 books—you have choices amongst a total of 10; watch at least three movies from a list; and write 3 papers, about 5 pages in length; and a complete a final paper, incorporating one (or more) of the previous three, moving towards a research paper or proposal no more than 10-15 pages. The second paper, probably focusing on the movies, must be written with one or more other students in the class. There will be no tests; but there will be spot quizzes. The course should satisfy the 2^nd Writing Requirement. Mondays and Wednesdays will be mostly lectures, though discussion will not be discouraged; Friday’s emphasis may switch to discussion.

 

Books to be Purchased or found on Reserve

 

So Damn Much Money (2010) by Robert Kaiser

Or

Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State by Garry Wills;

 

 

And they all Sang Hallelujah by D. D. Bruce, 

A Shopkeepers Millennium by P. Johnson,   

PARADISE NOW The Story of American Utopianism by Chris Jennings

 

The Last Cowboy (Reserve only)  F391.4 .B58 K7 1990

Capital, Volume I by Karl Marx (Reserve; use or purchase the Ben Fowkes (Translator), Ernest Mandel (Introduction) edition)

Fastfood Nation by Erik Schlosser;

THE COLONEL AN LITTLE MISSIE Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America by Larry McMurtry

 

 

Everything in Its Place by Constance Perin

And Liar's Poker or The Big Short , by Michael Lewis;   

 

I. INTRODUCTION

                                                                                                                                                                           

               Course Structure, Content and Expectations                                                                                        8/24

 

II. QUESTIONS ABOUT ORDER AND WHAT GOOD ARE ELECTONS? 8/26-9/30

A. The 2016 Presidential Election and Damon’s "What Good Are Elections..." by fhdamon (collab)…

 

1. “What Good Are Elections..." by fhdamon (collab)…

2.         &

            So Damn Much Money (2010) by Robert Kaiser

Or

            Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State by Garry Wills

（Damon will be drawing some of his lectures during this time from Immanuel Wallerstein’s THE MODERN WORLD-SYSTEM IV Centrist Liberalism Triumphant, 1789-1914. The question is the achieving or social order in the democratic ideal.）

 

Recommended for possible future research AMERICAN MAELSTROM: the 1968 Election and the Politics of Division by Michael A. Cohen; and this on the financial structures of the current ‘political’ scene: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/us/in-invisible-world-of-political-donor-advisers-a-highly-visible-player.html.  Those of you who might later wish to focus your movie interests on the Jason Bourne movies should reread this piece before you start re-watching the movies.

 

 

B. 19^th Century Foundations: The tradition of antinomianism in America and ménage à trois-cent?       

               PARADISE NOW:  The Story of American Utopianism (2016) by Chris Jennings New York: Random House                  And they all Sang Hallelujah by D. D. Bruce,

A Shopkeepers Millennium by P. Johnson, 

Chapter VI, Justice and Violence, from St. Clair by Anthony Wallace Pp. 314-366

Wyatt-Brown, Bertram 2001 “Honor Redeemed in Blood,” Chapter 12 in The Shaping for Southern Culture: Honor, Grace & War, 1760-1890 Pp. 270-295 (Notes, 385-389)

 

 

FIRST PAPER, 2-4^PP DUE. 9/30 5pm

 

 III. THE ELEMENTARY STRUCTURES OF AMERICAN SOCIETY: Production, Consumption and Showtime In the United States 10/1-10/31

 

NOTE BENE: Monday October 3 - Tuesday, October 4—the reading period

 

INTERLUDE: A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND  “The Making of a Giant,” Chapter 25 in The Eternal Frontier by Tim Flannery (Collab)

 

A. Production and Consumption

                

The Last Cowboy by Jane Kramer[1]

Fastfood Nation by Erik Schlosser

Capital Parts I&II (Chapters 1-3&4-6) ^[2] (on reserve only) by Karl Marx should be read while reading Kramer and Schlosser

 

B Showtime

Movies as Myths                                                                                                       

1) THE COLONEL AN LITTLE MISSIE Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America by Larry McMurtry. ( I recommend everyone read Russel Baker’s review essay “The Entertainer”, NYRB November 2 2005 (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2005/nov/03/the-entertainer/), which discusses three books on Cody and his epoch. McMurty’s is one of the books he discusses.

2) Read “George Bancroft: Nature and the Fulfillment of the Covenant,” from Historians Against History by David Noble (Collab).

3) Chapter 8, “Time Regained,” from The Savage Mind by C. Lévi-Strauss (Collab)

               “The Structural Study of Myth” by Lévi-Strauss (Collab)

 

4) View 3 of the following movies one of which must be:

 i) Paul Greengrass’s United 93 (2006) or ii) Oliver Stone’s World Trade Towers (2006); the other should be chosen from; iii) Michael Curtiz’s Yankee Doodle Dandy[3] (1942); iv) John Ford’s The Searchers (1956); v)  Blake Edward’s  Breakfast at Tiffany’s) (1961);[4]  vi) John Boorman’s (book author James Dickey) Deliverance (1972); vii) Ted Kotcheff’s First Blood (Rambo)(1982);[5] viii) Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven (1992); ix) Bruce Evans’ Mr. Brooks (2007);  x) The Green Zone (2010); xi) J. C. Chandor’s Margin Call (2011); xii) David Ayer’s Fury (2014);xii Eastwood’American Sniper(2014) may be used). Bourne movies may be added in which case one of the first two must be compared with one of the last two.

 

SECOND PAPER, up to 10 pages to be written with one other student; DUE. 10/31 5pm

 

              

A theme that connects the readings in this section is US culture’s capacity to organize immense projects for relatively well-defined goals, projects—canals, railroads, interstate highways, the internet, wars, movies—that have unexpected consequences which, after the fact, seem to be internally related to the initial project. For a final paper pursuing the possibilities inherent in this structure, and potentially tied to the Wallace and Wyatt-Brown readings in the previous Part, one might usefully read William J. Perry’s account of his career, MY JOURNEY at the NUCLEAR BRINK (2015). Governor Jerry Brown has a very suggestive review of this book in The New York Review of Books (July 14th Issue, 2016)

 

 

 V. A SYNTHESIS AND ITS CONTRADICTIONS—Housing, Paradigmatic Substitution and Finance Capital[6]

 

               A. The synthesis…the work of Constance Perin

Everything in Its Place by Constance Perin (d. 2012)

               B. … about the contradictions

READ ONE OF TWO:  Liar's Poker(1989)[7] by Michael Lewis; or The Big Short(2010)  by Michael Lewis;

 

THIRD PAPER, 2-4pp. DUE: 11/28  

 

FINAL PAPER:  

USING THE MODELS AND IDEAS PRESENTED THROUGHOUT THIS COURSE CONSTRUCT, DRAWING FROM ON ONE OF YOUR PREVIOUS THREE PAPERS, A RESEARCH PAPER ON THE MATERIAL DESIGNED AS YOU SEE FIT IN CONSULTATION WITH DAMON. IT MIGHT BE USEFUL TO THINK OF THIS EXERCISE AS THE FIRST DRAFT OF A SEMESTER OR YEAR-LONG STUDY.

 DUE BY DECEMBER 11^th, 2016, MIDNIGHT—THERE WILL BE NO FINAL EXAM).

 

                          COURSE NOTES AND REQUIREMENTS

1. This course is taught through its readings, lectures (& “quizzes”), its ethnographic response papers and your research projects, observed reactions to lectures and class participation, especially on Fridays. Attendance is mandatory and I reserve the right to drop people from the class or deduct 20% from final grades for poor class attendance or participation. My graduate students, all of whom are on Facebook, tell me to insist that you do not have an open computer running during the course. If you need a computer to take notes please seek written permission for that from me.

 

2.  Grades will be calculated in the following way

Quizzes, Class Attendance and Participation:                                                                                      up to 20%

The Three Thematic Response Papers, one jointly written (≈15^+/- pages):                                                 60%

The Final Research Plan (10^+/_ pages):                                                                                                             20%

 

3. The Final Research Plan/Paper (Joint projects are permissible).

               There are three components to this course, each designed to feature a contemporary, but historically derived and significant aspect of US culture. Arguably these components form a single, diversely composed, ensemble. The final paper should be devoted to one of these divisions but, as seems appropriate and suitable, pull one or the other, or both into a “synthesis.” This “synthesis” may be forward-looking: Were you to turn this into a semester’s research or DMP what would you do?  

4.  Many issues pertaining to an understanding of American culture are addressed daily in major newspapers, especially during major election periods (which we are edging into now). You are strongly advised to read, every day, The Washington Post, The N.Y. Times, and The Wall Street Journal and other local newspapers of your choice.

 

Since this course started in the late 1970s it has been a great teaching and learning opportunity for me and hundreds of undergraduates. I look forward to continuing that tradition this year with you.