social struture outline for readings etc fall 2003

Social Structure

Anthropology 412/812

(Fall 2003)

Tuesday & Thursday 1:30-2:45, Room # 104 Bessey Hall

Instructor:
Raymond Hames
Phone # 472-6240, 2411
Office: 228 Bessey Hall
E-mail rhames@unl.edu

Course Web page: http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/socout003.htm

Office Hours:
Monday 2:00-4:30
Tuesday 8:00-9:00
Wednesday 2:-3:00
Friday 8:00-9:00

ORGANIZATION AND COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This course on social organization focuses on family, marriage, and kinship in non-western society and, to a lesser extent, historic European society. The aim of the course is to firmly ground students in anthropological concepts and theories relevant to those topics and to assess the impact of evolutionary theory on the study of social organization. The first part of the course will be devoted to a grounding in the traditional subject matter and theoretical issues in the study of social organization. This section will conclude in the sixth week with an essay examination covering Jack Goody's Production and Reproduction, and chapters 1-5 in Pasternak, Ember, and Ember's Sex, Gender, and Kinship, and lectures. In the second part of the course, we will cover chapters 6-13 in Sex, Gender, and Kinship and then turn to evolutionary interpretations of human social organization by reading various chapters in Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective (edited by Cronk, Chagnon, and Irons). You will be examined on the readings in HRB, Sex, Gender and Kinship, and associated lectures in the fourteenth week of the course.

All students will be required to write term papers but requirements will differ for graduate and undergraduate students. By the end of the first exam (7th week) you should have a basic understanding of issues and topics in social structure and this knowledge should guide your choice of a term paper. Each student must visit me and propose a paper topic for my approval. I should be able to help you with source materials and to clarify your approach. Sample topics include: causes of divorce, determinants of matrilineality, patterns of adoption, factors influencing mate choice, determinants of female status, etc.

Undergraduate students (412 credit) will write a 10-12 page paper while graduate students (812 credit) will write a 20-22 page paper. In addition, graduate students will present a fifteen minute oral version of their paper during the last two weeks of class.   The format for the paper can be found by clicking here.   Writing well is of great importance to effectively communicating your ideas. Please use the Writing Assistance Center if you need help. Their web site is http://www.unl.edu/english/wac/wacmain.htm
Please note the WAC is not a proof reading service. Nevertheless, they will provide you with important proofing and editing skills that all writers need.

Paper topics should deal with analytic issues. Click here for paper titles and abstracts developed this year. I encourage you all to be aware of what your fellows are doing so that you may provide one another with support especially on topics that overlap or when one of you have a particular expertise you can offer a peer.

Each exam (2) will count 25% toward the final grade and the term paper will count 50%. Class participation is strongly encouraged and will be rewarded.

Students will be expected to be familiar with the assigned reading so they can contribute to class discussions. This means that one has read and taken notes on, for example, the assigned readings for week two when we meet during week two. In general, I'll begin the class by highlighting the main issues in the readings by clarifying definitions, elaborating theory, and filling in empirical and historical gaps. Later, I'll move on to empirical tests of theory, especially focusing on how a particular hypothesis was deduced, the kinds of data required to make a test and the methods used to gather the data, and the outcome of the test of a particular hypothesis. You should feel free to interject comments at any time to force me to clarify or extend what I'm talking about or to present an alternative way of dealing with a particular issue. Indeed, I'll stimulate this process by simply asking students to give us their position on particular issues and case studies.

Social Structure in the News: click here to view recent research of interest to our class

   Required Texts:

Sex, Gender, and Kinship.   Pasternak, Burton, Carol Ember, and Melvin Ember (PEE)

Production and Reproduction.   Jack Goody (Goody)

Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective.   Cronk, Chagnon, & Irons (AHB)

Weekly Readings, Lectures and Assignments

Date	Topic	Reading
Aug. 26-28	Introduction HRAF research	Goody 1-30
Sept. 2-4	History of Social Organization Demonstration of HRAF on the web	Goody 31-85
Sept 9-11	Diverging Devolution: the Model:	Goody 86-132
Sep. 16-18	Labor, Marriage, & Family Organization Click here for article on Goddess Theory	PEE: 1-3
Sep. 23-25	Parental lnvestment Click here for NY Times on Step-parents and Journal Start on child murders	PEE:4-5
Sept. 30 Oct. 2	First Exam (exam on 2nd October; review 30 Sept). Text coverage: all of Goody and Chaps 1-4 in PEE	PEE:6-9
Oct. 7-9	Polygyny & Polyandry	PEE:10-11
Oct. 14-16	Sexual Selection and Marriage Click here for NY Times article on Women Marked for Death by their Own Families	PEE: 12-13
Oct. 21-23 Student Holiday on 23rd	Behavioral Ecology History and Evolutionary Anthropology in Social Structure	AHB Ch. 1-3. Note: no class October 21, Fall Semester Break
Oct. 28-30	Manipulation & rule breaking Exploitation, and; Buying wives	AHB: Ch. 4-6
Nov. 4-6	Trivers-Willard and preferential investment Helpers at the nest Click here to view an article on The Value of Grandmothers	AHB: Ch. 8-11
Nov. 11-13	Status in egalitarian society.	AHB Ch. 12, 17 &18
Nov. 18-20	A curious problem: RS, wealth, and & modern society	Click here for notes on *Lectures* *sample questions*
Nov 25		Click for reading notes on PEE and Review for Second Exam Second Exam November 25 Tuesday
Nov. 27 No Class		Thursday: work on your papers and meet with instructor individually.
Dec. 2-4	No class on 2nd. . Discuss Term Papers with Instructor: papers may be turned in early on the 3rd thru 5th for a preliminary grade.	Dead Week; Work on your papers. Dec. 4 graduate student presentations:
Dec. 11-13	Term Paper Due on 12th	Exam Week

Exam Preparation:

	First Segment Lecture Notes and Slides
	Notes on Goody and Pasternak and Ember
	Power Point Collection for 1st Exam
	male-female.pdf
	jgoody.pdf
	dowry.pdf
	division-labor.pdf
	incest.pdf
	polpar.pdf
	fammar.pdf
	sexual-selection.pdf
	cult-evol.pdf
	Second Segment Reading and Lecture Notes
	Lecture notes for second segment Sample question for second exam Pasternak, Ember & Ember
	Power Points Converted to PDF

Useful Web Sites on Social Organization and Research Tools

Description	Link
*Electronic HRAF* This site contains the full test data bases on 80 societies from the HRAF. (Click here to view the list.) New societies will be added on a quarterly basis. You can access the site in two ways. The long way is through http://www.unl.edu:2020/journals/iris/hraf.html, the main page for our library. From there you click on "indexes full-text materials", and then "HRAF". The short way is to simply click on the link to the right. If you are on campus there is no need to configure your browser. If you are off-campus then your browser must be configured following the simple instructions presented here. Learning About the HRAF This site provides a helpful tutorial on using the HRAF and contains links to the OCM, a index of more than 700 subject entries that represent a systematic classification of culture.
*Kinship Tutorial* An excellent site to learn about kinship and especially kinship terminological systems can be found here
*Annual Review of* *Anthropology* You can visit this site and browse and search many of the volumes.
Tozzer Library of Harvard. This site represents the contents of the Tozzer Library's anthropological collection and then some. Not only does it contain books and journals it also contains listings of journal contents by author, title, keyword and the like for an amazing total of 876 (!) anthropological journals. To get there, simply following this link http://www.unl.edu:2020/journals/iris/ant.html If you are off campus you will have to configure "Iris" as your proxy server as I described previously for the Electronic HRAF.	Click on the Eureka logo to visit the Tozzer Library if you are viewing this page on campus.

	Social Structure
	*Anthropology 412/812*
	*(Fall 2003)*
	Tuesday & Thursday 1:30-2:45, Room # 104 Bessey Hall
	Instructor: Raymond Hames Phone # 472-6240, 2411 Office: 228 Bessey Hall E-mail rhames@unl.edu
	Course Web page: http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/socout003.htm
	Office Hours: Monday 2:00-4:30 Tuesday 8:00-9:00 Wednesday 2:-3:00 Friday 8:00-9:00
	ORGANIZATION AND COURSE REQUIREMENTS
	This course on social organization focuses on family, marriage, and kinship in non-western society and, to a lesser extent, historic European society. The aim of the course is to firmly ground students in anthropological concepts and theories relevant to those topics and to assess the impact of evolutionary theory on the study of social organization. The first part of the course will be devoted to a grounding in the traditional subject matter and theoretical issues in the study of social organization. This section will conclude in the sixth week with an essay examination covering Jack Goody's Production and Reproduction, and chapters 1-5 in Pasternak, Ember, and Ember's *Sex, Gender, and Kinship, and lectures. In the second part of the course, we will cover chapters 6-13 in Sex, Gender, and Kinship* and then turn to evolutionary interpretations of human social organization by reading various chapters in *Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective* (edited by Cronk, Chagnon, and Irons). You will be examined on the readings in *HRB, Sex, Gender and Kinship*, and associated lectures in the fourteenth week of the course.
	All students will be required to write term papers but requirements will differ for graduate and undergraduate students. By the end of the first exam (7th week) you should have a basic understanding of issues and topics in social structure and this knowledge should guide your choice of a term paper. Each student must visit me and propose a paper topic for my approval. I should be able to help you with source materials and to clarify your approach. Sample topics include: causes of divorce, determinants of matrilineality, patterns of adoption, factors influencing mate choice, determinants of female status, etc.
	Undergraduate students (412 credit) will write a 10-12 page paper while graduate students (812 credit) will write a 20-22 page paper. In addition, graduate students will present a fifteen minute oral version of their paper during the last two weeks of class. The format for the paper can be found by clicking here. Writing well is of great importance to effectively communicating your ideas. Please use the Writing Assistance Center if you need help. Their web site is http://www.unl.edu/english/wac/wacmain.htm Please note the WAC is not a proof reading service. Nevertheless, they will provide you with important proofing and editing skills that all writers need.
	Paper topics should deal with analytic issues. Click here for paper titles and abstracts developed this year. I encourage you all to be aware of what your fellows are doing so that you may provide one another with support especially on topics that overlap or when one of you have a particular expertise you can offer a peer.
	Each exam (2) will count 25% toward the final grade and the term paper will count 50%. Class participation is strongly encouraged and will be rewarded.
	Students will be expected to be familiar with the assigned reading so they can contribute to class discussions. This means that one has read and taken notes on, for example, the assigned readings for week two when we meet during week two. In general, I'll begin the class by highlighting the main issues in the readings by clarifying definitions, elaborating theory, and filling in empirical and historical gaps. Later, I'll move on to empirical tests of theory, especially focusing on how a particular hypothesis was deduced, the kinds of data required to make a test and the methods used to gather the data, and the outcome of the test of a particular hypothesis. You should feel free to interject comments at any time to force me to clarify or extend what I'm talking about or to present an alternative way of dealing with a particular issue. Indeed, I'll stimulate this process by simply asking students to give us their position on particular issues and case studies.
	Social Structure in the News: click here to view recent research of interest to our class
	Required Texts:
	Sex, Gender, and Kinship. Pasternak, Burton, Carol Ember, and Melvin Ember (PEE)
	Production and Reproduction. Jack Goody (Goody)
	Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective. Cronk, Chagnon, & Irons (AHB)

Useful Web Sites on Social Organization and Research Tools

Description

Link