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Semester-Long "Theory Map" Assignment
Due:
(Oct. 14, 5 pm) and at end of semester (Dec. 16, 5 pm), by email
Evaluation: I will evaluate and respond to your maps based on their
degree of accuracy and comprehensiveness.
Introduction
Constructing Your Theory Map
Format
Introduction
Anthropology 211 is
a difficult course to navigate. It is supposed to be an introduction to
the entire field of anthropology in historical context and yet the readings
can be dense, abstract and seemingly isolated texts. After all, you will
be encountering disparate readings separated materially (in books and
articles) and chronologically (in weekly assignments).
This assignment is meant to help you build your own "map" through
the semester. Think of it as an essential note-taking tool that will help
you track your understandings of theorists and the main elements of their
arguments week to week, and culminating in a final "map" that
you will be able to refer back to later (i.e., while studying for the
junior qual!).
Theorists we will be reading this semester are on this syllabus because
they initiated or strongly exemplified important trends (or when their
premises were taken up by many others, "movements") in anthropological
thinking about human social organization and behavior, such as "evolutionism",
"historical particularism", "structuralism", etc.
Goals: Basic Premises
The main practical goal of this course is that you grasp the basic premises
of these theorists well enough that you can apply them in original analyses
of ethnographic data.
The last three paper assignments all test your knowledge of theories through
applications. Thus an important component of the "map" will
be noting a set of basic premises for each theorist. This will be important
preparation for your papers, and you will hand in your current "map"
along with your second and final papers.
Goals: Relationships Between Theory and Data
The second important goal of this course is that you grasp the problematic
relationships between theory and data in anthropological practices and
their social and political implications for both the theorist and the
peoples studied.
This means closely considering:
- different theorists' methodologies (how did they derive a theory from what data? What major categories or terms did they use?),
- the historical conditions under which they worked (when, where and how did they collect data?), and
- their links with other theorists (who are they influenced by, reacting against or responding to?).
Your Theory Map will thus help you bridge the gap between isolated texts and note such links among theorists, the peoples they studied, and important historical contexts. This in turn will hopefully help you produce richer, more grounded papers.
Top
Constructing Your Theory Map
This is not an assignment to leave to the last minute! It should be part
of your reading and note-taking process every week, bringing together
your notes and jottings from readings, handouts and class discussions.
Content
Keep in mind that this is an introductory course and you are not required
to do any supplementary reading for discussions or papers. So work with
the information available to you. Since the theory map counts as much
as a paper, your theory map should include a fair amount of detail. Note
that summaries and comments on readings should be in your own words. If
you choose to cut and paste from web sources, use these only as supplementary
items and be sure to cite all such sources (w/URL and date accessed),
or I will consider it plagiarism.
If you are considering an anthropology major, or if you have an interest
in social theory, you might want to take this opportunity to develop for
yourself a detailed, working document you continue to reference and add
to.This could include key phrases, terms, dates and page numbers to jog
your memory.
Beginning with week two, the map should address several categories for
each theorist and/or movement (some weeks, such as weeks 3 and 4 consider
one "school" of anthropological theory, while others consider
several, such as week two). An asterix indicates categories you must include:
- *Basic
premises: briefly characterize the defining position of the approach
in question
- *Points
of influence and reaction: Indicate if possible what scholars and/or
approaches this responds to. What were main points of inspiration? or
What problems are claimed to be better addressed by this approach?
- *Historical
Contexts: Basic info. about leading figures' lives and the events that
shaped their thinking.
- Key
Works: list and/or briefly characterize seminal works of this theorist
or this approach.
- *Principal
Concepts: list (optionally: define) the main terms/categories that are
intellectual building blocks for this approach.
- *Methodologies:
briefly characterize standards for research design used in this approach.
What techniques and/or models does it advance for understanding social
life?
- Accomplishments:
How did this approach advance social theory?
- Criticisms: What are the theoretical and/or methodological problems and limits of this approach? Who are its main critics?
Keep these categories in mind as you do the readings, and jot down information on them as you go. Much can be gleaned from the theorists' own introductions as they identify their goals, their sources of inspiration and their theoretical opponents, or you can find contextualizing information from prefaces of the books and links on the web syllabus.
Top
Format
The
format of the Theory Map is open. There are many, many ways to do it.
The main thing will be organizing your notes so that they are helpful
to you and the way you think.
There are however a few required features:
-
It should be on the computer because it needs to be a flexible working
document--you will most likely need to cut and paste often as you expand
your knowledge and adjust your notes.
- It
should be legible and have some sort of "rational" outline
that I can follow.
- The course emphasizes placing these theories in historical context, so find a way to reflect a chronology.
Some ideas (depending on the software you use):
- it
could be in some sort of outline format
- it could be in a radiating "web" or geneology format, with lines linking theorists and/or ideas in time and space
- it
could be in a long, horizontal document that places theorists on a timeline
- it
could be in a table format
- it could be a web-based hyper-linked document