READING SCHEDULE
Weeks 1 & 2: The New World as the State of Nature
Monday 10/6
Introductions
Watch parts of The New World (Terrence Malick, 2005)
Wednesday 10/8 (G1)
Michel de Montaigne, “On the Cannibals” and “On Habit” in The Essays of Michel de Montaigne [eCommons]
Watch The Mission (Roland Joffé, 1986) [on reserve at McHenry Media Center]
Monday 10/13 (G2)
Denis Diderot, “Supplement to Bougainville’s ‘Voyage’” in Diderot: Political Writings [Reader]
Weeks 2 & 3: Spirits and/of Capitalism
Wednesday 10/15 (G3)
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Penguin Classics, 2002), pp. 1-36 (“Part I: The Problem”)
Monday 10/20 (G1)
Weber, pp. 67-87 (“The Religious Foundations of Innerworldly Asceticism: Calvinism”) and pp. 105-122 (“Asceticism and the Capitalist Spirit”)
DUE: Research topic (paragraph on general direction of research and questions you are interested in answering)
Wednesday 10/22 (G2)
Michael Taussig, The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America, Chapters 2 (pp.13-37), 8 (143-154), and Conclusion (229-233) [Reader]
RECEIVE: Feedback from me on research topic
Week 4: Witchcraft and “Native” Rationality
Monday 10/27 (G3)
E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, pp. 1-2, 6-15, 18-32, 45-55, 120-126 [Reader]
Wednesday 10/29 (G1)
Evans-Pritchard, continued, pp. 134-145, 176-204, 221-225 [Reader]
DUE: Research Topic and Preliminary Bibliography (descriptive paragraph, hypothesis, and 10-15 books and articles, properly cited – no more than 3 web sources)
Week 5: Alterity and the Social Sciences
Monday 11/3 (G2)
Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Translating Life-Worlds into Labor and History” in Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference [Reader]
Michel-Rolph Trouillot, “Anthropology and the Savage Slot” in Global Transformations [Reader]
DUE: Annotated bibliography (1 paragraph description of the main arguments for half of the books/articles you are using and how you intend to use them)
Wednesday 11/5 (G3)
Wade Davis, Excerpts from The Serpent and the Rainbow [Reader]
RECEIVE: writing groups assignments and feedback on annotated bibliography
Week 6 & 7: Other Worlds
Monday 11/10:
5-6pm : meet with research librarian at McHenry Library, Room 2353 (on the main floor)
Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Voudou Priestess in Brooklyn (University of California Press, 2011), Introduction (1-15; 18-20), Chapter 1 (Joseph Binbin Mauvant), and Chapter 4 (Ogou)
Read for your final research paper
Wednesday 11/12 (G1)
Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Voudou Priestess in Brooklyn (University of California Press, 2011), Chapter 8 (Ezili) and Chapter 12 (Gede)
Continue reading for your final research paper
NOTE: FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14th: Wade Davis Lecture
Monday 11/17 (G2)
Amira Mittermeier, Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination (University of California Press, 2010), Introduction (pp. 1-5 and pp. 27-28 only), Chapter 2 (“Thresholds of Interpretation”) and Chapter 3 (“Seeing the [In]Visible”)
DUE: Outline (including thesis statement, statement of your sub-arguments for each section, list of sources for each section, and approximation of page numbers for each section) to me and writing group
Wednesday 11/19 (G3)
Amira Mittermeier, Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination (University of California Press, 2010), Chapter 5 (“The Ethics of the Visitational Dream”) and Chapter 6 (“The Royal Road to the Unknown”)
DUE: Comments to writing group members on their outlines
RECEIVE: My and group members’ comments on outlines
Week 8, 9, 10: Writing Alterity
Monday 11/24
In-class FILM
Start: Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, The Inconstancy of the Indian Soul: The Encounter of Catholics and Cannibals in 16th-Century Brazil (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2011)
DUE: First draft (4-5 pages, including introduction, forecast paragraph, and theoretical/methodological explication) to me and writing group
Wednesday 11/26: NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
Monday 12/1
Finish: Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, The Inconstancy of the Indian Soul: The Encounter of Catholics and Cannibals in 16th-Century Brazil (Prickly Paradigm Press, 2011)
DUE: Written comments to writing group members on 4-5 page draft
RECEIVE: Written comments from me and group members on 4-5 page draft
Wednesday 12/3: NO CLASS (AAAS)
Start: Amos Tutuola, The Palm Wine Drinkard & My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Grove Press, 1994)
Monday 12/8
In-class film
DUE: 10-12 page draft to me and to writing group members
Wednesday 12/10
Finish: Amos Tutuola, The Palm Wine Drinkard & My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Grove Press, 1994)
DUE: Written comments due to group members on 10-12 page draft
Friday 12/12
RECEIVE: Written comments from me on 10-12 page draft
**FRIDAY 12/19 by 5PM**
FINAL PAPER DUE (plus Portfolio of drafts and evaluations of writing group members)
Modernity And Its Others 