CLASS SCHEDULE:

I. Introduction to course and field of study

26 Aug. (W) Introduction to course and anthropology

28 Aug. (F) Internet use and course assignments
                        CLASS WILL MEET IN GARLAND HALL COMPUTER LAB (Rm. 119D)

II. Theoretical background: language, culture, and cognition

31 Aug. (M) Cognitive linguistics

                                         Palmer, Gary B. 1996. Toward a Theory of Cultural Linguistics.
                                         Austin: University of Texas Press. Chapter 3, "The Emergence of Cognitive Linguistics"
                                        
02 Sep. (W) Structural linguistics

Layton, Robert. 1997. An Introduction to Theory in Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University    Press. Chapter 3, "Structuralism," pp.66-70, 89-92.

04 Sep. (F) Models of the mind

Shore, Bradd. 1996. Culture in Mind: Cognition, Culture, and the Problem of Meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 3, "Mind Games: Cognitive Baseball," pp.75-100.

III. Campus Legends and Culture

07 Sep. (M) Symbols and meaning in daily life

Berger, Arthur Asa. 1997. Bloom's Morning: Coffee, Comforters, and the Secret Meaning of Everyday Life. Boulder: Westview Press. "Digital Clock Radios," "King Size Beds," "Sheets," "Bathrooms," "The Water Pik Shower," and "On Myth, History . . ." pp. 41-52, 73-80, 181-191.

09 Sep. (W) Urban legends and their social meanings

Brunvard, Jan Harold. 1981. The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings. New York: W.W. Norton. Chapter 1, pp.1-17.

11 Sep. (F) Drug lore and college life

Dorson, Richard M. 1973. America in Legend: Folklore from the Colonial Period to the Present. New York: Pantheon. Pp. 271-305.

14 Sep. (M)    Types and motifs: collecting and analyzing contemporary lore

                                        Thompson, Stith. 1946. The Folktale. New York: Dryden Press. Pp. 7-10, 415-416, 481-500.
                                         http://www.snopes.com         The San Fernando Valley Folklore Society's Urban Legends Reference Pages
                                         http://www.urbanlegends.com/       The AFU and Urban Legends Archive

IV. In the beginning: creation myths and social charters

16 Sep. (W)    Yanomamö society

                                        Walford, George. The Inferiority of Primitive Societies Compared to Modern Civilization: The Case of the Yanomami.
                                        http://www.libertarian.org/LA/primitiv.html
                                        http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~spencer/yanomamo.htm

18 Sep. (F) Yanomamö Cosmology

Chagnon. Napoleon. 1997. Y nomamö. Fifth Edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Chapter 3, pp. 99-119.
ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE by 12 midnight; posted to the newsgroup vu.anth.anth263.assign1

21 Sep. (M) Film: Moonblood: A Yanomamo Creation Myth Told by Dedeheiwa

23 Sep. (W) Discussion of Assignment #1

Read all of the legend submissions from your classmates, submitting comments and/or variations; consider how these legends should be categorized
CLASS WILL MEET IN GARLAND HALL COMPUTER LAB (Rm. 119D)

25 Sep. (F) Variations on a theme: origins of the Makiritare

de Civrieux, Marc. 1980. Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle. Translated and edited by David M. Guss. San Francisco: North Point Press. Pp. 1-4, 12-17, 21-31, 47-69.

28 Sep. (M) Film: Dream Tales: Watunna

30 Sep. (W) TEST 1 (bring two A&S blue books and a pen to class)

02 Oct. (F) Mesoamerica and the Maya

Taube, Karl. 1993. Aztec and Maya Myths. Austin: University of Texas Press. Pp. 51-77.

05 Oct. (M)    The earth-diver and the world tree
                                        Freidel, David, Linda Schele, and Joy Parker. 1993. Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years
                                        on the Shaman’s Path. New York: William Morrow. Pp. 59-75, 107-112, 123-131.

07 Oct. (W) Film: The Popol Vuh

09 Oct. (F) Conclusion of film The Popol Vuh; discussion of film
                        PAPER 1 DUE BY 12 midnight; posted to the newsgroup vu.anth.anth263.paper1  

12 Oct. (M) Guatemala and the Maya today
                        CRITIQUES OF PAPER 1 DUE by 12 midnight posted to vu.anth.anth263.paper1

14 Oct. (W) Folklore and cultural adaptation; discuss paper 1

Warren, Kay B. 1993. Interpreting la violencia in Guatemala: shapes of Mayan silence and resistance. In: The Violence Within: Cultural and Political Opposition in Divided Nations, Kay B. Warren (ed.). Boulder: Westview Press. Pp. 25-56.

VI. The psychology of myth

16 Oct. (F) Psychoanalysis and the Oedipal Complex

Johnson, Allen W. and Douglass Price-Williams. 1996. Oedipus Ubiquitous: The Family Complex in World Folk Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Pp. 3-37.

19 Oct. (M) Folklore and the Oedipal Complex

Oedipus Ubiquitous, pp. 38-70

21 Oct. (W) Oedipal Comparisons: Sambia, Mehinaku, Mundurucu

                                        Oedipus Ubiquitous, relevant stories

23 Oct. (F) Family Complexes and Folk Tales

Oedipus Ubiquitous, pp. 71-103.

VII. Little Red Riding Hood, psychoanalysis and politics

26 Oct. (M) Little Red Riding Hood (Thompson tale type 333)

                                        Dundes, Allan, ed. 1989. Little Red Riding Hood: A Case Book.
                                        Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Pp. ix-xi, 3-20, 121-128.

28 Oct. (W) Psychoanalysis and Little Red Riding Hood

Dundes, Allan, ed. 1989. Little Red Riding Hood: A Case Book. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Pp.192-236

30 Oct. (F) The Politics of Little Red Riding Hood

                                        Zipes, Jack. 1983. The trials and tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood: versions of the tale in sociocultural context.
                                        South Hadley, Mass.: J.F. Bergin & Garvey Publishers. Pp. 1-15.

02 NOV. (M) TEST 2 (bring two A&S blue books and a pen to class)
                       

VIII. Tricksters

04 Nov. (W)    Trickster tales and resistance

                                        Scott, James C. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts.
                                        New Haven: Yale University Press. Pp. 156-166.

06 Nov. (F)    The Trickster in West Africa

                                        Pelton, Robert D. 1980. The Trickster in West Africa: A Study of Mythic Irony and Sacred Delight.
                                        Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 1-24.

09 Nov. (M)    Ananse the Spider
                                        Pelton, The Trickster in West Africa, pp.25-70.
                                        ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE by 12 midnight; posted to vu.anth.anth263.assign2

11 Nov. (W)    Discussion of Assignment #2   
                                        Read all of the submissions from your classmates, submitting comments and/or variations; consider
                                           how these tales should be categorized
                                            CLASS WILL MEET IN GARLAND HALL COMPUTER LAB (Rm. 119)

13 Nov. (F) Trickster practice and theory

                                        Pelton, The Trickster in West Africa, Pp. 223-284.

16 Nov. (M)   GUEST LECTURE: Carol Hendrickson

IX. Myth and Structure

18 Nov. (W) Structuralism, French and Otherwise

Leach, Edmund. 1989 {1970]. Claude Lévi-Strauss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 15-33.
PAPER 2 DUE BY 12 midnight, posted to vu.anth.anth263.paper2

20 Nov. (F) Myth and Science

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1995 [1978]. Myth and meaning. New York: Schocken. Chapters 1-2.
CRITIQUES OF PAPER 2 DUE by 12 midnight, posted to vu.anth.anth263.paper2

22-29 Nov. BREAK

30 Nov. (M) Mythic dualities

Lévi-Strauss, Myth and meaning, Chapters 3-4.

02 Dec. (W) Mythologics

selections of the Mythologiques series, to be handed out in class

04 Dec. (F) Open day

07 Dec. (M) Conclusions

12 Dec. (Sat.) ALTERNATE FINAL EXAM, 12 noon (bring A&S blue books and a pen to class) study guide