Anthropology

Egalitarian Societies

Jean Hudson, Associate Professor

Course: ANTHRO 193 SEM 001

Class Number: 33732

Credits: 3 SS

Time: TR 9:30-10:45 a.m.

Place: SAB 281

Course Description:

Why strive for equality? Why give it up, and become part of a system of haves & have-nots? What creates and maintains mutual respect among the members of a society? What allows unequal power relationships to develop and become institutionalized?

This seminar uses anthropology, the cross-cultural study of human societies past and present, to look for answers to these questions. We will start with small, nomadic hunter-gatherer societies, modern and archaeological, and look at how they have been used to model successful egalitarianism. This will introduce us to important concepts and research methods in cultural anthropology and archaeology. It will also get us thinking about autonomy and independence, personal values, gender relations, how children are raised, and how conflict is avoided. We will then look at other cultural groups, past and present, that show signs of developing inequalities, and explore anthropological models for how this transition occurs. By the end of the class you should be able to design viable components of a culture that could either keep people equal or let someone build chiefly power.

Work Involved:

We will use case studies, which means you will be reading some classic ethnographies and becoming expert on life in cultures quite different from your own, sharing details from your specific case study with others in the class. We will see film representations of various cultures in class and discuss them. We will develop our analytic skills, working to tease apart how the ethnographic present and the agendas of the writers and film makers influence what we learn, while at the same time trying to gather useful insights into these “other” peoples’ lives. We will have weekly shared readings on basic anthropological concepts and interpretive frameworks, and you will do weekly writing exercises on them as a prelude to our seminar discussions.

Grades will be based on your attendance and participation (25%), your presentation of your “expert” knowledge from the individual ethnographic readings (25%), and your ability to write clearly and succinctly about the concepts in our shared readings (25%). The final 25% of your grade will come from the culture you design as part of a group for the final project of the class.

Sample Reading:

J. Briggs (1970) Never in Anger; R. B. Lee (2002) The Dobe Ju/’Hoansi.

About the Instructor:

When I was 30 I spent 13 months backpacking in the tropical forest of the Central African Republic and living in Aka net-hunting camps. This forever changed my perspective on, and interest in, how people can live a nomadic hunter-gatherer life and how deep and persuasive a code of equality can be. Being an archaeologist by training, I find it natural and intriguing to imagine human cultures on the planet as part of a long trajectory of experiments in how to live well together. I hope this seminar will help you see the way anthropology provides a special window into the diversity of human culture, who we are as humans, and what we can be.