Anthropology 4120 DSS, CI

Anthropology of Childhood

Tech 108 T & TH 9:00-10:15

Instructor: David F. Lancy   (dlancy@cc.usu.edu) ext. 71322 

Office Hours: 8:00-9:00 AM TTR, 3:30-4:30PM TTR, Old Main 245D.

Rhetoric Associates: Torrie Fedor (torrief@cc.usu.edu) and Diana Maxfield (dianamaxfield@gmail.com)

 

TA: Annette Grove (magrove@cc.usu.edu) Email her for an appointment.

 

"...every anthropologist owes to the world, for the privilege of having been an anthropologist, at least one good ethnography" Goldschmidt, W. (1976:1) Culture and Behavior of the Sebei. Berkeley: University of California.

 

This course offers a novel perspective on the lives of children and their families, On dozens of issues in the study of children and their families, the anthropological perspective—informed by current thinking in culture and human evolution—undermines academic and popular wisdom regarding what is “natural” or normal. Indeed, both theoretical and practical ideas about children’s development in contemporary mainstream society are shown to be quite culture-bound. Systematically, we will draw on a vast literature in anthropology, history and primatology to construct a representative and rich portrait of children and their caretakers. This portrait is multi-hued, colored by vivid descriptions from the ethnographic literature and numerous photographs and films.  Children are shown as infants, attached marsupial-like to their mothers; as toddlers under the care of older siblings; as 4-year olds acquiring their culture through make-believe; as 6 year olds eagerly learning to garden; as 8 year olds playing with peers; as 10 year olds foraging for their sustenance; as 14 year olds enduring painful ordeals to make them strong and; as 16 year old brides.  Throughout, comparisons are drawn between the childhood described by anthropologists in pre-modern or traditional societies and contemporary Euroamerican and East Asian childhood. We won’t flinch, however, in revealing children’s lives in the now deeply impoverished communities found throughout the Third World. We conclude with discussing recommendations for policy initiatives that are informed by the anthropologists’ perspective rather than the, frequently ethnocentric, perspective that informs most current efforts to improve children’s well-being.

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Students can take this course to fulfill the University Studies "Communications Intensive" (CI) and Depth Social Science requirements and the Anthropology major's "Methods" requirement. In the CritSum assignment, students will read and review anthropological studies of childhood from the U.S. and abroad. These will be taken apart in class to highlight the questions being posed/answered as well as the research techniques used.  For their second writing assignment, students will pursue a specific research question in the ethnographic record and present their research in class for the benefit of other students and publish it online. The two major writing/speaking assignments go through at least two drafts and students meet with a Rhetoric Associate to improve their writing/speaking. To learn more about the program and your RAs, go to: (http://www.usu.edu/raprogram)

 

Mastery of course material and the development of analytical skills will be assessed through several quizzes, class participation, the written assignments and a comprehensive, open-notebook essay final exam.

 

I encourage you to use me as a sounding-board for your brainstorms and queries. Write to me on email. My response may be brief and telegraphic but it will be prompt and, usually, on the money: david.lancy@usu.edu

 

WebCT

 

The course website can be found on WebCT. Students are encouraged to utilize the information and tools that are contained on the site, which includes instructions and resources for the writing assignments, quizzes, student grades and other resources.

 

To access the USU WebCT system, go to http://webct.usu.edu and enter your UserID and your password. Your UserID is your Banner ID Number. Your password will default as your Banner PIN, but once you log-on the first time it can be changed. You will then be taken to a page listing all WebCT courses you are enrolled in. Our course is listed as ANTH 4120: Anthropology of Childhood.

 

 Another electronic element used in the course is USU’s Electronic Reserve System (ERES), through which you will access the assigned articles. To access our course reserves go to http://eres.usu.edu, then find the class by searching by either instructor (Lancy) or course number (4120). We recommend you bookmark this site. All course reserves are password protected, our password is lowercase, no spaces lan4120.

 

ASSIGNMENTS

Reading Assignments

 

You will need to purchase the following texts, which will be provided—in a set—by the instructor. The cost is $35, payable, by check, to Utah State University.

 

Lancy, David F. (1996) Playing on the Mother Ground: Cultural Routines for Children’s Development. New York: Guilford. (Book)

Lancy, David F. (2008) The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Lancy, David F. and Grove, M. Annette (2003-7) The Anthropology of Childhood: Annotated Bibliography.

(CD-ROM)

 

Available on Electronic Reserve (ERES)

 

Daly, Martin and Wilson, Margo (1984) A sociobiological analysis of human infanticide. In Gerald  Hausfater & Sarah B. Hrdy (Eds.) Infanticide: Comparative and evolutionary perspectives (pp 487-502) New York: Aldine

 

Lancy, David F. (2001) Cultural constraints on children’s play. In Jaipaul L. Roopnarine (Ed) Play and Culture Studies Vol 4. (pp. 53-62).  Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

 

Raitt, Margaret  &  Lancy, David F. (1988) Rhinestone Cowgirl: The Education  of a Rodeo Queen. Play and Culture, 1: 267-281.

Polak, Barbara (2003) Little peasants: On the importance of reliability in child labour. In D’Almeida-Topor, Hèléne, Monique Lakroum and Gerd Spittler (Eds.) Le travail en Afrique noire: Représentations et pratiques à l’époque contermporaine. (pp. 125-136). Paris: Karthala.

 

Bock, John & Johnson, Sara E. (2004) Play and Subsistence Ecology among the Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. Human Nature, 15(1): 63-82.

Lancy, David F. (2007) Accounting for variability in mother-child play. American Anthropologist, 109(2).

 

Lancy, David F., Grove, M. Annette (2006) “Baby-parading:” Child care or showing off? Paper presented at Symposium “Defining Childhood: Cross-cultural Perspectives,” Annual Meeting Society for Anthropological Sciences, Savannah, GA., February.

 

Schlegel, Alice (1991) Status, Property, and the Value on Virginity. American Ethnologist, 18(4): 719-734.

 

Writing Assignments

 

Chapter Reviews (ChapRevs)

The readings assigned in this class have been selected to reflect a variety of perspectives in ethnography and the study of children. Please read the assigned material in advance. This is a seminar and you will be called on to lead discussion. To facilitate this process, you are to write brief notes (maximum one page, use list-like style) on the assigned reading. What are the 5 or six main points? For a research study, note topic, setting and methods employed. Also ponder the question being asked or the purpose of the study. What conclusions can be drawn? What generalizations can be made about child development or culture and children?   Type up your ChapRev and use these notes as "cue cards" for yourself as we discuss each of the articles/ chapters in turn. Then hand in these “ChapRevs “after class. This is a pass/fail assignment. They are worth 5 points each for a maximum of 50 points. ChapRevs only count if you show up to class and participate. You will draw numbers corresponding to 12  of the 21 ChapRevs—you select 10 of the 12 to do . You may bring your collection of ChapRevs and class notes to the Final Exam.

 

 

Critical Summary Paper (CritSum)

In the list that follows you will find several article-length studies that offer a cross-section of the anthropological literature on childhood. You are to write a 1 page typed review of one of them.  Your CritSum should include bibliographic info (see sample) a summary of the article as well as critical commentary re methodology and conclusions. The articles for the Critical Summaries assignment will be distributed during the first class session. They will be distributed randomly, but feel free to swap w/ classmates if there’s an article you’re particularly interested in. A sample CritSum can be found on the class website under the Writing Assignment Instructions icon.  Run a draft of your CritSum by one of your classmates, revise and then turn in a draft in the box outside OM 245D.  I will pass it on to your Rhetoric Associate (RA). She will read it and then meet, individually, with you to provide guidance as to how your paper can be improved. Revise the (ungraded draft) paper and submit the final draft to me. I will grade them on technical proficiency, including spelling and grammar, thoroughness (evidence that you read the article and can summarize it) and analytical insight (evidence that you understood the article and can relate it to issues raised in the course). CritSums that meet these criteria will be posted to the Anthropology of Childhood Website in the Recommended Readings Section.  Failure to meet deadlines, including your RA meeting, will have a severe, negative effect on your grade.

 

Later, during the semester, you will present your CritSum to the entire class. Check the Semester Schedule to determine when you’ll be “up.” These presentations should take about 5” The CritSum is worth 20 points.

 

List of eligible articles for CritSum

 

1.      Reynolds, Pamela, Nieuwenhuys, Olga, and Hanson, Karl (2006) Refractions of children’s rights in development practice: a view from anthropology introduction. Childhood, 13(3):291-302.

2.      Jacquemin, Melanie Y. (2004) Children’s domestic work in Abidjan, Cote d' Ivoire: the petites bonnes have the floor.  Childhood, 11(3):383-397.

3.      Fouts, Hillary N. (2004) Social and emotional contexts of weaning among Bofi farmers and foragers. Ethnology, 43(1):65-81.

4.      Kramer, Karen L. (2002) Variation in Juvenile Dependence: Helping Behavior among Maya Children. Human Nature, 13(2):299-325.

5.      Bereczkei, Thomas & Dunbar, R.I.M (1997). Female-biased reproductive strategies in a Hungarian Gypsy population. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 264:17-22.

6.      Geronimus, Arline T. (1996) What Teen Mothers Know.  Human nature; an interdisciplinary biosocial perspective, 4(4):323-352.

7.      Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra (1999) Kimono and the construction of gendered and cultural identities. Ethnology, 38(4):351-370.

8.      Karsten, Lia (2003) Children’s use of public space: the gendered world of the playground. Childhood, 10(4): 457-473.

9.      Brison, Karen J. (1999) Hierarchy in the world of Fijian children. Ethnology, 38(2):97-119.

10.  Goodwin, Marjorie Harness (1998). Games of Stance: Conflict and Footing in Hopscotch. In Kids Talk: Strategic Language Use in Later Childhood, Hoyle, Susan M. & Adger, Carolyn Temple (Eds.). New York: Oxford University Press.

11.  Palmer, Susan J. (1999) Frontiers and Families: The Children of Island Pond. In Children in New Religions, Palmer, Susan J. and Hardman, Charlotte E. (Eds.). Pp. 153-171. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

12.  Blurton Jones, N.G., Hawkes, K., & O’Connell, J.F. (1997) Why do Hadza children forage? In Uniting Psychology and Biology: Integrative Perspectives on Human Development, N.L. Segal, G.E. Weisfeld, & C.C. Weisfeld (Eds.). Pp.279-313. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.          

13.  Wallaert-Petre, Helene (2001) Learning to Make the Right Pots: Apprenticeship Strategies and Material Culture, A Case Study in Handmade Pottery from Cameroon. Journal of Anthropological Research, 57:471-493.

14.  Tronick, E. Z. (1994) The Quechua Manta Pouch: A Caretaking Practice for Buffering the Peruvian Infant Against the Multiple Stressors of High Altitude. Child Development, 65: 1005-1013.

15.  Bey, Marguerite (2003) The Mexican Child: From Work with the Family to Paid Employment. Childhood, 10(3): 287-299.

16.  Maynard, Ashley E., Greenfield, Patrician M., and Childs, Carla P. (1999) Culture, history, biology and body: Native and non-native acquisition of technological skill. Ethos, 27(3): 379-402.

17.  Bird, Douglas W. and Bird, Rebecca Bliege (2002) Children on the Reef: Slow Learning or  Strategic Foraging? Human Nature, 13(2): 269-397. And Bird, Rebecca Bliege, and Bird, Douglas W. (2002) Constraints of Knowing or  Constraints of Growing? Fishing and Collection by the Children of Mer. Human Nature, 13(2): 239-267.

18.                     Kramer, Karen L. (2002) Variation in Juvenile Dependence: Helping Behavior among Maya 
      Children. Human Nature, 13(2): 299-325

19.  Hames, Raymond, & Draper, Patricia (2004) Women’s work, child care, and helpers-at-the-nest in a hunter-gatherer society. Human Nature, 15(4): 319-341.

20.  Lonsdorf, Elizabeth (2005) Sex differences in the development of termite-fishing skills in the

wild chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, of Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Animal Behavior, 70, 673-683.

21.  Oleke, Christopher, Blystad, Astrid, Moland, Karen Marie, Rekdal, Ole Bjorn, & Heggenhougen, Kristian (2005) The varying vulnerability of African orphans: the case of the Langi, northern Uganda. Childhood, 13(2): 267-284.

22.  Evans, R. M. C. (2004) Tanzanian childhoods: street children’s narratives of “home.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 22(1):  69-92.

23.  Birgitta Rubenson, Le Thi Hanh, Bengt Höjer, and Eva Johansson (2005) Young Sex-Workers in Ho Chi Minh City Telling Their Life Stories. Childhood, 12: 391-41.

24.  Sjogren-De Beauchaine, A. (1998) The Bourgeoisie in the dining room: Meal ritual and cultural process in Parisian families of today. Stockholm: Institutet for Folkslivsforskining.

25.  Allison, Anne (1991) Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch-Box as Ideological State Apparatus. Anthropological Quarterly, 64:195-208.

26.  Snow, Catherine E.  and Beals, Diane E.  2006. Mealtime talk that supports literacy development. in  Family Mealtime as a Context of Development and Socialization. Larson, Reed W., Angela R. Wiley, and Kathryn R. Branscomb, eds. New Directions for Child Development, Number 111. Pp. 51-66San Francisco, CA: Wiley

27.  Goldstein, Donna M. (1998) Nothing bad intended: child discipline, punishment, and survival in Shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In Small Wars: The Cultural Politics of Childhood. Nancy Scheper-Hughes & Carolyn Sargent (Eds.). Pp. 389-415. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

28.  Katz, Cindy (2005)  The Terrors of Hypervigilance: Security and the Compromised Spaces of Contemporary Childhood. In Studies in Modern Childhood. Qvortrup, Jens (Ed.). Pp. 99-114. Houndsmills,UK: Palgrave Macmillian.

29.  Pandya, Vishvanjit (2005) Deforesting among Adamanese Children. In Barry S. Hewlett and Michael E. Lamb, Hunter Gatherer Childhoods: Evolutionary, Developmental, and Cultural Perspectives. Pp. 385-406.  New Brunswick, NJ: AldineTransaction.

 

 

Ethnology Project

You are to carry out a small-scale study during the semester. I will work with you, individually, to plan your study and will consult with you during the course of the study. An ethnology is a comparative study where you drawn on several ethnographies of distinct cultures in order to look for underlying patterns of cultural variation or similarity. Broad similarity might be evidence of a biologically based, cultural universal. Variation might be due to differences in ecology or subsistence. A sample ethnology has been prepared by Annette Grove and you will find it in the Writing Assignments section of the class Homepage. Annette will also discuss “Baby-Parading: How fathers become chick magnets,” in class in February.

 

The theme of the ethnology should relate to children, families and/or schools. Annette and I have compiled a sample topic list and you will find it in the Writing Assignments section of the class Homepage. You may select one of these topics or design your own study. Your ethnology should have a brief Lit Review stating the problem or general area in which you’ve chosen to explore (e.g. “How do fathers interact with infants?”). Then you will review the Evidence you’ve found, listing and providing brief descriptions of the particular phenomenon as described in several ethnographies. And, lastly, you will prepare a Discussion section in which you try and tease apart what the purpose or function of this particular phenomenon might be (e. g. baby-parading enhances mating opportunities).

 

You have three possible sources. First, you can search on key terms in your topic in The Anthropology of Childhood: Annotated Bibliography that you acquired at the beginning of the semester. This Bibliography runs to 1500 pages. If you find promising sources, you may want to obtain the originals (most of the articles are available from me, books you’ll need to find on your own.

 

Second, you can search various archives on your own such as

Anthrosource: library.usu.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.anthrosource.net/

Or JSTOR: library.usu.edu:2048/login?url=http://www.jstor.org/

 

Third, the one source you are required to use is the Human Relations Area Files, a huge archive of ethnographic material. A class period will be set aside to discuss this assignment and to show you how to use HRAF.

 

You'll have an opportunity to discuss your nascent ideas with the class on March 6th. Come to class prepared to discuss your Ethnology Project and turn in your Working Bibliography.

 

Submit a polished draft (approximately 5 pages, including references) of your ethnology in class on April 12th.  I will pass it on to your Rhetoric Associate (RA). She will read it and then meet, individually, with you to provide guidance as to how your ethnography can be improved. Revise the (ungraded draft) paper and submit the final draft to me as an email attachment on April 24th.  I will grade them on technical proficiency, including spelling and grammar, completeness of the literature search and review, research design, adequacy of effort, clarity of writing, and originality of thought. The highest accolade will be to publish the best papers on the Anthropology of Children website.

 

During the last two weeks of the semester, you will share your results with your classmates. Each student will have approximately 10 minutes to present. Preferred style is to talk us through the study using PowerPoint slides. You will preview your PowerPoint with Annette Grove and she will offer suggestions on how it might be improved. A model PowerPoint is available for guidance; please see the Ethnology Instructions link on the Homepage. There will be time for questions and discussion (invite friends and family). You can earn up to 60 points for your ethnology. Of these, up to 10 points will be awarded for sincere effort and timeliness. Up to 20 points will be awarded for the oral presentation with 30 points remaining for the written report.

 

Quizzes

There are six quizzes covering readings, films and lecture. They are worth 10 points each and the lowest score is dropped. Please find the Quiz icon on the class Homepage. Dates for quizzes are given on the Calendar—also on the Homepage.

 

Exam

A comprehensive final exam will test your understanding of major themes in the course, including both ethnographic methods and the anthropology of childhood. It will be open notebook with several medium-length essay questions and some choice. You can earn up to 30 points on the exam.

 

Attendance

Attendance is recorded and, in view of the seminar-nature of the class, skipping more than a couple classes would signify that you have missed significant content and your grade might be affected. Attendance at all the “Oral Presentation” sessions—out of respect for your classmates and colleagues—is mandatory.

 

Schedule Winter Semester

 

Please follow the Schedule and read assignments BEFORE the day they’re assigned.

 

Introduction

Aside from going over the nuts and bolts, I’ll draw on the first chapter of Cherubs, Chattel and Changelings to set the scene. We’ll consider such basic questions as What are children? and Why do people have them?

 

1/9 T       Introductory Lecture: Chapter 1 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings.

 

Film Festival

 

In order to get into the whole notion of childhood in cultural context, you need to hold in your head a collection of scenarios drawn from strikingly contrastive cultures. Hence the next ten days of the semester are devoted to a kind of “Film Festival” to assist you in constructing these scenarios. Children are not necessarily the focus of these films. Unfortunately, children are rarely of interest to film-makers as they find more exciting things to focus on. But, as the class proceeds and we talk about Bantu pastoralists or South American forest dwellers you’ll be able to conjure up an image of what that might look like from a child’s perspective. We’ll also screen “off the Veranda” which tells the story of Bronislaw Malinowski in the Trobriand Islands and how he “invented” the science of ethnography. Some of the films will be shown in class and some you’re to view in the A/V Area of the Sci/Tech Library as “Homework.” One-two quiz questions will be drawn from each film.

 

1/11 TR           Films: At the Autumn River Camp; Herders of Mongun-Taiga; Dead Birds; The Korubo; The Nature of Culture.

                        View as Homework: A Man Called Bee

                       

1/16  T Films: The Mende; In Search of Cool Ground.

                        View as Homework: Masai Women

 

1/18 TR           Film: "Off the Verandah" The history of ethnography.

View as Homework: Bushmen of the Kalahari; TaramThe Maningkabau

                       

1/23 T Quiz #1 Online, available from 7AM-11PM. Covers the eleven films and Introductory Lecture.

 

Gbarngasuakwelle

 

We’ll spend three class periods studying children’s culture in the Kpelle town Gbarngasuakwelle. Kpelle culture is similar in many ways to the Mende culture portrayed in the film we viewed on 1/16.

 

1/23 T  Reading Assignment: Lancy (1996) Playing on the Mother Ground, Chapters 1, 2 & 3.         

Writing Assignment Due: Chapters 1,3 (ChapRev #1) Chapter 2= (ChapRev #2).

 

Draft of Critical Summary (CritSum) Paper Due. Place in envelope circulating in class Sign-up for RA conference. These will be scheduled for TR and F.

 

1/25 TR           Reading Assignment: Lancy, D.F (1996) Playing on the Mother Ground, Chapters 5,6,7,8.  Writing Assignment Due: ChapRev #3 (Chapters 5,6) ChapRev #4 (Chapters 7,8).

 

 

1/30 T  Reading Assignment: Lancy, D.F (1996) Playing on the Mother Ground, Chapters 9,10.  Writing Assignment Due: ChapRev #5 (Chapter 9) ChapRev #6 (Chapter 10).

Revise CritSum Paper based on peer and RA feedback.

 

2/1 TR Quiz #2 Online, available from 7am-11PM. Covers Playing on the Mother Ground.

Final draft of CritSum Paper Due.

 

The Ethnology Project

 

As explained above, the major research/writing project in this class is called an “Ethnology.” To prepare for today’s class, read the instructions on the class website, look over the list of possible topics and read three articles. These articles are all based on research that follows the Ethnology model and should suggest ideas for yours.

 

2/1 TR        Discuss and prepare for Ethnology Project. Come to class with

a couple project ideas that you can bounce off the Instructor and classmates. Reading assignments: Lancy, David F. (2007) Accounting for variability in mother-child play. American Anthropologist 109(2): ChapRev #7

 

Lancy, David F., Grove, M. Annette (2006) “Baby-parading:” Child care or showing off? Paper     presented at Symposium “Defining Childhood: Cross-cultural Perspectives,” Annual Meeting Society for Anthropological Sciences, Savannah, GA., February. ChapRev #8

 

Schlegel, Alice (1991) Status, Property, and the Value on Virginity. American Ethnologist, 18(4):719- 734. ChapRev #9

 

2/5-7         One-on-one meetings with Instructor to formulate Ethnology        Project.

 

 2/8 TR            Learning how to access data-sources for your Ethnology. Session conducted by Annette Grove in  Lib Room # TBA...

 

The Caretaker’s Perspective

 

In this section of the course, we’ll consider the varying perspectives of those who have and care for children. We’ll see that the biological parents are only two among many concerned kin in the nurturing of children.  We also note that the value of children varies widely.

 

2/13 T              Reading Assignments: To Make a Child, Chapter 2 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. ChapRev #10.

 

                        Daly, M. & Wilson, M. (1984). A sociobiological analysis of human infanticide. In G. Hausfater & S.B Hrdy (Eds.), Infanticide: Comparative and evolutionary perspectives (pp 487-502). New York: Aldine ChapRev #11.

 

2/15 TR   Reading Assignment: The Child’s Worth, Chapter 3 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. ChapRev #12

                        Present: CritSum.

 

2/20, 22 No Class: Monday classes on Tuesday and SASci Conference latter part of week.

 

2/27 T              Reading Assignment: It Takes a Village, Chapter 4 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. ChapRev #13

 

3/1 TR     Reading Assignment: Making Sense, Chapter 5 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. ChapRev #14 Present: CritSum.

 

 

3/6 T    Quiz #3 Online, available from 7am-11PM. Covers readings from 2/13 through 3/1.

 

Children Growing into Their Adult Roles

 

As we discovered last week, children's greatest value to their kin may be as workers. And, best of all, parents don't see the need to actually teach them how to do their work; they figure it out on their own, often through play.  Some teaching does occur, however, in the mastery of complex crafts and moral lessons are conveyed during initiation rites.

 

3/6 T                      Films: Gorillas at Play (12”); Debe's Tantrum (9”); Arrows

(10”); Children's Magical Death (7”)

 

3/8 TR    Reading Assignment: Of Marbles and Morals, Chapter 6 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. ChapRev #15.

 

Bock, John and Johnson, Sara E. (2004) Play and Subsistence Ecology among the Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. Human Nature 15(1) 63-82.  ChapRev # 16.

 

3/13, 15  No Class: Spring Break

 

3/20 T     Film: Not to be Modern: The Amish

 

3/22 TR   Reading Assignments: His First Goat: Chapter 7 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings.  ChapRev # 17.

 

Polak, Barbara (2003) Little peasants: On the importance of reliability in child labour. In D’Almeida-Topor, Hèléne, Monique Lakroum and Gerd Spittler (Eds.) Le travail en Afrique noire: Représentations et pratiques à l’époque contermporaine p. 125-136. Paris: Karthala. ChapRev #18.

Present: CritSum.

 

3/27 T     Reading Assignment: Hardenberg, Roland 2006. Hut of the

young girls: Transition from childhood to adolescence in a middle Indian tribal society. in Deepak K. Behera (ed.), Childhoods in South Asia. Pp. 65-81, Singapore: Pearson Education ChapRev #

 

MacDonald, Katherine 2007. Cross-cultural comparison of learning in human hunting: Implications for life history evolution. Human Nature 18: 386-402. ChapRev #

 

Leavitt, Stephen C. (1998) The Bikhet Mystique: Masculine identity and patterns of rebellion among Bumbita adolescent males. In Adolescence in Pacific Island Societies. Herdt, Gilbert & Leavitt, Stephen C. (Eds.) Pp. 173-194. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. ChapRev #

 

Ohmagari, Kayo and Berkes, Fikret (1997) Transmission of indigenous knowledge and bush skills among the Western James Bay Cree women of Subarctic Canada. Human Ecology, 23(2): 197-222. ChapRev #

 

3/29 TR   Reading Assignment: Living in Limbo: Chapter 8 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. ChapRev # 19.

 

 

4/3  T   Come to class prepared to discuss your Ethnology Project and turn in your working bibliography

Quiz #4 Online, available from 7am-11PM. Covers readings and films from 3/6 through 3/27.

 

 

4/5  TR      

                                                      .

4/10 T Quiz #5 Online, available from 7am-11PM. Covers

readings and film from 4/3 through 4/5.

 

Contemporary Children: In School, On the Job and In the Streets

 

In this last segment, we'll look at children around the globe and assess theirsituation and discuss ideas on how to improve the conditions of childhood.

 

4/10 T              Reading Assignment: How Schools Can Raise Property Values: Chapter 9 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. ChapRev # 25.

 

Raitt, M.  &  Lancy, D. F. (1988) Rhinestone Cowgirl: The Education of a Rodeo Queen. Play and Culture 1 , 267-281.

ChapRev #26. Present CritSum.

 

4/12 TR   Films: ?“Children of Shadows,”? “We Are Not Beggars,” (30”)“Danger: Children at Work.” (27”)

 Due: Draft of Ethnology Paper. Place in envelope circulating in class Sign-up for RA conference. These will be scheduled for TR and F.

 

4/14-16   Revise Ethnology Paper based on RA feedback and prepare Powerpoint.

 

4/16-20   Sign-up to meet with Annette Grove to critique and improve your Powerpoint.

 

4/17 T     Reading Assignment: Suffer the Children: Chapter 10 from The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, Changelings. ChapRev #27.

 

4/19 TR           Quiz #6 Online, available from 7am-11PM. Covers readings and films and from 4/10 through 4/17.

 

4/19 TH                  Oral Presentations

               Student presentations summarizing their studies.

     

4/24 T                    Oral Presentations

               Student presentations summarizing their studies.

Final draft of Ethnology Paper due.

 

4/26 TH                  Oral Presentations

               Student presentations summarizing their studies.

 

5/2                          7:30-9:20 Final Exam

 

 

Grades

Ethnology = up to 60 points

ChapRevs = up to 50 points

CritSum = up to 20 points

Quizzes - up to 50 points

Final Exam = up to 30 points

 

 

If your total score=197+, grade=A;

189-196=A-;

182-185=B+;

176-181=B;

168-165=B-; etc.

 

Accommodating Disabilities

If a student has a disability that will likely require some accommodation, the student must inform the instructor and provide documentation through the Disability Resource Center. Any requests for special consideration must be discussed with and approved by the instructor during the first week of class. In cooperation with the DRC, course materials can be provided in alternative formats.