Local Hub Sites
Latest update: October 3, 2000.
jeannecurran@habermas.org.

Recommended Readings for jeanne's Classes:

The Yanomami

The Yanomami are the aboriginals in the midst of the anthropological crisis. Follow the Yanomami link, where you will find an entire set of readings and exam questions for all classes. jeanne. The Yanomami

Postmodernism

Readings on Postmodernism
Online.
'What ish my nation?': Towards a Negative Definition of Identity by Eugene O'Brien. Graduate level theory discussion. References to Derrida, Baudrillard, Bhabha, Horkheimer, Adorno and others.
Autobiography and Black Identity Politics: Racialization in 20th Century America Link added July 2000.

• Graduates: Exam Question

  Eugene O'Brien describes colonial identity in much the same way minority identity was described in Images of Color, Images of Crime, as identity stereotypically imposed upon a colonized people by the colonizers. For example the indigenous peoples of America (the Western hemisphere) were described as "noble savages" or as the Yanomami were seen in The Ax Fight of Napoleon Chagnon. Explain the dilemma of the colonial identity as an aspect of distributive justice.

  • Pass or Prepared? On Damien Hirst and Postmodernism
  • Pass or Prepared? On Postmodernism, Literature, and the Good Life

  Theory Class

  Readings:

  • Post-Colonial Identity
    The Post-Colonial Perspective: "Nationalism . . . seeks to represent itself in the image of the Enlightenment and fails to do so. For Enlightenment itself, to assert its sovereignty as the universal ideal, needs it Other; if it could ever actualise itself in the real world as the truly universal, it would in fact destroy itself. [fn. omitted]" From Homi K. Bhabha essay in Contemporary Social Theory, p. 211.

    Exam Question:

    Since there is no place really left for colonization, is it predictable that we will begin to look more closely at our definitions of nationalism, sovereignty, and colonialism? Explain.
  • "Constitutive Criminology and Social Justice", George Barak and Stuart Henry, in Bruce A. Arrigo, ed., Social Justice/Criminal Justice, Wadsworth Publishing. 1999. Chapter 8, pp. 152-175.

  • Marxism is Dead! Long Live Marxism! by Nasreen Karim on the Progressive Sociologists Network In preparation for our study of Marx.

  • The Yanomami Skim the controversy.

    Exam Questions:

    • Describe the adversarial compulsion you find in the Yanomami controversy, which threatens minimally bad publicity for the academy, and suggest a way this might have been avoided. What do you think Fellman might suggest? What do you think Henry and Milovanovic would have to say about the role of the media?
    • Has the book at the center of the controversy come out yet? What does this suggest about adversarial compulsion?

  Graduate Theory Review

  Tuesday, October 3:
  W.E.B. DuBois

  Request that students who are interested in this review let me know in what order they'd like to take theorists. We'll meet Tuesday in my office. I should be there from 4 p.m. on. jeanne

  Statistics Class

  Statistics Lab Material on the Yanomami for the week of October 2, 2000.

  Exam Question

  jeanne would have bolted as a kid if a stranger had approached her to measure her subcutaneous tissue. Even if it had been a stranger sanctioned by adults in her tribes. jeanne was not a trusting child. Maybe she was one of the orphaned Yanomami. Jeanne Anderson would not have bolted. As a future nurse she trusted the adults more. Perhaps she wasn't one of the orphaned ones. (jeanne and Jeanne are fantasizing their reactions, based on what they remember of their childhood. Jeanne says "It doesn't hurt!" jeanne says "Don't touch!" People, including children, react differently.

  Will these different reactions affect the results of the Yanomami study from the Cejal Project? Consider the qualitative results and the quantitative results.

  Love and Peace Class

  The Yanomami Controversy

  Exam Question

  If the Yanomami Controversy were taken as a peacemaking project for this class, what would you suggest? Is there a way to get from adversarialism to mutuality? Try to map out the roles of the Anthropology Association, those who defend positivism and scientific research of "primitive" peoples, and those who defend the right to respect of indigenous peoples. Try also to consider the interdependence of the social groups involved and the individuals involved.

  For a report of learning, you might consider describing what this controversy has taught you.

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