ANT 35201 Development Anthropology Dr. Dorothy Wills
71768 Fall Quarter, 2009 Cal Poly Pomona
Instructor: Dorothy D. Wills, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology
Class meetings: TTh 10:00-11:50, Bldg. 5:143
Office hours: MW 9:00 – 11:00, TTh 1:00 – 2:00, or by appointment, located in Bldg. 5-149, 869-3582
Email: ddwills@csupomona.edu
Web page: www.csupomona.edu/~ddwills
No final exam.
Community economics and anthropology; sociocultural change and the phenomenon of “globalization” throughout the non-Western world. Emphasis on processes and institutional adaptations relating to evolving economic activities in less developed countries. Dynamic nature of culture and society as viewed from a developmental perspective. 4 hours seminar/discussion. Prerequisite: ANT 102, ANT 112, or permission of instructor.
This course is primarily designed for Anthropology majors in the General Anthropology option. However, others are welcome.
Text (to be purchased): Development Anthropology. Encounters in the Real World, Riall Nolan. Westview Press, 2002 or latest edition.
Other materials will be provided in class or assigned from the library. Some may be placed on BlackBoard or on the web page for your class. You are responsible for finding information for your research projects. The Internet alone will not suffice.
CSU Employee Furloughs – Impact on Classes
This year across this campus and around the CSU system some class days will be cancelled because of furloughs. A furlough is mandatory un-paid time off; faculty and staff on each CSU campus are being “furloughed” two days per month.
These cancelled class days are marked on your syllabus below. It is important to recognize that these days off are not holidays. Instead, they are concrete examples of how massive state budget cuts have consequences for you as students and for me as a faculty member.
The CSU has suffered chronic underfunding for at least 10 years. This year the budget cuts are the worst in the history of our university system — $584 million or 20% of our budget.
The CSU administration is attempting to deal with these cuts with huge increases in your student fees (32%), eliminations of your classes, and lay-offs of faculty and other university employees.
In addition to paying higher fees, you will be affected by reduced services and classes. The library will have shorter hours. Many campus support services will be decreased or eliminated. It will be more difficult to get signatures to meet deadlines. Classes you need may have been cut from the class schedule or are full.
If you would like to take action, or simply learn more, I strongly recommend you contact the California Faculty Association or Students for a Quality Education yourvoice_calpoly@yahoo.com on campus.
Furlough dates for me: 9/28, 10/14, 10/20, 11/12, 11/16, 12/4. I will not be available on any of these days.
Sept. 24 Overview of course, assignments, terminology, and basic approaches. Indigenous peoples. A very broad look at pre-colonial conditions, colonialism, post-colonial movements, development policy, and globalization. Assessment and general discussion.
Reading assignment: Nolan Preface and Part I, Ch. 1.
Sept. 29 Discuss reading. The issue of scale. Is the United States a ‘Third World’ country? A close look at the map of the world and various issues affecting development. Where does anthropology fit in?
Oct. 1 The inter-related issues of poverty, population, poor health. The three Rs: resources, rates, and relations. Decades of development ‘solutions’.
Reading assignment: Ch. 2
Oct. 6 Economic and political philosophy. The notion of progress. Capitalism and commercialization. Trickle-down economics, structural adjustment, militarization, deregulation.
Assignment: Begin to think about your three projects: a country; a problem or issue; and an organization, movement, or agency. Information on approaches and requirements will be given in class.
Oct. 8 Discuss reading. The “two cultures” in relation to development issues. The role(s) of anthropologists. Violence, poverty, and the destruction of nature.
Reading assignment: Ch. 3
Assignment: Select topics for projects.
Oct. 13 Discuss readings. The Western concept of the frontier. European imperialism, urbanization and centralization, plantation economics. The new world order. Present topics for the three reports.
Reading assignment: “Shadow Work” (handed out in class).
Oct. 15 Discuss topics in greater detail. The concept of ‘shadow work’. The anti-colonial struggle in various places. The issue of terrorism. People against the state. Genocide, peasant rebellions, and student uprisings. The case of Nigeria.
Reading assignment: Ch. 4
You must be here today for your role assignment in Pedagogia.
Oct. 20 “Pedagogia” simulation (handout given in class). Finish topic check-ins.
Oct. 22 Simulation. Shadow work.
Reading assignment: Ch. 5
Oct. 27 The log frame. Go over readings. AID in Afghanistan.
Reading assignment: McDonaldization handout.
Oct. 29 Faculty furlough day. Work on projects.
Reading assignment: Ch. 6
Nov. 3 “McDonaldization”. The slave trade and its continuing effects. Social change theory. Communications and information. The huge issue of migration. Colonial administration; policy differences between the imperialists. Families, households, and communities in traditional, transitional, colonial, and modern contexts. The concept of cultural hegemony.
Assignment: Get ready to post on BlackBoard or present in class the overview of your three topics (instructions to be given in class).
Nov. 5 Anti-globalization movements. Evolution of specialization, professionalization, and managed life. The role of formal education. The issue of local government and development politics. Traditional rulers in modern nations. Case study: the ENEA Project.
Reading assignment: “Spread of Disease” (handout).
Nov. 10 Food, hunger, mal-nutrition, and mortality rates. Agriculture and the Green Revolution. Roles and status of women and children. The importance of education. Literacy projects and non-formal education. Women in development. The notion of equity. People-centered development.
Reading assignment: Ch. 7
Be in class for instructions on Kigoma.
Nov. 12 Furlough day. Prepare exercise: Kigoma case study (handout).
Nov. 17 Kigoma discussion. Land tenure and reform movements. The issue of housing. Infra-structure: transportation and roads, electricity, water and sewer, health care, building safety, public agencies, schools. Endogenous development programs. Regional and local organizations managing change in the future. Cultural diversity.
Reading assignment: Ch. 8
Nov. 19 The issue of the environment: pollution, waste, land loss, water supply, exhaustion of resources, extinction, deforestation, climate change, disease. Sustainable systems. Public health and disease conditions in developing countries. Case study of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Reading assignment: Ch. 9
Nov. 24 Social engineering and change. The issue of work in the context of world trade. Class and caste in the global context. Democracy and citizenship; violent states. Log frame exercise in class (handout).
Reading assignment: Ch. 10
Dec. 1 Spirituality and the roles of organized religion. Social problems in (not only!) developing countries: substance abuse, trafficking, slavery, drug and illicit species trade. Crime. “Big men” in small nations. The special problem of corruption.
Reading assignment: “Piracy by Patent” handout.
Reading assignment: Ch. 11 and Appendix.
Dec. 3 Economic globalization. The price of progress. The issue of technology, private vs. collective ownership, and intellectual property. PVOs, NGOs, aid agencies, multi-laterals, trade institutions, and the United Nations. Independence, self-determination, and human rights. Where do we go from here?
No final exam.
NOTE: This outline and reading schedule are provisional. We may decide to make changes, in which case the new version will be posted on the web site. Any additional homework assignments will be made in class.
A field trip to World Vision in Monrovia may be scheduled some time during the quarter, on a day/time most convenient to the most students. Other activities, such as guest speakers, may also be introduced into the schedule. When this happens, the events called for on certain dates in the outline will be changed to accommodate the new activity. Keep to the reading assignments on schedule, however. Some materials may be placed on BlackBoard to facilitate your participation.
You will develop expertise in three areas: 1) a developing country (I will help you make a selection, if you like), 2) an issue related to development and globalization (e.g., electrification, food supply, tourism … ), 3) an organization involved in development work of some kind (governmental, non-governmental, or community-based). You will be discussing your research on these areas throughout the quarter, in brief oral reports. You will also turn in a 3 - 5 -page research paper on each one at the end of the quarter. Evaluation of reading comprehension will be based on class discussion, or quizzes, if necessary. There will be no final exam. Grades will be calculated as follows:
Country research . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%
Issue research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25%
Organization research . . . . . . . . 25%
Discussion and participation. . . . 25%
100%
The usual strictures regarding plagiarism apply to all your work. Your reports should contain formal citations of literature and a complete list of works consulted. A useful book is William Kelleher Storey, Writing History: A Guide for Students, 2nd ed., Oxford UP, 2004; it addresses issues of citation of references, organization, and composition. You are expected to attend class and participate. If you must miss a class, kindly inform me ahead of time.