China
has been the home of humans for more than 1,000,000 years.*

Since this course aims to provide the context for understanding China and the Chinese today, it is valuable to appreciate the pre- and proto-historic roots of the Chinese and of the Chinese cultural system.

We have the luxury of detailed source materials about China written by Ssu-ma Ch'ien (Sima Qian) 2,000 and Marco Polo 700 years ago, and can understand many institutions and cultural perspectives. In 1750 China was the wealthiest country in the world and had far-flung economic interests. There followed a period of economic and political weakness during the 19th and more than half of the 20th century--China greatly underestimated the western "barbarians."

Since 1949, and particularly since 1980, change in China has been rapid, with some successful strategies (limiting population and raising the standard of living) posing unanticipated future challenges. China today is still the most populous country in the world, but not for long.

After several centuries as a weak nation, there has been remarkable growth in China's economic strength, making it a key player on the world scene once again.

Who should take this course?

China from Earliest Times to the 21st Century: Anthropological Perspectives deals with the background of nearly a quarter of humanity. It is a course that will be valuable to students interested in international business and marketing, social and behavioral sciences, education, and, partly because of the distinctive history of science and technology in China, to majors in science, agriculture, and engineering.

What are the course goals?

Students will benefit from the course in several ways:

• Gain knowledge about the continuity of peoples and cultures of China and about current issues and developments in China
• Recognize that the Chinese world view is different from that of the US--and therefore that the Chinese interpretation of US life, values, business motives, educational values, etc. is likely to vary from our own
• Understand the ways in which anthropology systematically studies ancient and modern culture, whether China's or own own
• Apply anthropological perspectives to understanding the broader context of current issues in China
• Evaluate information from US news sources, relating to China and other nations, more critically
• Develop a level of international competency--skills for evaluating our cultural system: recognize that our local and national decision-making transcends our borders; understand that others have legitimate and different perspectives from which to view our actions and motives; be able to forsee the problems associated with trying to impose US institutions on other cultures

How is the course organized?

There are 10 weeks of topics about China, past and present, that will employ anthropological methods and analysis. We will look at how people obtain and distribute goods and services, technology, family, political organization and social control, stratification, supernatural/cosmological beliefs, art and symbolism, and forces of culture change. Each meeting will divide into short periods for introducing topics, one or two longer periods for more in-depth discussion of the topics, and time to summarize and answer questions.

Every several weeks there will be a examination on the topics under discussion:

• Foundation, talking about anthropology and culture and covering the archaeological background for China and its peoples, from earliest times through the early Shang and Zhou states to the first unification under the Qin Dynasty 2200 years ago;
• Tradition, covering the culture during the Han, Southern Sung and Qing periods, focusing on economic base, kinship and social stratification, political controls, urban and rural life, etc.
• Modern China, particularly focusing on the current configuration of the culture, noting continuities and changes within tradition.

How will work be evaluated?

There will be three self-contained exams available over the internet, each lasting 75 minutes, and a class project that may be your work or that of a group. The project may be a written document but there is also a short oral presentation that may benefit from using posters, Power Point, etc. Each exam constitutes 20% of the course, the project 30% and class attendance/participation 10%.

* Further background information:

Many archaeologists and paleoanthropologists who study East Asia hold the view that modern humans derive largely from the original hominids (fossil ancestors of humans) in the region--a view controversial in light of dominant Western theory. This view is contested by scholars who mainly study archaeology in Africa and Western Europe and who believe the evidence shows that all modern humans derive from relatively young populations of fully modern people who evolved in and migrated from Africa to east Asia, replacing all earlier forms of hominids.

Uncontested is the view that 10,000 years ago ancestors of the modern peoples of China were manipulating plants to increase the quality and reliability of their food sources. By 8,000 years ago, village life emerged in several river valleys and coastal areas, evidently with food surpluses sufficient to support part and full time artisans. The extended family (lineage) is clearly important in social organization from this early time, a cultural feature that remains important today. Initially, the economic base of the farmers differed geographically--rice in central and south China, millet further north; water buffalo, pigs and dogs in central and south China, chickens, pigs and dogs in the north. Early on, there was sufficient innovation in agricultural technology to spread the various domesticates beyond their original regions and to absorb new varieties.

The current view almost all scholars accept is that the major cultural developments in China appear largely indigenous, or, if certain ideas and innovations were introduced (such as wheat, and later, riding the domestic horse), these were quickly altered to fit into the increasingly distinctive and complex societies of China. There was not wholesale importation of the food producing system, as earlier scholars believed. Later, Buddhism was a significant introduction that had wider ramifications within Chinese culture and society, although it too was changed in the course of its adaptation.

Cultures began to exhibit complexity in political forms and obvious differences in wealth among community members and between villages 6,000 years ago. State societies with well developed royal lineages can be recognized 4,000 years ago. Most of traditional China was under the control of different states until powerful states gobbled up the less powerful and, finally, Qin defeated the remarkable southern state of Chu, unifying traditional China under a single emperor 2,200 years ago.

There is some evidence of written symbols prior to the emergence of the state. Archaeology of the earliest states has yielded records, limited in their scope, typically preserved on bone and bronze, although occasional finds include silk and bamboo. Thus, archaeology is a main source of information on various aspects of Chinese culture throughout the first dynasties. After the Chinese achieved empire under the Qin, the ensuing centuries saw the institutionalization of a non-aristocratic bureaucracy. It was in theory and to some extent in practice a meritocracy. Those who became scholars versed in Chinese traditions (philosophy, ancient writings, poetry, etc.) could gain political prominence through a demonstration of that knowledge in examinations; their family line also prospered. There was sufficient truth to the system of meritocracy--individuals could rise from rags to positions of importance and wealth through education--to be a recurring theme throughout the arts.

Detailed snapshots of Chinese culture at several times in the past 2,000 years demonstrate both persistence of tradition and the deliberate cultural selection of innovations and imposed change. By and large, new ideas from outside were re-patterned to support the culture and minimize conflict. China's remarkable achievements--the wealthiest and most populous nation in 1750--and world-view led to subsequent resistance to developments and ideas emanating from the (barbarian) west and to internal unrest, leaving a weakened China vulnerable to external and internal political forces in the 1800s and thereafter. The Chinese imperial system persisted, amid significant change, of course, until past 1900.

The imperial system was discarded nearly a century ago but not the society's leaning toward powerful centralized authority. Half a century ago Chinese communism under Mao (as opposed to Soviet communism under Lenin and later Stalin) again unified the country and people and subsequently regained former lost territory.

The bureaucratic tradition in China remains strong, as do values associated with the extended family, education, and others. With an annual economic growth of around 5-8% per year for the last decade, there is now sufficient individual/family and national wealth, along with cheap labor, to warrant the interest of developed countries and multinational corporations in investment and doing business with the Chinese. Their success, however, will continue to depend on understanding the historical roots of modern China and the traditions that continue to influence how the Chinese approach and view other peoples and cultures, and how they must be approached.