HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: sociology & anthropology

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Yehuda Goodman

Coordinator Email: ygoodman@huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: R4507 M 2-3 email appt

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Yehuda Goodman

Course/Module description:
We will explore psychological anthropology emphasizing current theories of subjectivity as developed mainly in the USA. Underscoring theoretical inquiry through ethnography, we'll follow changes in the past century and in recent decades: From Culture and Personality research to research into cultural relativism in constructing the self and we'll examine new conceptualization of the self like the fragmented self and self in context, self in action, self and institutions and subjectivity as a replacement for the self.

Course/Module aims:
Critical reading in psychological anthropology, following an analytical history of it and learning major currents and principles, thus setting the ground for future research within this paradigm.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
-- Identify core principles in the early and current conceptualizations in psychological anthropology
-- Follow closely changes in the psychological anthropology paradigm.
-- Categorize the various approaches within this paradigm
-- Interpret relevant reading material in light of the paradigm principles
-- Generalize from a specific research ethnographic project to broader approaches
-- Criticize the various approaches in psychological anthropology to allow for further theoretical development

Attendance requirements(%):
100

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Lecture, conversation and critical discussion on various reading in psychological anthropology (relating to the various approaches expressed in them). We'll have shared reading in class of the various ethnographies.

Course/Module Content:
-- Rationale: Subjectivity as an analytical, historical and disciplinary question
-- What is psychological anthropology? what is subjectivity and how do we inquire into it?
-- Major issues in psychological anthropology. History of a research paradigm
-- Subjectivity and alternative concepts: personality, self, persona, identity
-- Subjectivity and language, fragmentation, the body, gender and the unconcious
-- Culture and personality: cultural patterns and cultural relativism
-- Culture and personality: Sexuality and socialization
-- The fragmented self and deconstructing the self
-- The pragmatic turn in understanding the subject
-- Subjectivity, history and memory
-- Morality and subjectivity
-- Subjectivity and subject position
-- Subjectivity – New formulations
-- Subjectivity as loss

Required Reading:
Moore, Henrietta L. (2007). A Geneology of the Anthropological Subject. In: The Subject of Anthropology. Ch 2., pp. 23–42. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Benedict, Ruth Fulton (1930). Psychological types in the Cultures of the Southwest.
Mead, Margaret (1935). Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies.
Ewing, Katherine. 1990. The Illusio of Wholeness: Culture, Self and the Experience of Inconsistency. Ethos, 18 (3): 251–278.
Desjarlais, Robert and Theresa O' Nell A. 1998. Introduction. Pragmatic Turn in Psychological Anthropology. Ethos. 27 (4):407-414.
Brenneis, Donald 1998. Identifying Practice: Comment on "The Pragmatic Turn in Psychological Anthropology. Ethos. 27 (4): 530-535.
Desjarlais, Robert 1998. The Makings of Personhood in a Shelter for People Considered Homeless and Mentally Iil. Ethos. 27 (4):466-489.
Linde Charlotte, 2000. The Acquisition of a Speaker by a Story: How History Becomes Memory and Identity. Ethos 28(4): 608-632.
White, Geoffrey, 2000. Histories and Subjectivities. Ethos 28(4): 493-510.Mccollum, Chris, 2002. Relatedness and Self-Definition: Two Dominant Themes in Middle-Class Americans' life Stories. Ethos 30(1-2): 113 - 139.
Ziggon, Zarett 2011. A Moral and Ethical Assemblage in Russian Orthodox Drug Rehabilitation. ETHOS, 39 (1): 30–50.
Adrian Bonie 2004. The Camera's Positioning: Brides, Grooms, and Their Photographers in Taipei's Bridal Industry. Ethos 32(2): 140 – 163.
Holland, Dorothy and Kevin Leander, 2004. Ethnographic Studies of Positioning and Subjectivity: An Introduction. Ethos 32(2): 127 - 139.
Biehl, João, Good Byron and Kleinman, Arthur (eds). 2007. Introduction: Rethinking Subjectivity. In: Subjectivity: Ethnographic Investigations . pp. 1-24. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Biehl, João. 2005. Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment. Especially the following pages: 1-24, 35-43, 71-73, 85-91, 151-162, 171-178, 187,-198, 209-215, 235-247, 257-264, 292-296, 303-309, 313-319, 360. Berkeley: Univeristy of California Press.

Additional Reading Material:
Spiro, Melford. 1993. Is the Western Conception of the Self "Peculiar" within the Context of the World Cultures?. Ethos, 21 (2): 107-153.
Lakoff Andrew 2004 The Lacan Ward: Pharmacology and Subjectivity in Buenos Aires, In Illness and Irony: On the Ambiguity of Suffering in Culture. Michael Lambeka and Paul Antze, eds,. pp. 82-101. New York: Berghahn. [Also: 2003 Social Analysis, 47(2)]
Hollan, Douglas 1992. Cross-Cultural Differences in the Self. Journal of Anthropological Research 48(4): 283-300.
Holland, Dorothy and Andrew Kipnis 1994. Metaphors for Embarrassment and Stories of Exposure: The Not-So-Egocentric Self in American Culture. Ethos 22(3): 316 – 342.
Lester, J. Rebecca. 2009. Brokering Authenticity: Borderline Personality Disorder and the Ethics of Care in an American Eating Disorder Clinic. Current Anthropology 50(3): 281-302
Calabrese, Joseph. 2008. Clinical Paradigm Clashes: Ethnocentric and Political Barriers to Native American Efforts at Self-Healing. Ethos, 36(3): 334-353.
Goodman, Jane E. 1998. Singers, Saints, and the Construction of Postcolonial Subjectivities in Algeria. Ethos, 26(2): 204 - 228
Saymor, Susan. 2004. Multiple Caretaking of Infants and Young Children: An Area in Critical Need of a Feminist Psychological Anthropology. Ethos, 32(4): 538 – 556.
Chapin, Bambi L. 2004. Transforming Possession: Josephine and the Work of Culture. Ethos, 36(2): 220 - 245.
Mattingly, Cheryl. Nancy C. Lutkehaus, and C. Jason Throop 2008. Bruner’s Search for Meaning: A Conversation between Psychology and Anthropology. Ethos, 36(1): 1-28
Hollan, Douglas 2008. Being There: On the Imaginative Aspects of Understanding Others and Being understood. Ethos, 36 (41): 475–489
Barlow Kathleen and Bambi Chapin (Eds.). 2010: Mothering as Everyday Practice. Ethos 38(4)
Aikiko Hayashi and Joe Tobin 2011 The Japanese Preschools Pedagogy of Peripheral Participation. 39.2 Ethos 39(2)
Csordas, Thomas. 2009. Growing Up Charismatic. Ethos 37:4
Elinor Ochs and Carolina Izquierdo 2009. Responsibility in Childhood. Ethos 37(4)
Sandel, David 2010. Where Mourning Takes Them Ethos 38 (2)
Odden, Harold 2009. Interaction of Temperament and Culture Ethos 37 (2)

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 5 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 86 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 9 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information: