The Anthropology of American History
Anthropology/History 338 Washington and Lee University
Dr. Alison Bell Fall 2005
Instructor Contact Information
- Email: bella@wlu.edu
- Phone: office 8638
- Office: Newcomb 4
- Office Hours:
- Tuesdays …… 12:15 – 2:30
- Wednesdays … 2:30 – 5:00
- Thursdays …. 12:15 – 2:30
- Other times are available by appointment.
- Note: I will also be in my office most Sundays from 1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Course Description
This course explores issues within historic American communities that ethnographers often investigate among living groups, including cultural values, religious ideologies, class structures, kinship networks, gender roles, and inter-ethnic relations. Although the communities of interest in this course ceased to exist generations ago, many of their characteristic dynamics are accessible through analyses of historic buildings, landscapes, material culture, documents, and oral history accounts. Students will become familiar with sources and methods of anthropological inquiry into historic communities both by reading case studies and by undertaking a series of projects with primary local sources.
Course Texts
- James Deetz and Patricia Scott Deetz (2000) The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love and Death in Plymouth Colony. W.H. Freeman, New York.
- Henry Glassie (2000) Vernacular Architecture. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
- Nancy J. Martin-Perdue and Charles L. Perdue, Jr. (1996) Talk about Trouble: A New Deal Portrait of Virginians in the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (1990) A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on her Diary, 1785-1812. Vintage Books, New York.
Recommended for purchase at the Frontier Culture Museum:
- Katharine L. Brown (1997) Museum of American Frontier Culture Guidebook. American Frontier Culture Foundation, Staunton, Virginia.
Course Expectations
Projects
In this course students will learn how to investigate the recent past using anthropological perspectives by reading case studies and by undertaking similar (but small-scale) projects in and around Rockbridge County, Virginia. Each project involves first-hand experience with some aspect of local historic communities and requires a short paper (minimum of 5-page double-spaced) that summarizes the student’s findings. Along with their papers, students should submit any materials pertinent to their research including sketches of buildings and transcripts of oral history interviews.
Project One: Focus on the Built Environment
For this project, students will visit the Museum of American Frontier Culture in Staunton and will write a paper addressing several issues about domestic architecture discussed in class as well as in assigned books Vernacular Architecture and The Times of Their Lives. These issues include room names and uses; the relationships between houses and their natural environments; how houses reflect and influence social relations; and critical perspectives on museum presentations of American history. Due October 6.
Project Two: Focus on Written Sources
This project is inspired by A Midwife’s Tale and explores issues of social networks and individual life histories. Each student will receive the name of a person who lived and died in Lexington or Rockbridge County during the 19th century. Students will investigate these individuals through sources including wills, probate inventories, census returns, deeds, and gravestones. Students will post their findings on the course website so that everyone in the class can review the information to address topics such as social structure and gender roles prevalent in this community during this period. Due November 10.
Project Three: Focus on Oral History
Students will become familiar with methods and results of oral history projects through class discussions and reading excerpts of Talk about Trouble. Then they will interview individuals from a variety of backgrounds. Students will work in pairs to develop a set of questions, conduct an interview, and transcribe the conversation. Each student should independently write a short paper reflecting on the findings from the interview. Papers will be returned to the students. Transcripts will, with the permission of interviewees, be put on permanent file in the Department of Special Collections, Leyburn Library at Washington and Lee University. Due December 16.
Reading Reviews
Students need to read the assigned texts in order to design and execute their projects successfully. Reading reviews provide additional venues in which students demonstrate their understandings of and express their thoughts about assigned books. In their reviews (recommended length 5-7 pages, double-spaced) students should provide short summaries of the assigned material and critical analysis of it. Students are encouraged to model their reviews on book reviews published in current academic journals, several examples of which the instructor will supply.
Review One covers The Times of Their Lives and Vernacular Architecture; due October 20
Review Two covers A Midwife’s Tale and Talk about Trouble; due December 8
Final Grades
The breakdown of final grades for the course is as follows:
Project One: 20% Review One: 20%
Project Two: 20% Review Two: 20%
Project Three: 20%
Policies
Deadlines: As a measure of fairness to students who submit papers on time, late papers will be penalized. This policy does not apply to students whose medical, family, or other unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances prevent their timely submission of papers. Students in such situations should contact the instructor as early as feasible.
Drafts: I encourage students to submit rough drafts of reviews and projects up to 72 hours before the assignment is due.
Revisions: Students may revise graded papers within one week of receiving them from me. The grade on a revised papers will be averaged with the original paper grade.
Class Participation: I encourage but do not grade class participation.
Course Outline
Sept. 8 Introduction to course
Sept. 13 – 15 Deetz and Deetz Chapters 1, 3, and 4
Sept. 20 – 22 Deetz and Deetz Chapter 5
Glassie pp. 17-51
Sept. 27 – 29 Glassie pp. 51-96
Oct. 4 – 6 Glassie pp. 96-159
Project One due October 6
Oct. 11 Ulrich Introduction and Chapter 1
Oct. 13 Reading Holiday
Oct. 18 – 20 Ulrich Chapters 2, 3 and 4
Reading Review One due October 20
Oct. 25 – 27 Ulrich Chapters 5, 6, and 7
Nov. 1 – 3 Ulrich Chapters 8, 9, and 10
Nov. 8 – 10 Martin-Perdue and Perdue Chapters 1 and 4
Project Two due November 10
Nov. 15 – 17 Elrod University Commons Oral History Web Page
http://culture.wlu.edu/commons/Main%20Page.htm
Handout: anth/hist 338 oral history transcripts 2002-2003
Handout: Telling Our Stories oral history transcripts 2004-2005
Nov. 22 – 24 Thanksgiving Break
Nov. 29 – Dec. 1 Martin-Perdue and Perdue Chapter 5 and another chapter of your choice
Dec. 6 – 8 Presentations and discussion of oral history projects
Reading Review Two due December 8
Project Three due by December 16
(early submissions very welcome)