ASS101 - Final Seminar Notes

Quiz 7 Review

  • Question 1: Misfortunes associated with witchcraft in the Bocage.
    • Correct Answer: All misfortunes happening together (car in ditch, heifer dies, miscarriage) might lead to witchcraft suspicion.
    • Isolated incidents are less likely to be attributed to witchcraft.
  • Question 2: How scholars treated witchcraft in the Bocage.
    • Correct Answer: As "not true" or not seriously, before Favoritesara's work.
    • Favoritesara took it seriously, as anthropologists should.
  • Question 3: Fabricata's argument on spoken words.
    • Correct Answer: Spoken words are how one wages war in witchcraft.
    • Spoken words are the weapon of choice.
  • Question 4: Dissocielaire's tasks.
    • Correct Answer: Authenticate the client's suffering and find their vulnerabilities.

Power and State Power (Calidor)

  • Introduction to Power and State Narratives:
    • The topic serves as a foundation for advanced anthropology subjects and international relations.
    • Consider exploring Michel Foucault's ideas for background (especially for criminology and international relations majors).

Suggested Reading: Foucault Primer

  • Book recommendation: Understanding Foucault by Danaher.
  • Key works by Foucault: History of Sexuality, Discipline and Punish (especially relevant to criminology and the concept of the Panopticon).
  • Foucault's influence is often referenced without direct reading; a primer provides key ideas.

End-of-Unit Exam Information

  • Timing: The exam is scheduled for the week of June 4th (Monday to Friday).
  • Format: Four parts to the exam; recommended to complete one part per day.
  • Time Limit: Each part has a 35-minute suggested time limit; penalties may apply for exceeding the time.
  • Focus: Short answer questions require careful consideration.

Reflecting on Comparisons (Mangu and Western Systems)

  • Purpose of Comparison:
    • The goal is not to equate different systems of causality (science vs. Mangu) or to find equivalents to "crazy notions."
    • Instead, recognize that beliefs are supported by tangible evidence within their own systems of thought.
  • Importance of Context:
    • Understanding a belief requires considering the entire system of thought, assumptions, and institutions in which it resides.
    • Isolated facts can be interpreted differently based on this system.

Evans-Pritchard and the Zande

  • The Zande reason perfectly well within their system of thought and cannot easily reason outside of it.

ATARs and IQ Tests

  • ATARs are not inherent or definitive measures of intelligence.
  • The ATAR system is maintained because of the larger institutional support structure, influencing university admissions, job prospects, income, and further life choices.
  • This entire "apparatus" supports the belief in intelligence as an inherent trait.

Witchcraft and the Zande

  • The Zande recognize issues with witchcraft and charlatans, but abandoning the entire system is too disruptive.
  • Secondary elaborations are used to explain away inconsistencies and maintain the paradigm.

Language and Concepts for Short Answer Exams

  • Key Terms:
    • Paradigms
    • Systems of thought
    • Bodies of knowledge
    • Assumptions about the world
    • Cosmologies
  • Thomas Kuhn:
    • Popularized the term "paradigm" in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
    • Argued science is also a paradigm, subject to shifts when evidence contradicts existing theories (e.g., the Copernican revolution).

Secondary Elaboration

  • Definition:
    • An element of a paradigm that explains inconsistencies within that paradigm; an excuse or explainer maintaining the paradigm.
  • Origin:
    • Term used by Sigmund Freud in relation to dream interpretation.
  • Evans-Pritchard:
    • Credited with using the term in anthropology.
  • Examples from the Zande:
    • If an oracle fails, it's attributed to bad poison or a broken taboo, not a flaw in the system of witchcraft itself.
  • Application: Secondary elaboration is an aspect or element of the paradigm that makes sense of inconsistencies within that paradigm.

Dynamic Nominalism

  • Definition:
    • How classifications of people affect the classified, creating a feedback loop that influences the classification systems themselves.
  • Key Questions:
    • How do we change in virtue of being classified?
    • How do these changes affect our systems of classification?
  • Examples (Ian Hacking):
    • Homosexuality
    • Juvenile delinquency
    • Multiple personality
  • Additional Examples:
    • Gender categories
    • Generational groups
    • Subcultures
    • Victim/Survivor: Changing label to victim-survivor can give agency.

Subcultures Example - Movie Clip

  • The clip humorously highlights subcategories (beautiful people, coffee kids, delusionals, cowboys, future MBAs).
  • Beauty is presented as a constructed category, influenced by group behavior and appearance rather than objective traits.
  • Categories of subcultures, like those used by Generation Groups, have different languages and behaviors, different in jokes, etc.

Race (Stephen Gould and Thomas Brown)

  • Thomas Brown's work on the "stinky Jew" in the 17th century criticizes the social imposition of racial categories.
  • Gould uses this example to critique the connection of race to internal features or intelligence.
  • Race is a socially constructed category, not inherently linked to physical or odorous characteristics.

Black Comedy Example - Deserted Island

  • The sketch satirizes the assumption that a Torres Strait Islander man (Mark) possesses inherent survival skills.
  • Ryan and Sarah continue to categorize Mark based on racial stereotypes, despite evidence to the contrary.
  • If not for helicopter, they'd develop secondary elaborations to maintain their paradigm of Mark as racial body.

Witchcraft as a Paradigm

  • Witchcraft is a way of making sense of the world, similar to other systems of knowledge.

Power Knowledge Nexus (Foucault)

  • Explore power dynamics to understand why certain knowledge systems persist.
  • Identify