Please note that this web page has not been updated since 2014 as I no longer teach this course.
Online readings and resources:
- This is Anthropology, a Prezi presentation compiled by Charlotte Noble (please read about at least 15 different anthropologists by following the presentation as a slideshow or manually)
- Gender Expectations: Natural Bodies and Natural Births in the New Midwifery in Canada by Margaret Macdonald
- Surrogate Motherhood: Rethinking Biological Models, Kinship, and Family Helena Ragone
- Lifeboat Ethics; Mother Love and Child Death in Northeast Brazil by Nancy Scheper-Hughes
- Aka Father Infant Bonding by Barry Hewlett
- Dowry, Bride Burning, and Female Power in India by Linda Stone and Caroline James
- The Named and the Nameless: Gender and Person in Chinese Society by Rubie Watson
- Didn’t You Get Tested? by Rachel Adams
- Chicken Hips, by Catherine Pigott
- What is the Meaning of the Muslim Veil? by Anjum Alvi
- What to do with Unmarried Daughters? Modern Solutions to a traditional Dilemma in a Polyandrous Tibetan Society
- Grave Vows: A Cross Cultural Examination of the Varying Forms of Ghost Marriage Among Five Societies, by Lucas Schwartze
- Socio-cultural dynamics of female genital cutting: Research findings, gaps, and directions, by Ellen Grruenbaum
- In the Privacy of our own home: Foreign Domestic Workers as Solution to the Crisis in the Domestic Sphere in Canada, by Sedef Arat-Koc
- Enter Microcredit: A New Culture of Women’s Empowerment in Rajasthan? by Megan Moodie
- “Wild Pigs and Dog Men”: Rape and Domestic Violence as “Women’s Issues” in Papua New Guinea, by Laura Zimmer-Tamakoshi
- About Space and How Maryam Got Back a Verandah by Erika Friedl
- Seven Pairs of $7 Shoes (indroduction to “Overdressed” by Elizabeth Cline)
- Spirit Posession and Gender Complimentarity by Janice Boddy
Useful resources for assignments and readings:
- The biosocial Framework and Birth for the Experience-Based Assignment concerning your birth
- The final assignment of the semester (F2014) considers the UN millennium Goals. Here is a link to the UN website that presents these goals. Please note a tab at the top of the page labeled “background”; it may be useful for you. It also contains updates on progress as of 2013. A very quick web search turned up these resources that might be of interest, although this is a great opportunity to practice targeted searches for relevant resources (once you have decided on what goal to consider the librarians are eager to help you search for resources):
- Women’s Rights and the Millennium Development Goals (MA thesis 2011)
- Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems is an interesting book that might be useful. Most of it in on Google Books (linked here)
- Change from Within: Empowering Local Communities in Achieving The MDG in Sub-Saharan Africa
Other readings discussed in class or that I think might be of interest:
LeRoy McDermott’s article Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines (from Current Anthropology 1996) as discussed in class
Post Partum Practices and Depression Prevalences: Technocentric and Ethnokinship Cultural Perspectives by Posmontier and Horowitz 2004, published in the Journal of Transcultural Nursing. This articles provides a good overview of the discussions surrounding cultural factors in post partum depression (amongst other things).
Here is a new, ongoing blog that may be of interest. Journalist Amy Klein, who writes for the New York Times (amonst other things) is chronicling her personal infertility, ART experience ina weekly blog. She is funny, and raises many points that are pertinent to discussions in our class.
India’s surrogacy economy is booming, as we discussed in class. This doesnt mean that there is no discussion of regulations and legislation. Here is a short news article from NBC (Sept. 30, 2013) that is a nice compliment to what we were talking about in class.
This personal description of the decisions around genetic screening in North America is an interesting and powerful piece to add to the overall discussion of Down syndrome.
Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi’i Iran is a comprehensive consideration of muta (temporary marriage) in Iran. I have linked to Google Books, where you can find most of this resource. Page 60 offers a useful table that compares permanent and temporary marriage.
The Deeply Rooted Parallels Between Female Genital Mutilation and Breast Implantation by Marianne Mollmann, essay published in the Huffington Post January 17, 2012
BBC News presents 5 photographs that have sparked recent discussions about body image. Take a look and see what you think!
(Not used for the F2014 semester) Thesis Statements for the Cultural Relativism paper. Please choose one from this list; it will direct your paper. Remember that you are applying cultural relativism here, so you need to produce a balanced paper; we will discuss this more in class. I am asking you to write your paper as an argument brief; think of it like a legal brief, that a lawyer would deliver in court to convince the jury. Here is an outline of how to structure an argument brief.