This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

 

Readings

A table listing reading assignments by session follows a list of citations for texts containing multiple readings. These texts are referenced in short form below.

Amazon logo Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives. Sterling, VA: Pluto, 2002. ISBN: 9780745318875.

Amazon logo Gladney, Dru. Ethnic Identity in China: The Making of a Muslim Minority Nationality. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003. ISBN: 9780534066987.

Amazon logo Nagel, Joane. American Indian Ethnic Renewal: Red Power and the Resurgence of Identity and Culture. New York, NY: Oxford, 1997. ISBN: 9780585361598.

Amazon logo Wade, Peter. Race, Nature, and Culture. Sterling, VA: Pluto, 2002. ISBN: 9780745314549.

Amazon logo Eller, Jack David. From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict: An Anthropological Perspective on International Ethnic Conflict. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780472085385.

Amazon logo Maybury-Lewis, David. Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. ISBN: 9780205337460.

Amazon logo Lancaster, Roger, and Micaela Di Leonardo. The Gender/Sexuality Reader. New York, NY: Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 9780415910057.

Amazon logo Hill, Jane H. The Everyday Language of White Racism. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008. ISBN: 9781405184540.

Amazon logo Moore, Donald, Jake Kosek, and Anand Pandian. Race, Nature, and the Politics of Difference. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780822330912.

SES # TOPICs READINGS
1 Introduction to the study of ethnic and national identity: the stakes, and why the stakes are so high  
2 Ethnic identity I

Gladney, pp. 1-23.

Nagel, pp. 3-13.

Eriksen, pp. 1-17.

3 Ethnic identity II

Gladney, pp. 25-54.

Nagel, pp. 19-33.

4 Ethnic identity III: the Hui Gladney, pp. 57-132.
5 Nation and nationalism I

Gladney, pp. 135-176.

Optional

Amazon logo Hobsbawm, Eric. "Introduction," and "The Nation as Novelty: From Revolution to Liberalism." In Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 2-44. ISBN: 9780521439619.

6 Nation and nationalism II

Eriksen, pp. 96-120.

Harrison, Simon. "Identity as a Scarce Resource." Social Anthropology 7 (1999): 239-251.

7 Ethnicity, state, nation

Eriksen, pp. 59-95.

Maybury-Lewis, David. "Ethnic Groups." In Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State. pp. 47-79.

Optional

Segal, Daniel, and Richard Handler. "How European is Nationalism?" Social Analysis 32 (1992): 1-15.

Wilkinson, Alec. "Picturing Auschwitz." New Yorker, March 17, 2008.

Eller, Jack David. "Ethnicity, Culture, and 'the Past.'" In From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict. pp. 7-48.

8 State, nation, culture

Schein, Louisa. "The Consumption of Color and the Politics of White Skin in Post-Mao China." In The Gender/Sexuality Reader. pp. 473-486.

Amazon logo Robins, Kevin. "Interrupting Identities: Turkey/Europe." In Questions of Cultural Identity. Edited by Stuart Hall, and Paul du Gay. London, England: Sage, 1996, pp. 61-82. ISBN: 9780803978836.

Maybury-Lewis, David. "The State." In Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State. pp. 105-130.

Optional

Gupta, Akhil, and James Ferguson. "Beyond 'Culture': Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference." Cultural Anthropology 7 (1992): 6-23

9 Culture: definitions

Amazon logo Wilson, Ara. "American Catalogues of Asian Brides." In Cole, Johnnetta B. Anthropology for the Nineties, Introductory Readings. New York, NY: Free Press, 1988, pp. 114-124. ISBN: 9780029064412.

Nagel, pp. 43-54 and 60-72.

Amazon logo Handler, Richard. "On Having a Culture: Nationalism and the Preservation of Quebec's Patrimoine." In Objects and Others: Essays on Museums and Material Culture. Edited by George W. Stocking Jr. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988, pp. 192-215. ISBN: 9780299103248.

10 Ethnic conflict I

Maybury-Lewis, David. "Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing." In Indigenous Peoples, Ethnic Groups, and the State. pp. 81-103.

Eller, Jack David. "Rwanda and Burundi: When Two Tribes Go to War?" In From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict. pp. 195-241.

Optional

Stephen, Lynn. "The Construction of Indigenous 'Suspects': Militarization and the Gendered and Ethnic Dimensions of Human Rights Abuses in Southern Mexico." American Ethnologist 26 (2000): 822-842.

Amazon logo Fadiman, Anne. "War." In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998, pp. 119-139. ISBN: 9780374525644.

11 Ethnic conflict II

Eller, Jack David. "The Kurds: Frustrated Nationalism." In From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict. pp. 143-193.

Malkki, Liisa. "National Geographic: the Rooting of Peoples and the Territorialization of National Identity Among Scholars and Refugees." Cultural Anthropology 7 (1992): 24-44.

Optional

Levi, Jerome. "Hidden Transcripts Among the Raramuri: Culture, Resistance, and Interethnic Relations in Northern Mexico." American Ethnologist 26 (1999): 90-113.

12 Race I

Wade, pp. 1-68.

Optional

Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. "Structure, Event, and Historical Metaphor: Rice and Identities in Japanese History." Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1 (1995): 227-248.

Amazon logo Gould, Stephen J. "Measuring Bodies." In The Mismeasure of Man. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., 1996, pp. 115-145. ISBN: 9780393314250.

13 Race II

Wade, pp. 69-122.

Optional

Andersen, Margaret, and Patricia Hill Collins. "The Plight of Black Men." In Race, Class, and Gender. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2001, pp. 146-155. Originally in Amazon logo Dyson, Michael. Reflecting Black: African-American Cultural Criticism. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1993, pp. 182-194. ISBN: 9780816621439.

14 Race III

Amazon logo Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. "Racial Formation." In Oppression, Privilege, & Resistance: Theoretical Perspectives on Racism, Sexism, and Heterosexism. Edited by Lisa Heldke, and Peg O'Connor. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2003, pp. 115-142. ISBN: 9780072882438.

Hill, Jane H. "The Persistence of White Racism." In The Everyday Language of White Racism. pp. 1-30.

15 Ethnic identity, nationalism and gender

Amazon logo de la Cadena, Marisol. "'Women are More Indian': Ethnicity and Gender in a Community Near Cuzco." In Ethnicity, Markets, and Migration in the Andes: At the Crossroads of History and Anthropology. Edited by Brooke Larson, Olivia Harris, and Enrique Tandeter. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995, pp. 329-348. ISBN: 9780822316473.

Amazon logo Smith, Carol. "Race, Class, Gender Ideology in Guatemala: Modern and Anti-Modern Forms." In Women Out of Place: The Gender of Agency and the Race of Nationality. Edited by Brackette Williams. New York, NY: Routledge, 1996, pp. 50-78. ISBN: 9780415914970.

Optional

Levy, Gideon. "Wombs in Service of the State." Ha'aretz, September 9, 2002.

16 Ethnic identity, state, and sexuality

Amazon logo Nagel, Joane. "Sex and Nationalism: Sexually Imagined Communities." In Race, Ethnicity and Sexuality: Intimate Intersections, Forbidden Frontiers. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 140-176. ISBN: 9780195127478.

Amazon logo Stoler, Ann. "Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Gender, Race and Morality in Colonial Asia." In Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the Postmodern Era. Edited by Micaela Di Leonardo. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, pp. 13-31. ISBN: 9780520070936.

Heng, Geraldine, and Janadas Devan. "State Fatherhood: The Politics of Nationalism, Sexuality, and Race in Singapore." In The Gender/Sexuality Reader. pp. 107-121.

17 Religion, ethnicity, the nation

Ong, Aihwa. "State Versus Islam: Malay Families, Women's Bodies, and The Body Politic in Malaysia." American Ethnologist 17 (1990): 258-276.

Amazon logo Kahn, Susan. "Jewish and Gentile Sperm: Rabbinic Discourse on Sperm and Paternal Relatedness." In Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000, pp. 87-111. ISBN: 9780822325987.

Optional

Malarney, Shaun Kingsley. "The Limits of 'State Functionalism,' and The Reconstruction of Funerary Ritual in Contemporary Northern Vietnam." American Ethnologist 23 (1996): 540-561.

18 Language and culture, ethnicity, race

Amazon logo Stavenhagen, Rodolfo. "Language and Social Identity." In Talking About People: Readings in Contemporary Cultural Anthropology. Edited by William A. Haviland, and Robert J. Gordon. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1993, pp. 41-43. ISBN: 9781559341417. Originally published in Work in Progress 13 (1990).

Whiteley, Peter. "Do 'Language Rights' Serve Indigenous Interests? Some Hopi and Other Queries." American Anthropologist 105 (2003): 712-722.

Linke, Uli. "'There is a Land Where Everything is Pure': Linguistic Nationalism and Identity Politics in Germany." In Race, Nature, and the Politics of Difference. pp. 149-173.

Hill, Jane. "Language in White Racism: An Overview." In The Everyday Language of White Racism. pp. 31-48.

Optional

Urla, Jacqueline. "Contesting Modernities: Language Standardization and the Production of an Ancient Modern Basque Culture." Critique of Anthropology 13 (1993): 101-118.

Hill, Jane. "The Social Life of Slurs." In The Everyday Language of White Racism. pp. 29-87.

Amazon logo Graham, Laura. "How Should an Indian Speak?" In Indigenous Movements, Self-Representation, and the State in Latin America. Edited by Kay Warren, and Jean Jackson. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2003, pp. 181-228. ISBN: 9780292791411.

"In Dallas, Tickets for Not Speaking English." New York Times, October 24, 2009.

19 Culture recovery

Nagel, pp. 83-105 and 113-141.

Optional

Amazon logo U.S. Office of Management and Budget. "Federal Statistical Directive No. 15: Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting." In The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States. Edited by Joan Ferrante, and Prince Brown. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000, pp. 138-143. ISBN: 9780130283238.

20 Culture: appropriations, heritage, "selling culture"

Nagel, pp. 158-178 and 187-205.

Ramos, Alcida. "Pulp Fictions of Indigenism." In Race, Nature, and the Politics of Difference. pp. 356-379.

Optional

Amazon logo Wernitznig, Dagmar. "White Shamanism." In Going Native or Going Naïve? White Shamanism and the Neo-noble Savage. New York, NY: University Press of America, 2003, pp. 1-27. ISBN: 9780761824954.

Dougherty, John. "Deaths at Sweat Lodge Bring Soul Searching." New York Times, October 11, 2009.

21 Human rights, collective rights

Amazon logo Messer, Ellen. "Anthropologists in a World With and Without Human Rights." In Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines. Edited by Jeremy MacClancy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002, pp. 319-334. ISBN: 9780226500133.

Amazon logo Goldstein, Daniel M. "Human Rights As Culprit, Human Rights as Victim: Rights and Security in the State of Exception." In The Practice of Human Rights: Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local. Edited by Mark Goodale and Sally Merry. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 49-77. ISBN: 9780521683784.

Nagel, pp. 213-228 and 234-248.

Optional

Amazon logo Schirmer, Jennifer. "The Looting of Democratic Discourse By The Guatemalan Military: Implications For Human Rights." In Constructing Democracy: Human Rights, Citizenship, and Society in Latin America. Edited by Elizabeth Jelin, and Eric Hershberg. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1996, pp. 85-97. ISBN: 9780813324388.

22 New social movements Amazon logo Warren, Kay, and Jean Jackson. "Introduction: Studying Indigenous Activism in Latin America." In Indigenous Movements, Self-Representation, and the State in Latin America. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2003, pp. 1-46. ISBN: 9780292791411.
23 Transnationalism, globalization and culture

Verdery, Katherine. "Transnationalism, Nationalism, Citizenship, and Property: Eastern Europe Since 1989." American Ethnologist 25 (1998): 291-306.

Eriksen, pp. 143-178.

Optional

Appadurai, Arjun. "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy." Public Culture 2 (1991): 1-24.

24 The state: hegemony and push-back

Li, Tania. "Articulating Indigenous Identity in Indonesia: Resource Politics and the Tribal Slot." Comparative Study of Society and History 42 (2000): 149-179.

El-Haj, Abu. "Translating Truths: Nationalism, the Practice of Archaeology, and the Remaking of Past and Present in Contemporary Jerusalem." American Ethnologist 25 (1998): 166-188.

Optional

Amazon logo Lewis, Herbert. "Jewish Ethnicity in Israel: Ideologies, Policies, and Outcomes." In Ethnicity and the State. Edited by Judith Toland. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1992, pp. 201-229. ISBN: 9781560006176.

25 Summing up: review of theory

Eller, Jack David. "Anthropology, Ethnicity and the Representation of Culture." In From Culture to Ethnicity to Conflict. pp. 49-94.

Optional

Amazon logo Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. "Anthropology and the Savage Slot." In Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present. Edited by Richard Fox. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research, 1991, pp. 17-44. ISBN: 9780933452787.

26 Student reports (none)