Syllabus
Syllabus Index | printer-friendly version in new window
ADVANCED READINGS IN CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
H-584
Harvard University
Graduate School of Education
Fall Term, 2000
Prof. Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco
marcelo_suarez-orozco@gse.harvard.edu
This course will introduce students to central issues in the fields of cultural psychology and psychological anthropology. Every other week we will meet for in-depth discussion of critical readings. The reading load is quite heavy --an average of about six articles/book chapters per meeting. Basic knowledge of fundamental concepts in anthropology and psychology is necessary. The course is designed to provide a sampling of how research in these fields is conducted. This course is not an exhaustive survey of the fields. It will review empirical and theoretical contributions form an array of cultural settings.
Required Books:
Robben, Antonius C.G.M. and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, eds. Cultures Under Siege: Collective Violence and Trauma. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2000.
Suárez-Orozco, Carola and Marcelo. Transformations: Immigration, Family Life and Achievement Motivation Among Latino Adolescents. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1995.
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo. Cultural Psychology/Psychological Anthropology Mimeographed Reader (Starred [*] articles in syllabus). 2000. The Reader is available at Gnomon Copy, 99 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, 492-7767. It will be on Reserve at Gutman Library.
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo M., G. & L. Spindler, eds. The Making of Psychological Anthropology II. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace. 1994.
Recommended Books:
Barnouw, Victor, Culture and Personality. Fourth Edition. Homewood, Ill., Dorsey. 1985.
Chodorow, Nancy. Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1989.
Cole, Michael. Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1996.
D’Andrade, Roy. The Development of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 1995.
Hallowell, A. I., Culture and Experience. New York: Schocken Books. 1967.
Hsu, F. L. K., ed. Psychological Anthropology. New Edition. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman. 1972.
Kakar, Sudhir. The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. 1996.
Kaplan, B., ed. Studying Personality Cross-Culturally. New York: Harper & Row. 1961.
Kluckhohn, C., H. A. Murray, and D. M. Schneider, eds. Personality in Nature, Society and Culture. Second Edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1964.
Kondo, Dorinne K. Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1990.
LeVine, Robert. Culture, Behavior, and Personality: An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Psychosocial Adaptation. Second Edition. Chicago: Aldine. 1982.
Martín-Baró, I. Writings for a Psychology of Liberation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1994.
Obeyesekere, Gananath. The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropololgy. Chicago: The University of California Press. 1990.
Romanucci Ross, Lola and George A. DeVos, eds., Ethnic Identity: Creation, Conflict and Accomodation. Thousand Oaks, CA: AltaMira/Sage Publications. 1995.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Berkeley: The University of California Press. 1992.
Schwartz, Theodore, Geoffrey M. White, and Catherine A. Lutz, eds. New Directions in Psychological Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1992.
Shweder, Richard. Thinking Through Culture: Expeditions in Cultural Psychology. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 1991.
Spindler, George, ed. The Making of Psychological Anthropology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1978.
Stigler, James W., Richard A. Shweder, and Gilbert Herdt, eds. Cultural Psychology: Essays on Comparative Human Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1990.
Strauss, Claudia and Naomi Quinn. A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1997.
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo. Antropología psicoanalitica. Barcelona: Hogar del Libro. 1990.
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo, ed. Crossings: Mexican Immigration in Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Cambridge, MA: DRCLAS/Harvard. 1998.
Wallace, A. F. C., Culture and Personality. New York: Random House. 1970.
Vygotsky, L. S. Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 1962.
Wertsch, James. Vygotsky and the Social Formation of Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Copies of the reader will be placed on reserve in the Gutman library.
Grades
Grades for the course will be based on a term-paper (60% of the final grade), student participation in discussions (20% of the final grade), and an oral presentation made by each student on his/her term-paper research (20% of the final grade). Students should meet with Professor Suárez-Orozco during the first couple of weeks of the course to identify a suitable topic for the research paper.
Office Hours
Professor Suárez-Orozco will have office hours on Tuesdays 11:30-1:30 and by appointment. Professor Suárez-Orozco’s office is in 511 Larsen Hall (495-4864). Professor Suárez-Orozco's Staff Assistant, Deborah Feld-Fabisiewicz, can be reached at 495-4925 or deborah_feld-fabisiewicz@harvard.edu (Larsen Hall 600).
Topic I: INTRODUCTION TO COURSE CONTENT AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Meeting I
No Readings
Meeting II
Required Readings:
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo "Remaking Psychological Anthropology"
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
Appendix by George Spindler "Introduction to Part I," pp. 286- 297
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
George and Louise Spindler, "General Introduction," pp. 2-6
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
Luhrmann, Tanya "Psychological Anthropology as the Naturalist's Art"
Mimeographed Reader
*Spiro, M., "On the Strange and the Familiar in Recent Anthropological Thought"
*Shweder, R., "Cultural Psychology--What is It?"
Recommended Readings:
Barnouw, V., Culture and Personality
Chapter 2, "The Concept of Social Character," pp. 34-55.
Chapter 11, "Biological and Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Nature," pp. 203-222.
De Vos, G. and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Status Inequality
Chapter 1, "Self in Society: A Multilevel, Psychocultural Analysis," pp.17-73.
Further Recommended Readings:
Devereux, G.,"Two Types of Modal Personality Models." Chapter 6, pp. 227-241. Kaplan, (ed.), Studying Personality Cross-Culturally.
Hsu, F. L. K., Psychological Anthropology. New Edition. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman. 1972.
Kluckhohn, C., H. A. Murray, and D. M. Schneider. Personality in Nature, Society and Culture. Second Edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1964.
Singer, M.,"A Survey of Culture and Personality Theory and Research." Chapter 1, pp. 9-90. Kaplan, (ed.), Studying Personality Cross-Culturally.
Shweder, Richard. Thinking Through Culture: Expeditions in Cultural Psychology. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 1991.
Spindler, G. D., The Making of Psychological Anthropology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1978.
Spiro, M., "Culture and Personality: The Natural History of a False Dichotomy." Psychiatry, Vol 14, No. 1, pp. 19-46 (February 1951).
Stigler, James W., Richard A. Shweder, and Gilbert Herdt, eds. Cultural Psychology: Essays on Comparative Human Development. Cambridge: Cambrige University Press. 1990.
Topic II: SOCIALIZATION IN CULTURE
Meeting III
Required Readings:
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
Paul, Robert A., "My Approach to Psychological Anthropology," pp. 81-102.
Mimeographed Reader
*LeVine, R., "Concepts of Socialization"
*Benedict, Ruth "Continuities and Discontinuities in Cultural Conditioning"
*Erikson, Erik H., "Hunters Across the Prairie"
*Chodorow, Nancy, "Being and Doing"
Recommended Readings:
De Vos, G. and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Status Inequality
Chapter 2, "Internalization and Human Resonance: From Empathy to Alienation," pp. 75-119.
Barnouw, V., Culture and Personality
Chapter 4, "Malinowski's Criticism of Freudian Theory," pp. 76-93.
Chapter 5, "Margaret Mead's From the South Seas," pp. 94-109.
Chapter 8, "The Six Cultures Project," pp. 153-169.
Further Recommended Readings:
Chodorow, Nancy. Feminism and Psychoanalytic Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1989.
De Vos, George A., Socialization for Achievement: Essays on the Cultural Psychology of the Japanese. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1973.
LeVine, Robert, Culture, Behavior, and Personality: An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Psychosocial Adaptation. Second Edition. Chicago: Aldine. 1982.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics: Mental Illness in Rural Ireland. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1979.
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo. Antropología psicoanalitica. Barcelona; Hogar del Libro. 1990.
Whiting, Beatrice, (ed.), Six Cultures: Studies of Child Reading. New York: Wiley and Sons. 1963.
Topic III: ETHOS: THE CULTURAL PATTERNING OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Meeting IV
Required Readings:
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
Spain, David, "Entertaining (Im)possibilities," pp. 104-131.
Mimeographed Reader
*Benedict, Ruth "The Individual and the Pattern of Culture"
*Brandes, S., "Giants and Big-Heads"
*Dundes, A., "The Number Three in American Culture"
*Geertz, C., "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight"
Recommended Readings:
Barnouw, V., Culture and Personality
Chapter 3, "Ruth Benedict's Patterns of Culture," pp. 59-75.
Chapter 10, "Cross-Cultural Studies of Values and Attitudes," pp. 188-202.
Chapter 22, "Economic Development and Personality," pp. 428-441.
Further Recommended Readings:
Bateson, Gregory, Naven. (2nd ed.) Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1958.
Benedict, Ruth, Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1934.
DeVos, G. and Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco Status Inequality
Chapter 4, "Conflict, Dominance and Exploitation: The Sacred and Expressive in Systems of Exploitation," pp. 148-163.
Geertz, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. 1973.
Hallowell, A. I., Culture and Experience. New York: Schocken Books. 1967.
Mead, Margaret, Coming of Age in Samoa. New York: William Morrow. 1928.
Obyesekere, Gananath. Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1981.
Shweder, R. and R. LeVine (eds.), Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self and Emotion. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1984.
Strauss, Claudia and Naomi Quinn. A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1997.
Topic IV: EXPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR: ANALYSIS OF DREAMS, FOLKLORE, RITUAL, MYTH, AND PROJECTIVE TESTS
Meeting V
Required Readings:
Suárez-Orozco, Carola and Marcelo. Transformations: Immigration, Family Life and Achievement Motivation Among Latino Adolescents. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Read Chapters 3, 4 and 5 (pp. 82-183).
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
Kracke, Waud, "Reflections on the Savage Self," pp. 196-222.
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo, "Doing Psychological Anthropology," pp. 160-194
Mimeographed Reader
*Dundes, Alan "Projection in Folklore"
Recommended Readings:
Barnouw, V., Culture and Personality.
Chapter 14, "The Interpretation of Dreams and Visions," pp. 255-273.
Chapter 15, "Projective Tests," pp. 274-305.
Chapter 16, "Drawing Analysis," pp. 306-325.
Chapter 17, "The Analysis of Folklore and Art," pp. 326-50.
Further Recommended Readings:
Brunvand, Jan Harold. The Study of American Folklore: An Introduction. Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton and Company. 1978.
Dundes, Alan, (ed.), The Study of Folklore. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1965.
Dundes, Alan, Parsing through Customs: Essays by a Freudian Folklorist. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press. 1987.
Lindzey, Gardner Projective Techniques and Cross-Cultural Research. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. 1961.
Obeyesekere, Gananath. The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropololgy. Chicago: The University of California Press. 1990.
Topic V: PSYCHOSOCIAL PROBLEMS IN CHANGING CULTURES
Meeting VI
Required Readings:
Suárez-Orozco, Carola and Marcelo. Transformations: Immigration, Family Life and Achievement Motivation Among Latino Adolescents. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Read Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 6, and Epilogue.
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
Crapanzano, Vincent, "Rethinking Psychological Anthropology," pp. 224-243
Mimeographed Reader
*Ainslie, Ricardo "Cultural Mourning, Immigration and Engagement"
Recommended Readings:
De Vos, G. and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Status Inequality
Chapter 6, "Conflict and Accommodation in Ethnic Interaction," pp. 204-245.
Chapter 7, "Ethnic Belonging and Status Mobility," pp. 246-264.
Chapter 8, "Migration and Education: United States-Europe Comparisons," pp. 265-287.
Barnouw, V., Culture and Personality
Chapter 20, "Culture Change in the Western World," pp. 405-417.
Chapter 23, "Revitalization, Revolution, and Reform," pp. 442-464.
Further Recommended Readings:
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo, Central American Refugees and U. S. High Schools: A Psychosocial Study of Motivation and Achievement. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1989.
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo, (ed.), Belonging and Alienation. Special Issue of the Journal of Psychohistory. Vol. 18 (4). Spring 1991.
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo, (ed.), Migration, Minority Status and Education: European Dilemmas and Responses in the 1900s. Theme Issue of Anthropology and Education Quarterly. Vol. 22 (2). June 1991.
Topic VI: IDENTITIES
Meeting VII
Required Readings:
Robben & Suárez-Orozco Cultures Under Siege
Volkan, V. and N. Itzkowitz "Modern Greek and Turkish Identities and the Psychodynamics of Greek-Turkish Relations"
Suárez-Orozco, Carola "Identities under Siege"
Luhrmann, Tanya "The Traumatized Self"
Ewing, Katherine "The Violence on Non-Recognition"
Recommended Readings:
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo M., ed. Crossings: Mexican Immigration in Interdisciplinary Perspective. Cambridge, MA: DRCLAS/Harvard University Press. 1998.
De Vos, G. and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Status Inequality
Chapter 5, "Caste, Race, and Gender," pp. 164-203.
Kondo, Dorinne K. Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1990.
Further Recommended Readings:
Barnouw, V., Culture and Personality.
Chapter 21, "Ethnic Minorities," pp. 418-427.
Kakar, Sudhir. The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion and Conflict. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1996.
Romacci Ross, Lola and George A. DeVos, eds., Ethnic Identity: Creation, Conflict and Accomodation.
Topic VII: COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE AND TRAUMA
Meeting VIII
Required Readings:
Robben & Suárez-Orozco Cultures Under Siege
Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo and Antonius C. G. M. Robben "Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Violence and Trauma"
Gampel, Yolanda "Reflections on the Prevalence of the Uncanny in Social Violence"
Robben, Antonius "The Assault on Basic Trust"
Apfel and Simon "Mitigating Discontent with Children in War"
De Levita, David "Child Psychotherapy as an Instrument in Cultural Research"
Suárez-Orozco et al., The Making of Psychological Anthropology II
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy "The Violence of Everyday Life"
Recommended Readings:
Kakar, Sudhir. The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. 1996.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil. Berkeley: The University of California Press. 1992.
Storr, Anthony. Human Destructiveness. New York: Ballantine.
Final Meeting: Student Term-Paper Presentations
Copyright © 2001 Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco
