CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY (Anthropology 370)
Spring 1995

Room: 108 DiLoreto Hall
Time: Tuesdays and Thursday 9:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Office: 110 DiLoreto Telephone: (203) 832-2617
Hours: 1 p..m. - 4 p..m. Tuesdays 1 p.m. - 3 p.m Thursday or by appointment
Professor: Evelyn Newman Phillips

"I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and justice for their spirits. I believe that what self centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up." Martin Luther King, Jr.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The locus of empowerment of disfranchised groups exists in their culture. Therefore, this course explores how cultural knowledge may be applied to improve conditions in the fields of medicine, education, social services and public policy. This information will be acquired through research, reading, discussion, lecture, and field observations.

Textbooks:
Chambers, Erve 1985 Applied Anthropology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
McElroy, Ann and Patricia Townsend 1989 Medical Anthropology in Ecological Perspective. Boulder: Westview Press.
Sen, Gita and Caren Grown 1987 Development, Crises, and Alternative Visions: Third World Womens' Perspectives. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Wagner, David 1993 Checkerboard Square: Culture and Resistance in a Homeless Community.
Boulder: Westview Press.

Other Sources:

Bodley, John H. 1988 Tribal Peoples and Development Issues: A Global Overview. Mountain View: Mayfield Press.
Bodley, John H. 1990 Victims of Progress, Mountain View, California, Mayfield Press.

Van Willigen, John 1986 Applied Anthropology. Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey Publishers, Inc.

Assignments:
1. There will a final and a midterm. Each examination is worth 50 points. Total points 100
2. Choose a problem that affects a particular group. Study the problem and talk to members of that group. Think through possible solutions and take actions that contributes to solving that problem. For example, you may study public transportation routes, sheltering the homeless,
prevention of cigarette addiction, racism on campus, reducing high blood pressure among the elderly, lack of nutritious snack in the vending machines and any other idea. A two person team should carry out this project. You will present your research orally and you will write a paper about the process. The report should include a personal, subjective account about why you chose that particular problem. You will also indicate how the project proceeded, methods you used, problems you encountered in the field. Also evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts and what you learned from the project. Total points 150. (100 points for written report; 50 points for oral presentation.) Your team should write a 1 page proposal about the project you intend to pursue. It will be due Feb. 14. Final project due April 27.
3. Each Thursday class will be used to examine applied projects. Your team will select a Thursday to propose a problem for the class to solve. The problem should be related to the readings of that week.. You should study an applied project that has been conducted, give background information about the project , request students to discuss how they would address this project, and facilitate the discussion. The instructor will give you a model and demonstrate it. 50 points.
4. Each student is expected to read and actively participate in class discussion. 75 points

Total points 375 A- 337, B - 300 C - 262, D - 225 F- 187.

Class Outline

Jan 24 and Jan 26, What is Applied Anthropology? Introduction and Overview
Read: Chambers Chapter 1, "The Beginning" Pp. 1 -35.

Questions to consider:
Is all anthropology applied? If yes, why? If no, why not? Which factors contributed to the development of applied anthropology? For whom does the anthropologist work ? Are ethical dilemmas created by their status.. Is teaching applied anthropology?

Jan. 31 & Feb. 2. Training Applied Anthropologists
Chambers, Erve Chapter 7, "The Profession of Applied Anthropology Pp. 212-233.
(on reserve) van Willigen, John 1986 Chapter 13, "Being a Professional" Pp. 209-224. South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin and Garvey.
Weaver, Thomas 1985 "Anthropology as a Policy Science: Part II, Development and Training." Human Organization 44(3):197-205.

Questions to consider ?
Is professionalization necessary for applied anthropologists? What skills are needed to become an applied anthropologist. For what purposes should anthropological knowledge be used? For whom does the applied anthropologist work?

Assignment for in class discussion: Survey back copies of Practicing Anthropology. Identify the types of jobs anthropologists hold and in which settings they work..

Feb 7 & Feb. 9. Specializations in Applied Anthropology
Read Chambers, Chapters 3 and 4 Specialization in Applied Anthropology 1 & 2. Pp. 67-132.
Warry, Wayne 1992 "The Eleventh Thesis: Applied Anthropology as Praxis." Human Organization 51(2): 155-163.

Questions to consider: Does development lead to improved lives? Does a culture of poverty exist? Does applied anthropology contributes to the development of native anthropology?
Is applied anthropology emancipatory praxis? Does an indigenous theory exits in applied anthropology?

Feb. 14. Proposal for project due.

Feb. 14 & Feb 16 Power of Knowledge, Policy Making and Applied Anthropology
Read: Chambers, Chapter 2, "The Policy Idea." Pp. 36-67; Chapter 6. "The Cultures of Policy." Pp. 180-210. and Chapter 5, "Fundamentals of Applied Research." Pp. 138-180.
Hunter, Albert 1993 "Local Knowledge and Local Power: Notes on the Ethnography of Local Community Elites." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22(1) 36-58.

Supplemental Reading: van Willigen, John 1984 "Truth and Effectiveness: An Essay on the Relationships Between Information, Policy and Action in Applied Anthropology." Human Organization 43(3) 277-282.

Feb 21 -Feb 23.. Applied Anthropology: Hegemony or Emancipation
Read (on reserve) Howard, Pat 1994 "The Confrontation of Modern and Traditional Knowledge Systems in Development." Canadian Journal of Communication 19:189-208.
Burger, Julian Report From the Frontier: The State of the World's Indigenous Peoples. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cultural Survival Inc. Chapter 1, "Unwelcome Development."`Pp. 1-4.
Bodley, John 1990 Victims of Progress. Chapter 6, "Cultural Modification Policies." Pp. 94-113.
Mountain View, Ca.: Mayfield Press.

Questions to consider: Is applied anthropology social engineering? Does applied contributes to ethnocide or helps to preserve cultural integrity? Whose knowledge is used in applied anthropology? Are dialectics an aspect of applied anthropology. What assumptions undergird
development?

Feb 28- -March 2 Status of Women: Development or Underdevelopment
Read: Sen, Gita and Caren Grown 1987 Development, Crises and Alternative Visions: Thirds World Women's Perspectives. Chapter 1 "Gender and Class in Development Experience."
Pp. 9-46. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Questions to consider: Which cultural values and assumptions shape development approaches toward women? What is the relationship between women programs and funding?

March 7- March 9 Development and Family Planning. War and Dependency
Read: Sen, Gita and Caren Grown 1987 Development, Crises and Alternative Visions: Third World Women's Perspectives. New York: Monthly Review Press. Chapter 2 "Systemic Crises, Reproduction Failures, and Women's Potential.." Pp. 50-74 and Chapter 3 "Alternative Visions, Strategies and Methods. Pp. 78-97. New York: Monthly Review Press.

Questions to Consider: When do development planners consult the women? Why are those who are affected by development least likely to have a say in their destiny?

March 14 - March 16 An Epistemology of Labeling Illness and Health
Read: McElroy and Townsend Medical Anthropology , Chapters 1,"The Ecology of Health Pp. 7- 33 and Disease, 2, " Interdisciplinary Research in Health Problems 35-69 and 3, "The Meaning of Adaptation Pp. 71-118.

Questions to consider: How does culture influence perceptions of health and illnesses? Are female circumcisions and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome maladaptive cultural patterns?
Mid-term March 14.

March 21- March 23 The Effects of the Political Economy on Death and Food.
Read: McElroy and Townsend Chapter 4," Changing Patterns of Birth, Disease, and Death."
Pp. 121-163 Chapter 5, "The Ecology and Economics of Nutrition." Pp. 165-201.

Questions to consider: How does affluence affect food production and consumption? How has the world market affected hunger? What can applied anthropologist do to prevent hunger in Hartford area? How would you approach this problem in rural Mexico? Is the chewing of coca and the coca trade problems for citizens of the United States or the Andeans? Is wage labor a path to improved health?

March 18- March 30 From Cradle to Grave and Stress
Read McElroy and Townsend Chapter 6, Nutrition Throughout the Life Cycle Pp. 203-239. Chapter 7 Stress and Disease Pp. 241-286.

Questions to consider: As an applied anthropologist what would you do to encourage school aged white parents to breast feed their babies? How does military interest determine availability of
relief food in the Sahel regions during droughts.? Is food relief the most effective means of handling food shortage during a drought? Should foods that are not indigenous to drought area
be introduced as food relief? Can stress kill? Does stress cause high blood pressure among African Americans?

April 4- April 6 Cultural Contact and Cost of Global Economy
Read McElroy and Townsend "Health Repercussion of Culture Contact" Chapter Pp. 291-336. and Chapter 9 "Health Cost of Modernization."." Pp. 335-386.

Questions to consider.: What is modernization? How does one explain the cost of modernization.

April 11 and April 13 Politics of Homelessness
Read: Wagner, David 1993 Checkerboard Square: Culture and Resistance in a Homeless Community. Boulder: Westview Press. Chapter 1, "Beyond the Conventional Wisdom on the Homeless" Pp. 1-20. and Chapter 2, "Voices from Checkerboard Square" Pp. 21-43.

Questions to Consider: What causes homelessness?

April 18 and April 20 Down and Out: No Family and No Job
Read: Wagner Chapter 3: The Family: No Haven 45-66. Chapter 4 "Get a Job":The Limits of the Work Ethic," Pp. 67-95 Institutions of Control: Social Welfare as Contested Terrain." Pp. 96- 119.

Questions to consider. Which jobs are available to homeless people? How does the Western work ethic undermine rational and effective measures to assist homeless people? Which values shape social workers' responses to homeless people?

April 25 and April 27 Power in the Streets
Wagner, Chapter 6 Alternative Institutions and Movements Among Street People" pp. 124-146;
"Subculture and Patterns of Association Among Street People, Pp. 147-174.; and "Checkerboard Square and a Radical Critique of Homelessness. Pp. 175-188.

Questions to consider: What strengths are found within the homeless community in North City?
Which cultural values and assumptions shape their movements and organizations? What if the Checkerboard community were treated as a community?

May 2, 4 and 9, Final report and Summary.

May 11 and 12 Reading Days.
Final Exam week begins May 15.