ANSO 320-01, Anthropology and the written word, Fall 2003

Abstract

Course Statement The written word is powerful. There are sacred texts and political documents that purport to explain the world or, in some cases, change and/or control it. Sometimes the possession of the skills of writing and reading politically empower individuals, as in the case of ancient elite Mesopotamian and Chinese scribes. While the writing of a dissertation grants authority to some anthropologists in the form of a degree, anthropologists have also been involved in various literary projects beyond the classic ethnography and the theoretical treatise. There is a tradition in anthropology of biographies and autobiographies of individuals from non-Western societies. Anthropologists have considered such works as important means of conveying a sense of what it is like to be a member of and to live inside an alternative cultural system. Other anthropologists have used poetry and the novel to portray a sense of their understanding of alternative realities and some have even written science fiction to allow them to focus on a specific cultural dilemma or moral crisis that arises in cross-cultural interactions. It is also the case that we have access to the voice of others when they choose to write down their own thoughts and tales in literary texts. Some of these texts conform to Western literary traditions; others speak in different voices with different styles.