Danilyn Rutherford

21207/34600. Intensive Study of a Culture: Problems in the History and Ethnography of Indonesia. Do Indonesian societies have any unity other than that which was originally imposed upon them by outsiders? Beginning with a review of the Dutch East Indies’ colonial past, we consider how various scholars have responded to this question. Readings range from interpretive ethnographies in the tradition of Clifford Geertz to classics of Dutch structuralism to recent treatments of marginality and the postcolonial predicament. The course pays special heed to a trait commonly attributed to the region’s cultures: the ability to localize objects and texts from afar.

21304/42100. Modern Readings in Anthropology: Kinship and Every Day Life. PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing. Once the focus of fierce debate in anthropology and social theory, in recent years the topic of kinship seems to have given way to broader concerns, such as globalization and the politics of identity. Yet the problem of kinship often resurfaces. This course provides a critical survey of debates, old and new, in the study of kinship with an eye towards exploring their relevance to research on the reproduction and erosion of sociocultural difference. Readings range from classical treatments to recent reformulations that use kinship as a lens for exploring the dynamics of history, memory, and power.

40900. Modernity and Its Margins in Southeast Asia. Focusing on a region with a long history at the cross-roads of global travel and trade, this seminar takes Southeast Asia as an exemplary site for exploring how anthropology might contribute to debates on the nature of modernity. We will work with a range of theoretical, historical, and ethnographic writings, from classical texts of Dutch, British and American anthropology to recent treatments of questions of marginality and the state. Topics covered may include the rise of nationalism, Christian conversion, capitalism and commodification, state terror and the politics of ethnicity. Through presentations and discussion, students will participate in addressing a central question: in divergent historical contexts, how might a long-standing pattern of relations to the foreign shape the emergence – or subversion – of modern structures of identity and power?

42400. Anthropology of Christianity. Christianity has long posed problems for anthropologists, who have viewed it as a phenomenon at once too alien and too close to home. In the past, anthropologists often responded to this unease by defining non-Western Christianities as “syncretic,” a move that saved them from having to confront Euro-American missionaries and their belief systems, which thus appeared as superficial impositions. In this seminar, we will consider some of the theoretical and historical, as well as ethical and ethnographic problems that anthropologists must confront in conducting research that takes seriously not only the Christian faith of their consultants but also the tangled roots of secular institutions and forms of thought, including those responsible for the very category, “religion.” Reading old and new ethnographies, alongside work in philosophy, history, and social theory, we will consider such topics as fetishism, syncretism, secularism, millenarianism, colonialism, globalization, performance, textuality, and translation. Christianities covered include medieval monasticism, New Guinea “cargo cults,” Philippines Catholicism, Branch Davidianism, the Word of Life faith ministry, and more.

51200. Seminar: Institutions and Ideologies. In this seminar, we will review dominant theories of ideology and gauge the analytic mileage to be gained through a critical scrutiny of the theories of representation they presuppose. In addition to writings by a range of theorists (Hegel, Marx, Gramsci, Althusser, Laclau and Mouffe, Zizek, Derrida), we will consider recent work in anthropology and other disciplines that takes seriously the concrete character of the practices and processes through which particular views of the world and self are produced. We will explore the possibility of expanding upon recent work on language ideologies to develop a concept of ideologies of institutionality that captures how “meta-institutional” perspectives, themselves embedded in particular sets of social practices, inform what “functions” of an institution appear as dominant. Possible topics covered include nationalism, state violence, corruption, late liberalism, multiculturalism, and the politics of post-authoritarian regimes.

52900. Seminar: The Fetish in History and Theory. This seminar traces the theoretical and historical roots of the concept of the fetish in an attempt to gain a purchase on some critical problems in anthropology: the nature of agency, the origins of value, and the dynamics of power and marginality. We compare the perspectives on fetishism offered by Hegel, Marx, and Freud, then examine how their formulations have been taken up by cultural theorists, psychoanalysts and anthropologists working in diverse intellectual traditions. In particular, we consider whether modern accounts of the fetish, which arguably found their origin in an encounter between social orders, can help us in theorizing the reproduction (and erosion) of cultural frontiers.

53100. Seminar: Performance Theory. (=CMS 48700, Gndr 41900, Grmn 4770) This graduate seminar will seek to explore the burgeoning field of performance theory, examining some of its foundational statements (e.g., J.L. Austin, J. Derrida, R. Schechner) and some more recent practical applications and theoretical elaborations (e.g., E. Diamond, R. Morris, P. Phelan, J. Roach). We will be shuttling between two questions: what does recent work in cultural (e.g., semiotic, psychoanalytic, gender) theory bring to the study of theater? What insights might an exploration of the particular theoretical problems involved in the study of theater bring to cultural analysis more generally? Readings will be supplemented by screenings and, if possible and desirable, forays to Chicago theaters. (with D. Levin)

35300. The Millennium, Revisited. PQ: Open to third and fourth year undergraduates with consent of instructor. This course is at once an exercise in ethnographic description and an exploration of the phenomenon of the millennium, as approached from the perspectives of history, anthropology and social theory. Drawing on works varying from the classical literature on “cargo cults” and millenarian movements to recent treatments of modernity and the politics of time, we examine contemporary responses to the year 2,000. In addition to participating in discussions of the readings, students conduct field and library research and share their findings on the question: what forms, if any, does “millenarianism” take today. D. Rutherford. Winter 1999, Autumn 2000. (INACTIVE 2/7/03)