Cultural Anthropology Toolkit
For Cultural Anthropology 2024, this course used Essentials of Cultural Anthropology: A Toolkit for a Global Age by Kenneth Guest. There is a course outline sketch below for our cultural anthropology toolkit, and then reflections on cultural anthropology textbooks from 2016-2024.
Part 1: Culture Tools
Unique
- Chapter 1, part 1, “Anthropology in a Global Age”
Globalization in Anthropology
- Chapter 1, part 2, “Anthropology in a Global Age”
Coffee
- Fieldwork: Making a Cup of Coffee Unfamiliar
Culture
- Chapter 2, “Culture”
College
- Fieldwork: College Students & Consumer Culture
Anthropological Fieldwork
- Chapter 3, “Fieldwork and Ethnography”
- Fieldwork: Mapping a Block
Hamlet
- “Shakespeare in the Bush”
Language
- Chapter 4, “Language”
Part 2: Power Tools
Race
- Chapter 5, part 1, “Race and Racism”
Racism
- Chapter 5, part 2, “Race and Racism”
- Fieldwork: Initiating a Classroom Conversation about Race
Ethnicity and Nationalism
Anthropology of US Census Race Categories
- Chapter 6, “Ethnicity and Nationalism”
Gender
- Chapter 7, “Gender”
Sexuality
- Chapter 8, “Sexuality”
Kinship
- Chapter 9, “Kinship, Family, and Marriage”
Part 3: Global Toolkit
Global Economy
- Chapter 10, “The Global Economy” (part 1, 281-317)
Culture of Poverty Problems
Habitus and Doxa: Bourdieu
Immigration
- Fieldwork: An Immigrant Interview
- Chapter 10, “The Global Economy” (part 2, 317-325)
World on Edge
- Chapter 11, “Environment and Sustainability”
Politics
- Chapter 12, “Politics and Power”
Religion
- Chapter 13, “Religion”
Magic
- “Baseball Magic”
Health & Religious Community
- Chapter 14, “Health, Illness, and the Body”
- Fieldwork: Visit to a Religious Community
Art and Media
- Chapter 15, “Art and Media”
Cultural Anthropology Toolkit: Reflections 2016-2024
For many years teaching Cultural Anthropology, my text was Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s book Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World, culminating in 2016. However, apart from advanced graduate courses–and despite the extraordinary efforts of Trouillot Remixed–his work seems currently inaccessible for most undergraduates and lay readers (see Teaching Trouillot on this blog, and my own attempt to teach a version of “Anthropology and the Savage Slot” for the History of Anthropological Thought.
In 2018, I began trying to turn to textbooks and more practically-oriented coursework to develop a comprehensive cultural anthropology toolkit. We of course want to remember global history and the history of anthropology, but I felt we needed to foreground the future, especially in a basic undergraduate class. I first tried using Guest’s books in 2018-2019. By 2020 the reader was dated and the 3rd edition needed updates, but it did adapt well during a coronavirus-laden semester. For Cultural Anthropology 2021 and Cultural Anthro 2022 I experimented with other approaches, but with a refreshing set of updates I circled back to Guest in 2023 for Cultural Anthropology 2023.
Strangely, Guest’s books always seem to be just behind the news curve. No one expects anthropology to be able to constantly comment on breaking news–Trouillot warned us against getting caught up in the glib ever-newness of globalization–but in this case Guest seems to always publish just before events that shake society and the founding issues of US anthropology. When Guest emerged with the first edition of the textbook in 2013, the time seemed ripe for anthropology as a global toolkit. Obama had won his second term as US president, and I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post titled Anthropology is taking over the world. Times seemed reminiscent of that Bill-Clinton-esque-easy-going globalization, from before when 9/11 got exploited to launch multiple wars on terror.
There were certainly storm clouds on the horizon. Anthropology was being challenged, dismissed, and attacked, which was a primary reason for launching this blog. We were by no means in a post-racial era. In fact, the assertion that there was now “Anti-White Bias” should have spurred greater anthropological introspection.
The second edition of Guest’s textbook seemed to anticipate more of the same under a Clinton administration. When that didn’t happen, the third edition courageously incorporated updates for the 2016-2020 period, but that was published right before a a global pandemic.
Anthropology & Dehumanization: Challenges for the Cultural Anthropology Toolkit
Guest’s 2023 textbook also incorporated material on Ukraine. This was another major event challenging anthropology’s allegiance to the international order, alliances, and rights to self-determination. But Guest’s textbook obviously could not anticipate the situation in Gaza, where we are ongoing witnesses to some of the most tragic and terrible events unfold. It is difficult to believe that in real time, on social media, such enormous dehumanization remains possible. Anthropology’s assertion that all human life is valuable has been jeopardized and compromised. It is unclear exactly what the cultural anthropology toolkit should be for the “global age” in which we are interconnected but apparently moving in such different directions, and where simply calling attention to human suffering becomes grounds for mockery or worse, as I outlined in a 2024 lecture for the History of Anthropological Thought:
Related
This course is part of a series of Cultural Anthropology courses that have evolved over time. Other versions of Cultural Anthropology include:
- The 2024 course as a Cultural Anthropology Toolkit
- Cultural Anthropology 2023: A Global Toolkit
- Cultural Anthro 2022
- Cultural Anthropology 2021 using Introducing Anthropology
- Cultural Anthro 2020 with Ken Guest’s Essentials of Cultural Anthropology