Anth. 410E - Anthropology of Law
This course has three major aims: 1) It will introduce you to the concepts used in legal anthropology; 2) it will give you an empirical and theoretical foundation to think about and evaluate legal processes in a multi-cultural setting and in plural societies; and 3) it will give you intellectual tools with which to think critically about claims that you and others make regarding legal and political processes.
The course is structured around readings, lectures, and analysis. You will be required to carry out at least one analytic task each week, relating to the readings and guest lectures.
The course is divided into 4 sections:
Weeks 1-2: A brief survey of theories of “law” and some concepts scholars have used to analyze this domain of social life.
Weeks 3-5: Studies of dispute settlement in small-scale societies.
Weeks 6-8: Seeing Like a State – approaches to political structuring.
Weeks 9-16: Legal institutions in plural societies.
Requirements of the course
I. Readings:
Required book:
Scott, James C. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. Yale University Press, 1998.
Articles and books on reserve in the library:
Zorn, Jean G., Lawyers, Anthropologists, and the Study of Law: Encounters in the New Guinea Highlands. Law and Social Inquiry 1990 pp. 217-304.
Starr, June, “Preface” and “Introduction” in Law as Metaphor: From Islamic Courts to the Palace of Justice. State University of New York Press, 1992, pp. Xvii-xli.
Katharine T. Bartlett and Rosanne Kennedy, eds., Feminist Legal Theory: Readings in Law and Gender, Westview Press, 1991. The following articles:
-- Bartlett and Kennedy, “Introduction,” pp. 1-14.
-- White, Lucie E., “Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the -Hearing of Mrs. G. [1990]” pp. 404-430.
Hoebel, E. A., Chapters 2, “What is Law?” and 4, “Fundamental Legal Concepts” in The Law of Primitive Man, by E. Adamson. Hoebel . Harvard University Press, 1967.
Paul Bohannan, ed. Law and Warfare: Studies in the Anthropology of Conflict. University of Texas Press, 1967. The following articles:
-- Kenhelm Burridge, “Disputing in Tangu” pp. 205-232.
-- Paul Bohanan, “Drumming the Scandal Among the Tiv” pp. 263-266
-- E. A. Hoebel, “Law-Ways of the Comanche Indians,” pp. 183-204.
-- Esther Warner, “A Liberian Ordeal,” pp. 271-276.
-- Gibbs, “The Kpelle Moot”, pp. 277-290
-- Gluckman, “The Judicial Process among the Barotse,” pp. 59-92
-- Warner, “A Liberian Ordeal,” pp. 271-276.
-- Laura Nader, “An Analysis of Zapotec Law Cases,” pp. 117-138.
Merry, Sally Engle. Legal Pluralism. Law & Society Review 22(5)(1988):869-901.
Moore, Sally Falk, “Introduction: A time-oriented anthropology: events, processes, and history,” in Social Facts and Fabrication: ‘Customary’ Law on Kilimanjaro, 1880-1980, Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 1-12.
Greenhouse, Carol. “Review of Sally Falk Moore, Social Facts and Fabrication: ‘Customary’ Law on Kilimanjaro, 1880-1980,’” Law and History Review 8(1)(1990):144-146.
Norgren, Jill and Serena Nanda, American Cultural Pluralism and Law. New York: Praeger. The following chapters:
-- “Introduction: E. Plurbus Unum?” pp. 1-10.
-- Chapter 1, “The First Americans” pp. 11-28.
Peterson, John E. II. “Dance of the Dead: A Legal Tango for Control of Native American Skeletal Remains.” American Indian Law Review 15(1)(1990):115-150.
Parlow, Anita. “Cry, Sacred Ground: Big Mountain, U.S.A.” American Indian Law Review 14(1989):301-322.
Fineman, Martha Albertson and Nancy Sweet Thomadsen, At the Boundaries of Law: Feminism and Legal Theory. New York: Routledge, 1991. The following articles:
-- Williams, Patricia J., “On Being the Object of Property,” pp. 22-39.
-- Omolade, Barbara, “The Unbroken Circle: A Historical Study of Black Single Mothers and Their Families,” pp. 171-187.
-- Boris, Eileen, “Homework and Women’s Rights: The Case of the Vermont Knitters, 1980-1985,” pp. 229-247.
Silverman, Marilyn. “Custom, courts, and class formation: constructing the hegemonic process through the petty sessions of a southeastern Irish parish, 1828-1884. American Ethnologist 27(2)(2000):400-430.
Starr, June, “The Role of Turkish Secular Law in Changing the Lives of Rural Muslim Women, 1950-1970,” Law and Society Review 23(3)(1989):497-523.
Vickers, William T., “Processes and Problems of Land Demarcation for a Native Amazonian Community in Ecuador. Law and Anthropology 3(1988):661-685.
Mertz, Elizabeth. “The Uses of History: Language, Ideology, and Law in the United States and South Africa,” Law & Society Review 22(4)(1988):661-685.
Wells, Miriam J., Chapter 9, “Politics and Social Class at Work: The View from the Fields,” Strawberry Fields: Politics, Class, and Work in California Agriculture, Cornell University Press, 1996, pp. 278-310.
II. Requirements: This course is built around readings. To encourage class discussion, I require weekly brief analytical essays based on the assigned readings. There are additionally two mid-term exams and a final exam.
Essays 14 assigned, 13 counted @ 7.5 points …………..… 97.5 points
Two midterm exams @ 75 points each ……………….….. 150.0 points
Final comprehensive exams, 150 points ……………..…… 150.0 points
Attendance used to determine borderline grades
A. Weekly written assignments. 25 percent of grade.
I believe that people learn best when they are actively engaged in the process. Class discussion is vital, so students should read all assignments before class. Most class periods we will deal with one or two articles or chapters, using your analyses as the basis for discussion.
Each week you will be assigned readings on which you are to write a 1 to 3 page analysis based on questions given you. TWO copies of your essay are due in class the day the article is being discussed. Late papers will not be accepted unless accompanied by legitimate written explanation and appropriate documentation.
I will grade based on:
1. How adequately you addressed the question asked. This involves both
a) comprehension in reading the assigned articles
b) ability to follow instructions
2. Style: Essays should be written in standard English, with complete sentences, coherent paragraphs, and good spelling. If diagrams or other graphics are required for the analysis, they should be neatly and legibly done. All essays are to be typed, double space, on unlined 8.5 X 11 inch paper. If you use a computer (and I hope you will), make sure the ribbon is dark (if using dot matrix) and that the text is properly aligned on the page. If you use previously used paper, the used side should not bleed through.
3. Timeliness: Late papers will not be accepted. You will receive a 0 (of a possible 7.5 points) for any papers not turned in on the assigned date. If you were unable to attend class, and notified me that you would be absent, late papers will be accepted with appropriate documentation. Attach explanation and documentation to late papers.
Study tip: Keep a third copy of your essay to correct and amplify during class discussion, and use to study for the exams.
B. Exams. 75 points each of 2 midterm exams; 150 points comprehensive final: Exams will combine an in-class short-answer section, which will cover knowledge of terminology and other specific information; and a take-home essay section which will require synthesis of the materials covered in that section of the course and, for the final exam, the entire course.
C. Attendance policy: Class discussion is crucial to this class, and without regular attendance students cannot participate intelligently and cogently. Attendance is therefore required, and attendance will be taken. If you must miss a class, let me know in writing. You may call or email and leave a message if you have an emergency.
Schedule
Week 1, Aug 21-25: Introduction.
Aug. 26. Write a brief essay on what you understand the concept “law” to refer to. Write a brief essay on what you understand the concept “politics” to refer to. These will be the basis for class discussion.
Aug 28. Zorn, Jean G., Lawyers, Anthropologists, and the Study of Law: Encounters in the New Guinea Highlands. Law and Social Inquiry 1990 pp. 217-304.
Pay special attention to Section I: The Evolution of Legal Anthropology, pp. 274-294.
Assignment: Based on the article, answer the question: What is “Law?” Who defined it in what ways? What was the historical context for these definitions?
Week 2, Aug 28-Sept. 1.
Starr, June, “Preface” and “Introduction” in Law as Metaphor: From Islamic Courts to the Palace of Justice. State University of New York Press, 1992, pp. xvii-xli.
“Introduction” by Katharine T. Bartlett and Rosanne Kennedy, in Feminist Legal Theory: Readings in Law and Gender, ed. by Katharine T. Bartlett and Rosanne Kennedy, Westview Press, 1991, pp. 1-14.
Hoebel, E. A., Chapters 2, “What is Law?” and 4, “Fundamental Legal Concepts” in The Law of Primitive Man, by E. Adamson. Hoebel . Harvard University Press, 1967.
Assignment: Compare and contrast the meanings of “law” as used in these three articles.
Week 3, Sept. 4 (Labor Day)-8. Dispute settlement in small-scale societies
(Learning how to read ethnographic descriptions)
The following readings are from Paul Bohannan, ed. Law and Warfare: Studies in the Anthropology of Conflict. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967. (out of print) Select one of the following assignments to turn in.
Kenhelm Burridge, “Disputing in Tangu” pp. 205-232.
Assignment: Make a kinship diagram of ALL the characters in this account. How does the conflict relate to these kinship relationships and the social obligations that go along with these relationships?
Paul Bohanan, “Drumming the Scandal Among the Tiv” pp. 263-266
E. A. Hoebel, “Law-Ways of the Comanche Indians,” pp. 183-204.
Esther Warner, “A Liberian Ordeal,” pp. 271-276.
Assignment: Which of these accounts seems more “objective” or “accurate” to you? Why?
Week 4, Sept. 11-15. Dispute resolution in more complex societies.
Gibbs, “The Kpelle Moot”, pp. 277-290
Gluckman, “The Judicial Process among the Barotse,” pp. 59-92
Warner, “A Liberian Ordeal,” pp. 271-276.
Assignment: Diagram the Barotse kuta. Who has decision-making power? What different status groups and levels of civil administration are involved?
OR
List the various actors in the Kpelle moot, the Liberian ordeal, and the Barotse kuta. Develop a hypothesis that explains why different actors appear in the different situations/societies.
Friday, Sept. 18, First take-home exam distributed. Due in class Monday, Sept. 21.
Week 5, Sept. 18-22. Monday, Sept. 21, in-class exam.
Wed, Sept. 23: Begin Seeing Like a State. Introduction, Chapters 1 and 2
Assignment: Scott takes up the project of understanding “State projects of legibility and simplification.” What does he mean by this phrase?
Week 6, Sept. 25-29. Seeing Like a State chapters 3, 4, 5
Assignment: What does Scott mean by “high modernism?” What are the three elements he discerns as characteristic of high modernist states?
Week 7, Oct. 2-6. Seeing Like a State chapters 6, 7, 8
Assignment: Summarize briefly the ways that Soviet collectivization, the Tanzanian Ujamaa Villagization campaign, and state-promoted agricultural monocultures exemplify “sedentarization,” “concentration,” and “radical simplification” of settlement and cultivation.
Week 8, Oct. 9-13. Seeing Like a State chapters 9, 10.
Assignment: What does Scott mean by “practical knowledge” or metis? How does he contrast this with modernist simplifications?
Friday, Oct. 13. Second take-home exam distributed. Due Monday, Oct. 16.
Week 9, Oct. 16-20. Monday, Oct. 16. In-class exam.
Customary law and law in plural societies.
Zorn, Jean G., “Lawyers, Anthropologists, and the Study of Law: Encounters in the New Guinea Highlands.” Law & Social Inquiry 1990:17-304. (no writing assignment).
Week 10, Oct. 23-27
Merry, Sally Engle. Legal Pluralism. Law & Society Review 22(5)(1988):869-901.
Sally Falk Moore, “Introduction: A time-oriented anthropology: events, processes, and history,” in Social Facts and Fabrication: ‘Customary’ Law on Kilimanjaro, 1880-1980, Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 1-12.
Greenhouse, C. “Review of S. F. Moore, Social Facts & Fabrication: ‘Customary’ Law on Kilimanjaro, 1880-1980,’” Law and History Review 8(1)(1990):144-146.
Norgren and Nanda, “Introduction: E. Plurbus Unum?” in American Cultural Pluralism and Law. New York: Praeger. pp. 1-10.
Assignment: Outline the key issues involved in distinguishing “customary” from “formal” law.
(Fall recess 11/28-Nov. 1)
Week 11, Nov. 3. Law and the First Americans
Norgren and Nanda, Chapter 1, “The First Americans” in American Cultural Pluralism and Law. New York: Praeger. pp. 11-28.
Peterson, John E. II. “Dance of the Dead: A Legal Tango for Control of Native American Skeletal Remains.” American Indian Law Review 15(1)(1990):115-150.
Parlow, Anita. “Cry, Sacred Ground: Big Mountain, U.S.A.” American Indian Law Review 14(1989):301-322.
Assignment (Due Wednesday): Using materials in these articles, Half the class will write a one- to two-page argument for the right of the U.S. government to treat Indian peoples as they would any other individual citizen. The other half of the class will write a one- to two-page argument for the right of Indian peoples to be treated a distinct polities within the United States.
Week 12, Nov. 6-10. Law and Gender
Williams, Patricia J., “On Being the Object of Property,” in Martha Albertson Fineman and Nancy Sweet Thomadsen, At the Boundaries of Law: Feminism and Legal Theory. New York: Routledge, 1991, pp. 22-39.
Starr, June, “The Role of Turkish Secular Law in Changing the Lives of Rural Muslim Women, 1950-1970,” Law and Society Review 23(3)(1989):497-523.
Nader, Laura, “An Analysis of Zapotec Law Cases,” in Bohannan, ed., Law and Warfare, pp. 117-138.
Assignment: Using Scott’s notion of high modernism, compare and contrast the cases in this section.
Week 13, Nov. 13-17. U.S. Law and the Construction of Class, Gender, & Racial Distinctions.
White, Lucie E., “Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G. [1990]” in Katharine T. Bartlett and Rosanne Kennedy, eds., Feminist Legal Theory, Westview Press, 1991, pp. 404-430.
Omolade, Barbara, “The Unbroken Circle: A Historical Study of Black Single Mothers and Their Families,” in Martha Albertson Fineman and Nancy Sweet Thomadsen, At the Boundaries of Law. Routledge, 1991, pp. 171-187.
Boris, Eileen, “Homework and Women’s Rights: The Case of the Vermont Knitters, 1980-1985,” in Martha Albertson Fineman and Nancy Sweet Thomadsen, At the Boundaries of Law. Routledge, 1991, pp. 229-247.
Assignment: How do legal categories and/or precedent shape or constrain gender roles?
Week 14, Thanksgiving break
Week 15, Nov. 27-Dec. 1. States and Indigenous Rights. (Write on one article)
Vickers, William T., “Processes and Problems of Land Demarcation for a Native Amazonian Community in Ecuador. Law and Anthropology 3(1988):661-685.
Assignment: What are the key issues raised by the attempts of the Siona-Secoya to retain control of their ancestral lands?
Mertz, Elizabeth. “The Uses of History: Language, Ideology, and Law in the United States and South Africa,” Law & Society Review 22(4)(1988):661-685.
Assignment: Why is the construction of history—stories of the past—important in legal relationships?
Week 16, Dec. 4-8. Law and Politics
Wells, Miriam J., Chapter 9, “Politics and Social Class at Work: The View from the Fields,” Strawberry Fields: Politics, Class, and Work in California Agriculture, Cornell University Press, 1996, pp. 278-310.
Silverman, Marilyn. “Custom, courts, and class formation: constructing the hegemonic process through the petty sessions of a southeastern Irish parish, 1828-1884. American Ethnologist 27(2)(2000):400-430.
Assignment: Law and politics are two aspects of disputes concerning public distribution of power. Compare the different terms Wells and Silverman use to analyze these legal-political processes.
Final essay exam will be distributed, to be handed in with in-class final.
Week 17, Final exam. Wed., Dec 13 7:50-09:50 a.m.