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The Balkans: Anthropology of War and Violence
Professor David Sutton
Faner 3542
Phone: 453-3298
Questions or Comments--Send email to dsutton@siu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 9:30-11, or by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will look at the renewal of armed conflict and "ethnic" violence in Europe from an anthropological perspective. Focussing on Greece and the Former Yugoslavia -- countries which have been accused of displaying "Balkan Tribalism" and an "irrational fixation on history" -- this course will examine how a variety of anthropological approaches can help us move beyond media stereotypes in disentangling the role of economics, politics, culture and "the past" in understanding the sources of conflict. Issues of "ethnic cleansing," nationalism and transnationalism, orientalism, and the reconstruction of borders and boundaries in the cotnext of the European Union will be addressed.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
REQUIRED BOOKS (Available at the University Bookstore, Saluki or 711 Bookstore)
Neni Panourgia Fragrments of Death, Fables of Identity: An Athenian Anthropography
David Sutton Memories Cast in Stone: The Relevances of the Past in Everyday Life
Matiijs Van de Port Gypsies, : Civilization and its Discontents in a Serbian Town
All other readings are available on 2-hour reserve at the Morris library and at the Anthropology Department Student Lounge, Faner Hall, 3rd Floor.
*All reading on the syllabus is required, and should be done before the class for which it is assigned
NOTE CARDS For each class reading you should write a note card and hand it in at the beginning of class of the day the reading is to be discussed. This card should include your questions or comments about the reading, and might also include a brief summary of the reading and comment on how it relates to previous readings. These cards will count toward class attendance, and be worth 5% of your grade.
*There will be one mid-term and one final exam, which will combine in-class short answer/short essay questions with a possible take-home essay.
*There will be 3 short (2-3 page) papers due during the course of the semester. These papers will be each based on a film which may be shown shown partly during the evening. They will be graded on the basis of how well you integrate course readings into your discussion of the specific film.
[GRADUATE STUDENTS Will be expected to give one in-class presentation (and a 3-4 page written accompaniment). Graduate students will also write a final paper of approximately 15-20 pages instead of the final exam]
Grade Breakdown:
Notecards 5%
Short Papers 5% each=15%
Midterm 35%
Final Exam 45%
Course Readings (Note: Reading Assignments are approximate, and may be shifted during the course of the semester. Reading assignments will be confirmed at prior classes)
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Week 1: Introduction and Background
Handout
VIOLENCE
Weeks 2-3: Older approaches: Honor and Gender. New Questions: The Poetics of Masculinity & Femininity. Gender and Nation.
John Campbell: "Honor & the Devil" pp. 141-151
Bette Denich "Sex and Power in the Balkans"
Sutton Memories Cast in Stone Chs. 3-4
B. Denich "Of Arms and Men and Ethnic Warfare in Former Yugoslavia"
Cynthia Enloe from "Maneuvers"
The Film Cabaret Balkan will be shown (read Peter Loizos "A Broken Mirror: Masculine Sexuality in Greek Ethnography" in conjunction with this film, and write first paper, due Tuesday of 4th week).
Week 4: Symbolic Violence: Balkan "Orientalism"
C.M. Woodhouse "The Greek Psyche."
D. Sutton "Poked by the Foreign Finger in Greece."
R. Hayden & M. Bacic-Hayden "Balkan Orientalism."
WAR & EVERYDAY LIFE
Weeks 5-6 Background: Yugoslavia before and during its disintegration: Simmering Hatreds or Co-existence?
Mark Thompson A Paper House: The Ending of Yugoslavia (selections)
Tone Bringa Being Muslim the Bosnian Way pp. 60-73; 78-84
Glen Bowman "Xenophobia, Fantasy and the Nation" pp. 160-169
The Film We Are All Neighbors will be shown
Weeks 7-9 War, the Ethnographer, the "Other."
Matiijs Van de Port Gypsies, Civilization....
WEEK 8 MID-TERM EXAM
Weeks 10-11 Symbols, History, Tribalism? The play of past and present in understanding war.
Sutton Chs. 6, 8
Bette Denich "The Symbolic Revival of Genocide"
Katherine Verdery "The Political Life of Dead Bodies"
The Film Before the Rain will be shown. (Read Keith Brown "Macedonian Culture and its Audiences: An Analysis of Before the Rain" pp. 163-74 in conjunction with this film, and write paper)
Week 12 Global War, Post-Modern War: Clash of Civilizations, or Western Imperialism?
Sutton Ch. 7
Alex Callinicos "The Ideology of Humanitarian Intervention."
Harold Pinter "The NATO action in Serbia."
Keith Brown and Dimitris Theodosopoulos "The Performance of Anxiety."
Weeks 13-14 Death and the Ethnographer
Neni Panourgia Fragments of Death, Fables of Identity
Week 15 FINAL EXAM