Anthropology 346 - Possession and Human Agency

Institution:

Reed College

Subject:

Description:

Full course for one semester. Starting with the self-reflective turn that occurred in anthropology during the 1980s, identifying human agency in ethnographic subjects has become a lasting concern within the discipline as ethnographers have attempted to deconstruct differentials in voice and power that often operate to the detriment of anthropology's frequently subaltern informants. Some of the most vexing problems in formulating human agency are those raised in possession, where, according to indigenous models, human agency is understood as displaced or eclipsed. Does possession mark a failure of agency, or is it another means through which it is exercised Through ethnographic and theoretical material, this course will review anthropological models that have posed possession as having its roots in crises of representation, in social conflict, in phenomenological apperception, and in psychodynamic tensions. These various models will be thought through by way of anthropological approaches to other phenomena that are read as being limitations on, or instances of, human agency, such as resistance, the commodity form, fetishism, and moral and ethical restraint; this course will also attempt to identify contemporary secular analogues to possession in which human agency is imagined, by those bearing it, to be interrupted, such as accounts of psychic trauma and paranormal encounters. Prerequisite: Anthropology 211 or consent of instructor. Conference. Not offered 2009-10.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.reed.edu

Phone Number:

(503) 771-1112

Regional Accreditation:

Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities

Calendar System:

Semester

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