Older Syllabi


History 69 Issues in African History

History 8A Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade

African Studies Seminar: Popular Culture in Africa

History 88: The Social History of Consumption

History 1: The Historical Construction of Identity

History 60: Cultural Constructions of Africa: Images, Inventions, Ideologies


History 69

Issues in African History

Spring 1996

Professor Burke

This class is an exploration of ethical, methodological and philosophical issues in the history of Africa. We will be covering a variety of questions and subjects in the course of the semester. I have tried to pace our reading appropriately for short and focused discussions, but please be careful to look ahead and plan for variations in the reading load. This class is strongly oriented towards discussion and I will expect everyone to contribute on some level. As a consequence, regular attendance is also important.

There will be four short writing assignments in the course of the semester: two 4-5 page discussion papers, one 4-6 page paper on ways of presenting classical African history, and one 4-6 page discussion of current textbooks available for African history. The last assignment will involve some research in preparation for the writing.

*Note: Since I offered this course, there have been a number of new readings published on many of these issues. I expect the units to remain similar, but the readings will change a lot the next time I offer it.

 

There are four books available for purchase for the course:

Martin Bernal, Black Athena , Volume 1

Isabel Hofmeyr, We Spend Our Years As a Tale That Is Told

Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History

Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition As History

Other readings will consist of reserve assignments or short handouts.

 

January 22 Introduction

 

January 24 The Production of History

Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing The Past: Power and the Production of History, Chapter One

 

January 26

Trouillot, Chapter Two

 

January 29

Trouillot, Chapter Three

 

January 31

Trouillot, Chapter Four and Five

 

Egypt and Africa

February 2

Martin Bernal, Black Athena , Introduction

 

February 5

Bernal, Black Athena, Chapter Five

 

February 7

*Gerald Early, "Understanding Afrocentrism", in Civilization

 

February 9

*John Coleman, "Did Egypt Shape The Glory That Was Greece? The Case Against Martin Bernal's Black Athena ", Archaeology 45: 1992.

*Molly Myerowitz Levine, "The Use and Abuse of Black Athena", American Historical Review, 97: 1992

 

Classical Africa: Problems and Possibilities

February 12

*Molefi Kete Asante, article on Africanist discourse

Short paper due

 

February 14

Excavations at Jenne-Jeno, Hambarketolo, and Kaniana , skim over.

 

February 16

*David Lee Schoenbrun, "A Past Whose Time Has Come: Historical Context and History in Eastern Africa's Great Lakes", History and Theory , 32:4 ,1993.

 

February 19

*Travel narratives of Ibn Battuta, short selection.

 

February 21

D.T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali , skim over.

 

February 23

*Portuguese records on precolonial Zimbabwe, short selection.

 

World History Versus Area Studies

February 26

*Steven Feierman, "African Histories and the Dissolution of World History", in Africa and the Disciplines

 

February 28

Feierman, "African Histories"

 

Oral History: Definitions and Methods

March 1

Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition As History

 

March 4

Vansina, Oral Tradition

 

March 6

Vansina, Oral Tradition

 

March 8

*David Henige, selection from The African Past Speaks

 

March 18

*David William Cohen, "The Undefining of Oral Tradition", Ethnohistory

 

March 20

Isabel Hofmeyr, We Spend Our YearsAs A Tale That Is Told , Introduction and Chapter One

 

March 22

Hofmeyr, We Spend Our Years , Chapter Two, Three and Four

 

March 27

Hofmeyr, We Spend Our Years , Chapter Seven, Eight, Conclusion and Appendices

 

March 29

*Karin Barber, I Could Speak Until Tomorrow, pp. 1-38

 

April 1

*David Coplan, "These Mine Compounds, I Have Long Worked Them", in In The Time of Cannibals

 

Africanists, Africans and History: Speech, Silence and Voices

April 3

*James Clifford, "Power and Dialogue in Ethnography: Marcel Griaule's Initiation", in George Stocking, ed., Observers and Observed

 

April 5

Clifford, "Power and Dialogue"

 

April 8

*Marcel Griaule, Conversations With Ogotemmeli , short selection

 

April 10

Griaule, Conversations

 

April 12

*Gananath Obeysekere, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook , p. 3-22, 177-186

 

April 15

*Marshall Sahlins, How 'Natives' Think: About Captain Cook, For Example , pp. 1-15, pp. 191-198

 

April 17

*Sahlins, How 'Natives' Think , pp. 117-147

 

April 19

*Luise White, "Tsetse Visions", in American Historical Review

 

April 22

White

 

April 24

The Curtin Affair: Philip D. Curtin, "Ghettoizing African History", Chronicle of Higher Education

 

April 26

The Curtin Affair: miscellaneous rejoinders and replies

 

April 29

The Curtin Affair: the ASA and aftermath

 

May 1

Concluding remarks


History 8A

Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade

Swarthmore College

Spring 1997

Professor Burke

This class involves a mixture of lecture and discussion. Always make an effort to read assigned material carefully and critically. Come to class with questions and arguments already in mind. Some readings are much larger or more difficult than others; I will try to warn you in advance, but don't forget to plan ahead. Be particularly conscious of the period after spring break where we will have several weeks of discussion-oriented sessions in a row.

Papers and assignments should be handed in on time. If you must have an extension, I ask that you clear it with me first. Also, please note: regular attendance is vital to your grade. If I become aware that you are regularly missing classes, it will affect your grade.

You should purchase the following books in the campus bookstore; some of them are not available in our library and thus will not be available on General Reserve:

 

Alhaji Balewa, Shaihu Umar

Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life

Colin McEvey, The Penguin Atlas of African History

D.T. Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali

Robert Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba

Jan Vansina, Paths in the Rainforests

Readings marked with an asterix (*) are available in folders kept on General Reserve in McCabe Library.

 

Introduction

Tuesday January 21

Overview of texts, syllabus, requirements.

Why Study Africa? Why This Time Period?

 

Thursday January 23

Lecture: Africa circa 1200 A.D.: A Continental Overview

 

West African Societies 1200-1700 CE

Tues Jan 28

Lecture: The Niger Bend and the Guinea Coast: Ghana, Mali, Songhay and the "Mane Invasions"

 

Thurs Jan 30

Discussion

Reading: D.T. Niane, Sundiata , all

 

Tues February 4

Lecture: The Yoruba and the Niger Delta

 

Thursday Feb 6

Lecture/Discussion: The Yoruba at Home and in the Diaspora

Reading: Robert S. Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba, pp. 3-108

 

Equatorial Africa, 1200-1700

Tues Feb 11

Lecture: The Rainforest and Equatorial Africa

 

Thurs Feb 13

Discussion: Political and Social Change in Precolonial African Societies

Jan Vansina, Paths in the Rainforests , pp. 35-196

 

Ethiopia and East Africa

Tuesday Feb 18

Lecture: Ethiopia and East Africa, 1200-1700

 

Slavery, the Slave Trade and the Atlantic System

Thursday Feb 20

Lecture: Trading Networks in West and Equatorial Africa

 

Tuesday Feb 25

Lecture: Europeans and the Roots of the Atlantic System

 

Thursday Feb. 27

Discussion: What Is Slavery?

Reading: Manning, Slavery and African Life , Prologue and Chaps. 1-2

Frederick Cooper, "The Problem of Slavery in African Studies" (handout)

 

Tues March 4

VISIT FROM DAVID BEACH

The Shona States, 1200-1700

Reading: *David Beach, The Shona and Zimbabwe, 900-1850 , pp. 53-156

 

Thursday March 6

Lecture: The Atlantic System and the Triangular Trade

 

Tuesday March 18

Discussion: Africans and the Experience of the Middle Passage

Reading: Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative , all

 

Thursday March 20

Discussion/Lecture: Creoles, Middlemen and Slavers

Reading: *Captain Canot, Adventures of an African Slaver , pp. 87-156

 

Tues March 25

Discussion: The Debate Over African Slavery: Kopytoff/Miers

Reading: * Kopytoff and Miers, Slavery in Africa , pp. 3-84

 

Thursday March 27

Discussion: The Debate Over African Slavery: Meillassoux and Cooper

Reading: *Claude Meillassoux, The Anthropology of Slavery , pp. 9-66

 

Tues April 1

Discussion: Debates Over Africa and the Slave Trade: The Numbers Game

Reading: Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life , Chapter Three and Four

 

Thurs April 3

Discussion: Debates Over Africa and the Slave Trade: Slavery and African Society

Reading: Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life , Chapter Six and Seven

 

Tues April 8

Discussion: Debates Over Africa and the Slave Trade: The Economic Impact of Slavery

Reading: Patrick Manning, Slavery and African Life , Chapter Five, Eight and Nine

 

Thurs April 10

Lecture: The Black Atlantic

 

West African Societies 1700-1850: Slavery to "Legitimate Commerce"

Tues April 15

Discussion: Asante

Reading: *T.E. Bowditch, Mission From Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee , pp. 381-403

* Ivor Wilks, Forests of Gold , Chapters Three and Four

 

Thurs April 17

Lecture: Dahomey

 

Tues April 22

Discussion/Lecture: The Fall of Old Oyo

Reading: Robert Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba , pp. 109-156

 

Thursday April 24

Discussion/Lecture: Jihad States

Reading: Alhaji Balewa, Shaihu Umar , all

 

Tuesday April 29

Lecture: Igbo

 

Thursday May 1

Lecture: East Africa 1700-1850: The Last Gasp of the Slave Trade


Popular Culture in Africa

African Studies Seminar

University of Pennsylvania, Spring 1997

JAN 17 Introduction

JAN 24 The Nature of the Popular

Arjun Appadurai and Carol Breckenridge, "Why Public Culture?", Public Culture , 1: 1, 1988, 5-9

Dele Jegede, "Popular Culture in Urban Africa", in Africa , 3rd edition, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995: 3-9, 273-94.

Stuart Hall, "Notes on Deconstructing 'The Popular'", in People's History and Socialist Theory, R. Samuel, ed., London: Routledge, 1981, 227-40.

Chandra Mukerji and Michael Schudson, "Introduction", Rethinking Popular Culture, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991: 1-61.

Recommended:

Morag Schiach, Discourses on Popular Culture , Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989, 19-34.

 

JAN 31 Genre and Form

Karin Barber, "Popular Arts in Africa", African Studies Review , 30: 1-78, 113-32.

Christopher Waterman, Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music , Chcago: University of Chicago Press, 1990

Helen M. Mugambi, "Intersections: Gender, Orality, Text and Female Space in Contemporary Kiganda Radio Songs", Research in African Literatures , 25: 1995, 47-70.

Luise White, "Cars Out of Place: Vampires, Technology and Labor in Eastern Africa", Representations , XLIII: 1993, 27-50.

Videotape: Ken Saro-Wiwa, "Basi & Company"

Recommended:

Stephen Ellis, "Tuning In To Pavement Radio", African Affairs, 88: 352, July 1989, pp. 321-330.

 

FEB 7 Time and Leisure

Phyllis Martin, Leisure and Society in Colonial Brazzaville, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995: 1-9, 71-126.

Charles Ambler and Jonathan Crush, "Introduction", in Ambler and Crush, eds., Liquor and Labour in Southern Africa , Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1992, 1-55

Ivan Karp, "Beer Drinking and and Social Experience in an African Society: An Essay in Formal Sociology", in Explorations in African Systems of Thought , ed. Ivan Karp and C. Bird, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), 83-119.

Recommended:

Paul la Hausse, "Drink and Cultural Innovation in Durban", in Ambler and Crush, eds., Liquor and Labour in Southern Africa , Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1992, 78-114.

FEB 14 Masks and Invisible Powers

David Hecht and Maliqalim Simone, Invisible Governance: The Art of African Micropolitics , (New York: Autonomedia), 1994, all.

Elizabeth Gunner, "Orality and Literacy: Dialogue and Silence", in Discourse and Its Disguises, Karin Barber and P.F. de Moraes Farias, eds., Birmingham: Centre of West African Studies, Birmingham University African Studies Series, 1: 1989, 49-56.

FEB 21 History, Memory and the Popular

Jane Guyer, "Traditions of Invention in Equatorial Africa," 1995, manuscript.

Johannes Fabian, Remembering the Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire , (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1996, pp. 3-113.

David Coplan, In the Time of Cannibals, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 1994, pp. 30-64.

FEB 28 Opposition in the Popular

James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance , (New Haven: Yale University Press), 1990,

Jonathan Glassman, Feasts and Riot: Poverty, Rebellion and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili Coast, 1856-1888 , (Heinemann: Portsmouth NH), 1995, 146-176.

Leroy Vail and Landeg White, Power and the Praise Poem , Chapters Seven and Eight.

The Poster Book Collective, Images of Defiance , Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1991: 158-179, 149.

March 7 Mimicry

Homi Bhabha, "Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse", in Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture , (New York: Routledge Press), 1994, pp. 85-92.

Terence Ranger, Dance and Society in Eastern Africa 1890-1970: The Beni Ngoma , (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1975, pp. 5-76.

Achille Mbembe, "Provisional Notes on the Postcolony", Africa , 62: 1, 1992.

Recommended:

Hildi Hendrickson, ed., Clothing and Difference , (Durham, NC: Duke University Press), 1996.

Phillip Prein, "Guns and Top Hats: African Resistance in German South West Africa, 1907-1915", Journal of Southern African Studies , 20:1, March 1994, pp. 99-122.

March 14 SPRING BREAK

March 21 Backstage

Manthia Diawara, African Cinema , (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), 1992, 35-50.

Johannes Fabian, Power and Performance: Ethnographic Explorations Through Proverbial Wisdom and Theater in Shaba, Zaire , (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), 1990, pp. 61-86, 101-124.

Film: Touki Bouki

March 28 Spectacle, Performance, Exhibition

Carolyn Hamilton, "The Real Goat", manuscript.

Corinne Kratz, Affecting Performance: Meaning, Movement and Experience in Okiek Women's Initiation , (Washington: Smithsonian Press), 1994, pp. 127-233, 325-337.

Victor Turner, The Anthropology of Performance , (New York: PAJ Publications), 1986, TBA

Recommended:

Ben Shephard, "Showbiz Imperialism: the Case of Peter Lobengula", in John MacKenzie, ed., Imperialism and Popular Culture , (Manchester: University of Manchester Press), 1986.

Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt , (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 1-33.

April 4 Commodities

Timothy Burke, Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification, Consumption and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe , (Durham: Duke University Press), 1996, pp. 166-216.

John Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), 1991, 102-79.

Jonathan Friedman, "The Political Economy of Elegance," Culture and History , VII: 1990, 101-125.

Brad Weiss, The Making and Unmaking of the Haya Lived World: Consumption and Commoditization in Everyday Practice , (Durham: Duke University Press), 1996, pp. 155-201.

Recommended:

Keith Breckenridge, "Money With Dignity: Migrants, Minelords and the Cultural Politics of the South African Gold Standard Crisis, 1920-1933," Journal of African History , 36: 1995, 219-245.

April 11 Hybridity and Creolization

Homi Bhabha, "Signs Taken For Wonders", in Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture , (New York: Routledge Books), 1994, pp. 102-122.

Ulf Hannerz, "Africa in Creolization", Africa, 57: 4, 1987, pp. 546-59.

Susan Vogel, "Future Traditions", in Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art , Susan Vogel, ed., (New York: The Center for African Art), 1991, 94-113.

Nestor Garcia Canclini, Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity , (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 1995. (pages TBA)

April 18 Circulations and Recirculations

Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), 1993, pp. 1-41

S.T. Barnes, "Africa's Ogun Transformed: An Introduction to the Second Edition" and Don Cosentino, "Re-Possession: Ogun in Folklore and Literature", in Africa's Ogun: Old World and New , 2nd enlarged edition, in press.

Joseph Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance , (New York: Columbia University Press), 1996, pp. 33-71.

Julius Lips, The Savage Hits Back , (New Haven: Yale University Press), 1937, pp. 97-163.

Recommended:

Michael Taussig, Mimesis and Alterity , (New York: Routledge), 1993, pp. 236-255.

April 25 Globalization

Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization , (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996, pages TBA.

James Ferguson and Akhil Gupta, "Beyond 'Culture': Space, Identity and the Politics of Difference", Cultural Anthropology, 7:1, February 1992.

Jonathan Zilberg, Dolly Parton article, Journal of Popular Culture

Veit Erlmann, "'Africa Civilised, Africa Uncivilised': Local Culture, World System and South African Music", Journal of Southern African Studies , 20: 2, June 1994, 165-180.




History 88: The Social History of Consumption


I've got one main goal with this class, and that's to have fun. That's not to say that I don't think we'll be covering some really, really important and weighty issues, of course. But the first priority is to have some fun in doing it. The difficult thing for me was actually whittling this class down to one semester's worth of material. Also, it was hard to choose which books to order: there's so many good ones to choose from. There's a big book list for this course, but I feel very certain that most or all of the students in the class will be happy with most or all of these books: they are all very readable, interesting works.

History 88
The Social History of Consumption
Spring 1996


Books for purchase:
Elaine Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving  
Miles Beller, Hey Skinny! Great Advertisements From the Golden Age of Comic Books
Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford, Cerealizing America
Andrew Heinze, Adapting to Abundance
Richard Klein, Cigarettes Are Sublime
William Leach, Land of Desire
Jackson Lears, Fables of Abundance
Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power 
Randall Rothenberg, Where the Suckers Moon
Ellen Seiter, Sold Separately: Parents and Children in Consumer Culture


There will be a number of short assignments throughout the semester. Some of them will be short papers of various kinds; other assignments will include designing a hypothetical advertising campaign. A longer 10-15 page research paper is due at the end of the semester.

*denotes readings on reserve in McCabe Library.
Consumption and Exchange in Early Modern Europe

January 23	Introduction
 
January 25	
*Jan de Vries, "Between Purchasing Power and the World of Goods"
*Carole Shammas, "Consumption From 1550 to 1800"
in Roy Porter and John Brewer, eds.,Consumption and the World of Goods 
 
January 30
*Joyce Appelby, "Consumption in Early Modern Thought"
*Cissie Fairchilds, "The Production and Marketing of Populuxe Goods
in Eighteenth Century Paris"
in Roy Porter and John Brewer, eds.,Consumption and the World of Goods 
 
February 1
*James Axtell, "The First Consumer Revolution", in Beyond 1492 
*T.H. Breen, "An Empire of Goods"
 


Commodities I: Sugar and Textiles

February 6
Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power 
 
February 8
Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power
 
February 13
Jane Schneider, "Rumpelstiltskin's Bargain: Folklore and the
Merchant Capitalist Intensification of Linen Manufacture in Early
Modern Europe", in Jane Schneider, ed., Cloth and Human Experience
 


From the 19th to the 20th Centuries: Consumption in the United States

February 15
Elaine Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters
in  the Victorian Department Store
 
February 20
Elaine Abelson, When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters
in  the Victorian Department Store
Research topics due.
 
February 22
Andrew Heinze, Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, Mass
Consumption and the Search For American Identity
 
February 27
Andrew Heinze, Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, Mass
Consumption and the Search For American Identity
 
February 29
William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power and the Rise of a
New American Culture
 
March 5
William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power and the Rise of a
New American Culture
 
March 7
*"Ephemeral Films, 1931-1960" (CD-ROM disk, available on General
Reserve)
 
SPRING BREAK
 
March 19
Ellen Seiter, Sold Separately: Children and Parents in Consumer
Culture
 
March 21
Ellen Seiter, Sold Separately: Children and Parents in Consumer
Culture
 


Commodities II: Cigarettes and Breakfast Cereal

March 26
Richard Klein, Cigarettes are Sublime
 
March 28
Richard Klein, Cigarettes Are Sublime
 
April 2
*Scott Bruce, Cerealizing America 
 


Global Perspectives on Consumer Culture and Commodities

April 4
*Nicholas Thomas, Entangled Objects, selection
 
April 9
*Millie Creighton, "The Depato : Merchandising the West While
Selling Japaneseness", in Joseph Tobin, ed., Re-Made in Japan
*Mary Yoko Brannen, "Bwana Mickey: Constructing Cultural Consumption
at Tokyo Disneyland", in Joseph Tobin, ed., Re-Made in Japan
 


Advertising

April 16
Jackson Lears, Fables of Abundance
 
April 18
Jackson Lears, Fables of Abundance
 
April 23
Miles Beller, Hey Skinny! Great Advertisements From the Golden Age
of Comic Books
Randall Rothenberg, Where the Suckers Moon
 
April 30
Randall Rothenberg, Where the Suckers Moon


Alternatives to Consumption? Environmentalism and Other Critiques

May 2
short reading to be distributed in class


Term papers due by May 8.


History 1: The Historical Construction of Identity


This is the third time that the Swarthmore Department of History has offered this class since we decided to make it the new requirement for all of our majors. The main goal of the course is to introduce both majors and non-majors to the discipline of history while also exposing them to some of the most important subjects and concepts in contemporary historical scholarship.

The class has undergone considerable revision and rethinking since its inception, but I think we're fairly close to the mark with this fall's syllabus. It's a moving target since we've also decided that the course will be co-taught each semester it is offered, with a syllabus customized to the strengths and specialties of the professors involved. (I taught it the last two years and will teach it next year as well).

The problem in the first two iterations of the course is that we continued to shadow the core narrative of a Western Civilization or comparative world history course while also trying to develop several detailed case studies of identity formation. It was impossible to juggle both priorities, and we largely ended up making students anxious about missing background material while having to do quick lectures that covered immense spans of time and space in order to connect each reading to the next. With this syllabus, we've almost entirely uncoupled this course from that narrative and just worked to develop three focused case studies. This should help us keep the class focused on issues of identity and on historical methodology and practice.

This may also mean that we need to offer a survey of comparative world history to round out our curriculum, but that's a matter for future consideration.

Addendum: sometimes you just can't win. One of our explicit objectives with this course was to show how historical knowledge can lead to a critical skepticism about identity politics in the present. That didn't stop the creepily-named Young America's Foundation from citing the class recently in its attack on college curricula. History 1, says the Foundation, is "three months of bellyaching about groups victimized by white Christian civilization". Yeah, whatever. If the Young America's Foundation would stop reading the titles of courses and start reading actual syllabi instead, they might have to deal with the complexities of reality rather than their own superficial fantasies. But I'm sure that the YAF (all three or four of them) would rather just continue to sit around eating pizza, leafing idly through catalogues and depositing checks from conservative think-tanks.



Fall 1995
Professors Burke and DuPlessis


Books for purchase: Belinda Bozzoli, Women of Phokeng John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive Martin Duberman, ed., Hidden From History Michel Foucault, ed., Herculine Barbin Sheila Marks, ed., Not Either An Experimental Doll Plato, The Symposium Daniel Richter, The Ordeal of the Longhouse Alden Vaughan and Edward Clark, eds., Puritans Among the Indians Judith Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society
Introductions

September 4
Discussion: Why Identity?


September 6
Lecture: Before There Were "Indians", What Were There?
Reading: Ordeal of the Longhouse, pp. 1-74 and pp. 281-284


September 8
Discussion: Can We Know Anything About Precolonial Societies?
Short writing assignment due in class.


Trade, Culture and Identity in Colonial North America

September 11
Lecture: Difference, Exchange and Travel in Western Europe Before 1500
September 13
Lecture: Commodities, Trade and Cultural Life Within the Atlatnic System,
1500-1750
September 15
Discussion: Identity and Material Life in Colonial North America
Reading: Ordeal of the Longhouse, pp. 75-213


Imperialism, Domination and Consciousness

September 18
Lecture: Political and Social "Middle Grounds" at the Periphery and Center of Empire
September 20
Lecture: Colonial Power: Forms and Systems of Domination in the Mercantile Empires
September 22
Discussion: What Is Imperialism?
Reading: Ordeal of the Longhouse, pp. 214-280; The Unredeemed Captive, pp. 3-76
Short writing assignment due in class.


Interpreting Captivity

September 25
Lecture: Property, Propriety and Political Economy
September 27 
Lecture: Miscegenation and the Invention of Race
September 28
Evening showing of the film "The Searchers"
 
September 29
Discussion: Purity, "Mixing" and Transformation: Core Narratives 
in American Culture
Reading: The Unredeemed Captive,  pp. 77-252
October 2
Discussion: Primary Texts and Historical Knowledge
Reading: Vaughan and Clark, eds.,  Puritans Among the Indians, "The Redeemed Captive", (pp. 166-226); 
"A Narrative of Hannah Swarton", pp. 145-157)
October 4
No class: work on first paper assignment


Transitions

October 6
Lecture: From Old to New Imperialism
First paper due
October 9
Lecture: From North America to Southern Africa
October 11
Discussion: Historical Comparisons: Do's and Don'ts


Gender and Colonialism in Modern Southern Africa

October 13
Lecture: Gender in 19th and 20th Century Southern Africa
Reading: Women of Phokeng, pp. 1-105


OCTOBER BREAK

October 23
Lecture: Migrancy, Competing Patriarchies and Female Agency in 
South Africa


October 25
Discussion: Choosing Identities
Reading: Women of Phokeng, pp. 106-242


October 27
Discussion: Oral History and the Ethics of Historical Research


Mission Life, Domesticity and Gender

October 30
Lecture: Translation, Conversion and Conquest: Weighing the Role of
Missionaries
November 1
Discussion: Domesticity and "Separate Spheres"
Reading: The Homemaker's Manual  [handout]; Not Either an
Experimental Doll, pp. 1-54
 
November 2
Evening showing of the film "Neria"
November 3
Discussion: Race, Class, Gender: The Conflict of Identities
Reading: Not Either an Experimental Doll, pp. 55-213


November 6
Discussion: The Longue Duree of Identity: Gender in South Africa From
1890 to 1990
SECOND PAPER DUE


Defining Sex, Defining the Body

November 8
Discussion: When the Greeks Had Sex, What Did It Mean?
Reading: Plato, Symposium ; Halperin, "Sex Before 
Sexuality", in Hidden From History
November 10
Lecture: Early Modern and Medieval Sexualities
November 13
Lecture: The Regulation and Science of the Body
November 15
Discussion: Is There a "True Sex"?
Reading: Herculine Barbin, all
Short writing assignment due. 


Sex and the Modern State

November 17
Lecture: Public Health and Urban Life in Modern Europe
November 20
Discussion: Social Control and Sexuality in England
Reading: Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society, pp. 1-147
November 22
Discussion: Case Studies and Historical Understanding
Reading: Prostitution and Victorian Society,  pp. 151-256


THANKSGIVING BREAK

Sexual Identities in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century

November 27
Lecture: The Invention of Sexual Preference
 
November 29
Discussion: The Diversity of Sexual Identities
Reading: Weeks, "Inverts, Perverts and Mary-Annes"; G. Chauncey, "Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion"; M. Vicinus, 
"Distance and Desire", in Hidden From History
December 1
Discussion: Privacy, Sexuality and Historical Research
Reading: M. Duberman, "Writhing Bedfellows in Antebellum 
South Carolina", in Hidden From History
Short writing assignment due
December 4
Lecture: To Stonewall and Beyond: Twentieth Century Sexualities
December 6
Discussion: Identity Politics and Sexuality
Reading: Berube, "Marching to a Different Drummer", C. Smith-Rosenberg, "Discourses of Sexuality and Subjectivity" and D'Emilio, "Gay Politics and Community", in Hidden From History


Provocations

December 8
Discussion: Does History Help Us to Understand Identities?
Reading: Charles Gallagher, "White Reconstruction in the University"
December 11
Discussion: Identity and History : Conclusions




History 60: Cultural Constructions of Africa: Images, Inventions, Ideologies



In Spring 1995, I taught a course called "Cultural Constructions of Africa: Images, Inventions, Ideologies". This was a course I had been planning under various titles for some time. (The latest title is basically a direct rip-off a title for a similar course that Randall Packard of Emory University teaches--sorry, Randy, but it's a good title).

Because I had been thinking about this course for so long, I was frankly rather nervous about how it was going to turn out. In the end, it was the most enjoyable course I've taught in my short career, in no small measure because of the enthusiastic participation of my students. How much of the smooth ride is also due to the design of the course itself is an open question. I'm planning to change a few things when I next teach it in the 1999-00 academic year, but I'm more or less happy with it as it stands.

One thing I did change during the year was to substitute an article by Frank Ukadike on representations of Africa in the history of Western cinema for the reading by Thomas Richards on Victorian advertising and commodity culture; I'm undecided about whether to do this substitution next time I teach the course.

However, I would be happy to receive any comments or observations you might have, and if you have syllabi for similar courses that you would like to share, I would love to see them.

One thing that I found interesting about this course is that many current undergraduates seem much more able to position themselves in a debate about the historical production of an "image" of Africa than in a debate about how to actually interpret the historical experiences of Africans themselves. I'm still mulling over whether that was simply this particular group of students or whether there's some larger pattern here.


History 60 Cultural Constructions of Africa:
Images, Inventions, Ideologies
Spring 1995
Swarthmore College
Professor Tim Burke

Regular attendance and active participation in class discussion are requirements. You should come to class with a specific question or observation in mind regarding the readings: I will be calling on people. In addition, there will be four major assignments: a position paper (2-3 pp.); an analysis of a primary document (2-3 pp and oral presentation); a simulated "construction" of Africa (3-4 pp.); and a major project (a 10-15 page paper or comparable artistic work) on some aspect of "Africa" in contemporary popular culture. You will also be required to give an oral presentation on your research project. In addition, a film will be scheduled for an evening showing.

Books for purchase:
Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture
Molefi Keti Asante, Afrocentricity
Phillips Bradford, Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Zoo
Philip Curtin, The Image of Africa, Volume One
Dwayne Ferguson, Captain Africa: The Battle For Egyptica
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines
Eddy Harris, Native Stranger
Sally Falk Moore, Anthropology and Africa

Readings marked with a bullet (¥) are available in a binder at General Reserve in McCabe Library.

Readings marked with an asterix (*) are considered recommended but optional; they will also be available on reserve. They also important to the historiographical review essay.


Colonizing Perspectives

January 17 Overview

January 19 The Image of Africa

Philip D. Curtin, The Image of Africa, "The 'New World' of
Eighteenth-Century Africa" and "The Age of Exploration and
Disappointment"

January 24 Said and Orientalism

¥Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism ,  "Empire, Geography and
Culture", "Images of the Past, Pure and Impure", "Two Visions in
Heart of Darkness ", "The Native Under Control"
¥Said, Orientalism, "Introduction"
*Said, Orientalism, "Knowing the Oriental"

January 26 Africa and Anthropology

Sally Falk Moore, Anthropology and Africa,  pp. 1-28
¥Smith and Dale, The Ila-Speaking Peoples,  "Physical
Characteristics" and "Witchcraft"
*George Stocking, Victorian Anthropology,  Chapter Six
Primary documents distributed for February 14 assignment.

January 31 Africa and Colonial Exhibition

¥Ben Shepherd, "Showbiz Imperialism: The Case of Peter
Lobengula", in Imperialism and Popular Culture
*Sander Gilman, "The Hottentot and the Prostitute", in Difference
and Pathology
*Timothy Mitchell, "Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order", in
Dirks, ed., Colonialism and Culture

Feb 2 Ota Benga

Phillips, Ota Benga: The Pygmy in the Zoo,  pp. 1-204

Feb 7 Advertising and Commodity Culture

¥Thomas Richards, "Selling Darkest Africa", The Commodity
Culture of Victorian England

Feb 9 Africa and the Western Imagination

H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines

showing of short movie selections

Feb 14 
Analysis of primary documents in class: short paper due.

Africa in the African Diaspora

Feb 16 Back to Africa: Sierra Leone and Liberia

¥Wilmot Blyden, letters
*Black Colonialism,  selection 
*Bitter Canaan,  selection

Feb 21 Marcus Garvey, Garveyism and Africa

¥Robert A. Hill, "'Africa For the Africans': The Garvey Movement
in South Africa", in Marks and Trapido, eds., The Politics of
Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth Century South Africa
¥Marcus Garvey, selections from Garvey papers
*W.E.B DuBois, Africa: Its Geography, People and Products,
 selection
*Wyatt McGaffey, paper on Garveyism in Central Africa

Feb 23 Travels and Misrecognitions

¥Langston Hughes, The Big Sea, pp. 101-122
¥George Lamming, "The African Presence", in The Pleasures of
Exile
*Aime Cesaire, "Notes on a Return to the Native Land"
*Wright, Black Power: An American Negro Views the Gold Coast
 [whole book on reserve]

Feb 28 Travels and Misrecognitions II

Eddy Harris, Native Stranger

March 2 Africa as Inspiration and Renewal

¥Norman Weinstein, "Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of
Rastafari: to Mozambique Via Marcus Garvey Drive" and "Beyond the
Americanization of Ooga Booga", in A Night In Tunisia  
¥Gersham Nelson, "Rastafarians and Ethiopianism", in Lemelle, ed.,
Imagining Home: Class, Culture and Nationalism in the African
Diaspora
*Richard Farris Thompson, Flash of the Spirit, "Kongo Art and
Religion in the Americas"
*Dennis Walker, "The Black Muslims in American Society: From
Millennarian Protest to Trans-Continental Relationships", in Trompf,
ed., Cargo Cults and Millennarian Movements

Simulated "construction" of Africa due
Spring Break

March 14 Asante's Afrocentricity

Asante, Afrocentricity

March 16 Asante's Afrocentricity, cont.

Asante, Afrocentricity
Handout: Village Voice  article on black studies

March 21 Appiah's Africa

Appiah, In My Father's House

March 23 Appiah's Africa

Appiah, In My Father's House

March 28 Popular Afrocentrisms

Ferguson, Captain Africa
Other materials distributed in class
Position paper due.

Postcolonial Africas

March 30 "Shaka Zulu": A Case Study of Africa on Film and Television

¥C. Hamilton, "Positional Gambit", in History From South
Africa
*Rob Nixon, Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood,  "Cry White
Season"
Film: "Shaka Zulu"

April 4 Africana Collections and Museum Display

¥Art/Artifact catalog [on reserve as a book...look whole book
over]
¥Mary Jo Arnoldi, "A Distorted Mirror", in Karp, Museums and
Communities

April 6 Africa in the Mass Media

¥ Jo Ellen Fair, "Are We Really the World?" in Africa's 
Media Image
¥ Catherine Lutz, Reading National Geographic,  Chapter Eight
* Beverly Hawk, "Metaphors of African Coverage", in Africa's
Media Image
* Catherine Lutz, Reading National Geographic,  Chapter Six

April 11 Africa, Fieldwork and Africanist Scholarship

Moore, Anthropology and  Africa, pp. 74-133
¥Paul Stoller, In Sorcery's Shadow, selections
*Simon Ottenberg, "Changes Over Time in an African Culture and 
in an Anthropologist" in Others Knowing Others

April 13 Africa, Disease and AIDS

¥Rosalind and Richard Chirimuuta, AIDS ,Africa, and Racism, Chapters Seven and Eight
*Randall Packard, "Epidemiologists, Social Scientists, and the
Structure of Medical Research on AIDS in Africa"

April 18 Safaris and Tourism: "Wild" Africa

article and travel brochures: to be distributed in class

presentations, April 20, 25, 27; Research paper due by May 5th


Course Offerings, Fall 1994 to Spring 1997

Fall 1994
History 8A Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade, 1400-1850
History 1 The Historical Construction of Identity
Spring 1995
History 60 Cultural Constructions of Africa: Images, Inventions, Ideologies
History 63 History of Southern Africa
History 140 Honors Seminar: The Colonial Encounter in Africa
Fall 1995
History 8B Modern Africa, 1880-Present
History 1 The Historical Construction of Identity
Spring 1996
History 62 Health, Medicine and the Body in Modern Africa
History 88 The Social History of Consumption
History 69 Issues in African History
Fall 1996
History 8A Africa in the Era of the Slave Trade, 1400-1850
History 1 The Historical Construction of Identity
History 89 Gender, Sexuality and Colonialism
Spring 1997
History 61 Trade, Merchants and Markets in African History
History 140 Honors Seminar: The Colonial Encounter in Africa




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Timothy Burke
tburke1@cc.swarthmore.edu