Anthropology 370

Anthropology /Honors 189
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

Gerry Waite
Ball State University
BB311-285-3279
e-mail: gwaite@bsu.edu

Objectives: This course is designed to give students an introduction to diversity in developing areas of our modern world, specifically Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. These small diverse countries, with many different ethnic groups, present an opportunity for understanding human interactions through an anthropological focus on the cultural assumptions that underlie human behavior. As the “Sleeping Tiger” of Southeast Asia, learning of these countries' struggles to manage diversity in a developing international economy will create a deeper understanding of globalization in a setting significantly different than the Western World

Texts:

Course packet readings from Hickey, Gerald Canon: Village in Vietnam

Nguyen Van Huy and Laurel Kendall editors, Vietnam: Journeys of Mind Body and Spirit

Lonely Planet guide, Vietnam

Lonely Planet Guide to Laos

Loung Ung First they Killed my father; A daughter of Cambodia Remembers

Andrew X. Pham Catfish and Mandela

Grading: Students will be evaluated through:
    a. Peer evaluation conducted during the semester.
                                100 points
    b. A self evaluation form at the end of the semester.
                                    50 points
    c. An instructor evaluation at the end of the semester.
                                 50 points
     c. Four random quizes on the reading up to that point
                                   25 each/ 100 points
    d. A term paper written during the semester and presented in class.
                                 100 points
The evaluation documents and paper project will be discussed and assigned the second week of class.

Note: No Laptops, cell phones or other internet devices in class.

Meetings and topics:

Week one: Concepts of culture - discussion of culture .Read Chapter 1, "One country Many journeys from Vietnam. Also read class handout "How the Vietnamese see the World".

Week two: Read First they Killed my Father

Week three: Security and survival in a peasant economy Read Pgs 1-60 in Laos. The film is Bombies

Week four: Film-The Killing Fields + Discussion .

Week five: Luong Ung will be at Emens Tuesday night the 19th and a visitor to your class Wednesday morning Also: read Pages 1-73 in Lonely Planet "Vietnam" and "History of the Village and Settlement Patterns" in your Course Packet.

Week Six: These are links to pictures of your Viet/American friends "Religion and Popular Beliefs" from the course packet. Also read "Vietnam's Ethnic Mosaic", and "Tet Holidays" chapter 2 and 3 from Vietnam (Journeys).

Week seven: Read chapter 4 and 5 from the packet, "The Kinship system" and "The Family as a Social Group" Listen to this NPR site Anthropologists and War (note you'll need Realplayer or windows media for this site) and look at Go Noi.

Week eight: Subsistance patterns or making a living in Vietnam. Livelihoods from the "Village" and "Bat Trang: A Pottery Village and Global Node" in Vietnam. Vietnam2000.

<>Week nine: "Village Administration and The Law" and "The Cult Committee" from your course Packet. Start reading "Catfish and Mandela". Film "Daughter from Danang" Chapters 7 and 8 in Vietnam.

Week ten: .Modernity, the French and American Wars and beyond. Pages 233-285 in your course packet. the Doi Moi" and discussion of "Catfish..."

<>Week eleven: Chapters 10, 11, and 12 in Vietnam and Conclusions in your course packet.

Week twelve: Check out this site and read some of the articles: Vietnam news.

Week thirteen: Presentations.

Week fourteen: Presentations

Week fifteen: Presentations, Chapter 13 in Vietnam. Film

Week sixteen: Presentations and all papers are due.

*If you need course adaptations or accommodations
because of a disability, or you have emergency
medical information to share with
me, please see me as soon as possible.

G's Goodnews site

Films:
Long Haired Warriors
Mai's America
Daughter from Danang
How to Behave
The Scent of Green Papaya
Cyclo
The Vertical Ray of Sun