Anthropology 370 /Honors 189
 


 
 
 
 

Gerry Waite Saigon
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. This small but ethnically diverse country, with many different ethnic groups, presents 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 this countrys' 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

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.
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 Pages 1-73 in Lonely Planet "Vietnam" 

Week three: Security and survival in a peasant economy  "History of the Village and Settlement Patterns" in your Course Packet.  A short film, Bombies

Week four: Film + Discussion .

Week five: Read "Vietnam's Ethnic Mosaic", and "Tet Holidays" chapter 2 and 3 from Vietnam (Journeys).

Week Six:  These are links to pictures of your Viet/American friends  "Religion and Popular Beliefs" from the course packet. 

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.

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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.  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".

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.

Hue


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