Students will choose one classic theorist whose work we have read in order to analyze the
theorist’s influence on modern day anthropology.
For Paper #2, please choose a theorist from Douglas, Geertz, Gramsci, Foucault, Asad, or Stoler.
After you have made your selection, find a minimum of one text (articles and book chapters recommended) that was published in the last 25 years (1990-2015) by a contemporary anthropologist who is engaging with your classic theorist.
For Paper #2, you are welcome to use a contemporary anthropologist who is implicitly building on the work of the original theorist, even if the author does not cite the original theorist explicitly. (However, please note that this makes your task a bit harder.)
You are expected to use a minimum of two sources for this assignment: one text by the classic theorist and one text by the contemporary theorist. You are welcome to choose the text we already read in class for discussing the classic theorists work. The contemporary theorists text must be found through independent academic literature research (be sure that your sources are peer-reviewed). However you are also encouraged to read more broadly, engaging and citing more than one text per scholar. This provide an advantage, as you would thereby be more deeply immersed in the work of your theorists and better
equipped to discuss their contributions to the discipline. More thorough research generally
produces better papers.
Your task is to compare and contrast the theory, methods, and contributions of the two scholars, evaluating both strengths and weaknesses of each approach. Questions to consider when conducting your analysis:
How does the contemporary theorist use and build on the work of the classic theorist? Does the contemporary theorist praise or critique the classic theory? In what ways?
How well does the contemporary scholar apply the classic theory to his/her own ethnographic context? Does the classic theory fit the contemporary data? Do the scholars draw on similar or different kinds of data? What is the merit of this theory in analyzing the contemporary data?
How have the scholars individually and collectively contributed to the discipline of anthropology?