Culture and Personality (Psychological Anthropology) -- University of Minnesota Duluth

Texts and Other Class Material

Online Reserve Materials

Semester Readings Summary

to see details (below) click on text image(s)

top of page

A-Z index

TR HomePage

Amazon.com

"In this introduction to an important field, Bock provides a critical account of the ways that anthropologists have used and misused psychological concepts in their studies of various societies. He argues that we must be aware of these past efforts and errors if we are to develop culturally sensitive ways of understanding the relationship of individuals to their societies. Starting with nineteenth-century studies of 'primitive mentality,' the book examines the school of culture and personality, including cross-cultural correlational studies, and continuing on to recent work on sociobiology, shamanism, self, and emotion. Relevant psychological concepts are explained as needed, and each approach is presented in its own terms before critical examination. Chapter supplements and a new chapter bring the book completely up to date." -- Waveland Press

Stephen C. Leavitt

More information on the text for Culture and Personality can be found at <http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth4616/cptext.html>.

Some excellent classic books in many fields are also often available online free. For example, the full text of Sigmund Freud's first major work, The Interpretation of Dreams (3rd Edition, 1911), Trans. by A.A. Brill, is available online at <http://www.psywww.com/books/interp/toc.htm>.

The course anchor text is

Rethinking Psychological Anthropology: Continuity and Change in the Study of Human Action, Third Edition (2019)

is currently available on-line for $39.95 new, $29.95 e-textbook, and $tba used.
(+ p/h, where applicable, at amazon.com & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25).
[buy a used one]
(08 December 2018)

Rethinking Psychological Anthropology: Continuity and Change in the Study of Human Action, Second Edition (1999)

is currently available on-line for $33.56 new, and $5.49 used.
(+ p/h, where applicable, at amazon.com & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25).
[buy a used one]
(20 August 2018)

"After over three decades of continual publication in multiple editions, the Third Edition of Rethinking Psychological Anthropology, now with coauthor Stephen Leavitt, describes the latest interests, concepts, and approaches in the field with the inclusion of four new chapters and updates to earlier topics. The premise of the previous editions remains: that all anthropology is psychological and that the interplay between anthropological methods and the psychological theories existing in different times is dialectical."

"Psychological anthropologists have grappled with changing trends in both disciplines, including psychoanalytic, holistic, cognitive, interpretive, and developmental approaches. It is important to appreciate these currents of thought to understand the state of the field today. This text is thus a guide to that history along with a critique that may lead to a new synthesis. It is an ideal choice for courses in psychological anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, and the history of anthropology."

Other on-line and brick and mortar stores should have comparable offers.

Chegg [rental]

CheapestTextbooks.com

CourseSmart.com

TextbookMedia.com

Direct Textbook

NOTE: When you read this text, read it primarily for a sense of the historical development of Psychological Anthropology / Culture and Personality and for a sense of what the basic concepts are all about.

Rethinking
Psychological Anthropology:
Continuity and Change in the Study of Human Action, Third Edition

by Philip K. Bock and Stephen C. Leavitt

(Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2019)

ISBN-10: 1478637285
ISBN-13: 978-1478637288

Table of Contents, Third Edition

Prelude: All Anthropology Is Psychological

1. The Psychology of "Primitive" Peoples
Perception, or "Do You See What I See?" / Motivation, or "The Natives Are Restless Tonight" / Cognition, or "Thinking Can Make It So"

2. Psychoanalytic Anthropology
Elements of Psychoanalysis / The Origins of Psychoanalytic Anthropology / Psychoanalysis and Clothing / Summary and Critique

3. Configurations of Culture and Personality
Configurations of Culture / To and from the South Seas / Summary

4. Basic and Modal Personality
Basic Personality Structure (BPS) / The Modal Personality Approach (MP) / Projective Tests: Rorschach and Thematic Apperception / Applications of Projective Tests / Summary

5. National Character Studies
The Yellow Peril / On the Western Front / The Slavic Soul / The Lonely Crowd / And Elsewhere / For Further Consideration

Interlude One: The Crisis in Culture and Personality
The Continuity Assumption / The Uniformity Assumption / The Causal Assumption / The Projective Assumption / The Objectivity Assumption / What's Next?

6. Cross-Cultural Correlations
The Yale Synthesis / Correlations and Customs / Galton's Problem / Male Initiation Rites / Causes of Incest Taboos / Additional Studies

7. The Return of the Repressed
Instinct and Culture / Symbolic Wounds / Insight and Identity / Psychohistory and the Interpretation of Myth / Psychosocial Adaptation / Psychoanalytic Anthropology Redux

8. Social Structure and Personality
Materialist Approaches / Positionalist Approaches / Interactionist Approaches / Studies Relevant to Trauma and Personality

9. Focusing on Behavior
Intensive On-Site Observation / Human Ethology / Attachment, Separation, and Crowding / Feminist Psychological Anthropology / Sociobiology / Concluding Thoughts

10. Cognitive Anthropology
Ethnosemantics / Cognitive Development: Stages, Styles, and Maps / Race, Culture, and Intelligence / Schema Theory and Connectionism / The Question of Motivation / Personal Semantic Networks / Cognitive Analysis of Personal Narrative

11. Shamans, Alternative States, and Schizophrenia
Shamans / Alternative States of Consciousness / Mental Illness and Society / "Schizophrenia" and Mental Illness across Cultures / Difference Approaches to the Treatment of Schizophrenia

12. Emotions and Selfhood
Role, Self, and Identity / Psychology and Cultural Change

Interlude Two: Science versus Interpretation
Ethnopsychology and Ifaluk Emotion / The Defense of Human Nature / The Psychological Power of Emotional Force / Charting New Directions

13. Person-Centered Ethnography
Person-Centered Interviewing / Value of Person-Centered Ethnography / A New Anthropology of Self and Experience / The Anthropology of Narrative / Conclusion

14. About the Body
The Body as a Cultural Construction / Phenomenology and Embodiment / Pain and the Impact of Culture / Narrative and Chronic Illness / Narratives and Social Contexts / Limits of Phenomenology: A Critique

15. The Return of Childhood
Influence of Psychological Theories / Enculturation / Children's Culture
New Research on Attachment / Language in Action / Anthropological Contributions to the Study of Childhood

Postlude: All Psychology Is Cultural

Table of Contents, Second Edition
	Prelude. All Anthropology Is Psychological
1.	The Psychology of Primitive Peoples The Psychology of Primitive Peoples Perception, or "Do You See What I See?" Motivation, or "The Natives Are Restless Tonight" Cognition, or "Thinking Can Make It So" Supplement, 1999
2.	Psychoanalytic Anthropology Elements of Psychoanalysis The Origins of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Totemism and Exogamy Psychoanalysis and Clothing Summary and Critique Supplement, 1999
3.	Configurations of Culture and Personality Configrations of Culture To and from the South Seas Summary Supplement, 1999
4.	Basic and Modal Personality Basic Personality Structure The Modal Personality Approach Projective Tests: Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Applications of Projective Tests Summary Supplement, 1999
5.	National Character Studies The Yellow Peril On the Western Front The Slavic Soul The Lonely Crowd And Elsewhere Summary Supplement, 1999
	The Culture and Personality Midterm Exam will be in class Week 7 Day 13 Tuesday, 9 October 2018 REM: Bring your Laptop
	Interlude. The Crisis in Culture and Personality What Next? Supplement, 1999
6.	Cross-Cultural Correlations The Yale Synthesis Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) Correlations and Customs Galton's Problem Male Initiation Rites Causes of Incest Taboos Summary Supplement, 1999
7.	The Return of the Repressed Instinct and Culture Symbolic Wounds Insight and Identity Psychohistory and the Interpretation of Myth Psychosocial Adaptation Summary Supplement, 1999
8.	Social Structure and Personality Materialist Approaches Positionalist Approaches Interactionist Adaptation Summary Supplement, 1999
9.	Focusing on Behavior Six Cultures Human Ethology Attachment, Separation, and Crowding Sociobiology Supplement, 1999
10.	Cognitive Anthropology Ethnosemantics Cognitive Development Stages Styles Maps Race, Culture and Intelligence Supplement, 1999
11.	Shamans, Alternative States, and Schizophrenia Alternative States of Consciousness Mental Illness and Society Supplement, 1999
12.	Emotions and Selfhood Role, Self, and Identity Psychology and Cultural Change Supplement, 1999
13.	Some Newer Approaches Evolutionary Psychological Anthropology Cultural Psychology About The Body Person-Centered Ethnology Into Century Twenty-One Supplement, 1999
	Postlude. All Psychology Is Cultural
	Personal Epilogue, 1999

	The Culture and Personality Final Exam is scheduled for Tuesday, 11 December 2018, 8:00-9:55 in Cina 214 REM: Bring your Laptop

	References
	Index

Amazon.com

Daniel Kahneman

"Daniel Kahneman is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and a professor of public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering work with Amos Tversky on decision-making."

"In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic." -- Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The award-winning best selling, and one of the most important books of our times . . .

Thinking, Fast and Slow

by Daniel Kahneman

(NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013)

ISBN-13: 9780374533557

is currently available on-line new for $9.99 (ppbk), or used from $2.78, or Kindle for $9.99, and audio from $23.52.
(+ p/h, where applicable, at amazon.com & eligible for Amazon Prime).

(20 August 2018)

Chegg [rental]

CheapestTextbooks.com

CourseSmart.com

TextbookMedia.com

Direct Textbook

Table of Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PART I. TWO SYSTEMS

The characters of the story
Attention and effort
The lazy controller
The associative machine
Cognitive ease
Norms, surprises, and causes
A machine for jumping to conclusions
How judgments happen
Answering an easier question

PART II. HEURISTICS AND BIASES

The law of small numbers
Anchors
The science of availability
Availability, emotion, and risk
Tom W's specialty
Linda: less is more
Causes trump statistics
Regression to the mean
Taming intuitive predictions

PART III OVERCONFIDENCE

The illusion of understanding
The illusion of validity
Intuitions vs. formulas
Expert intuition: when can we trust it?
The outside view
The engine of capitalism

PART IV. CHOICES

Bernoulli's errors
Prospect theory
The endowment effect
Bad events
The fourfold pattern
Rare events
Risk policies
Keeping score
Reversals
Frames and reality

PART V. TWO SELVES

Two selves
Life as a story
Experienced well-being
Thinking about life

CONCLUSIONS

APPENDIX A: JUDGEMENT UNDER UNCERTAINTY

APPENDIX B: CHOICES, VALUES, AND FRAMES

NOTES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INDEX

top of page

A-Z index

TR HomePage

Read: Ch. 19, "The Sacrifice." From The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997), pp. 278-288.

Anne Fadiman
NY: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1997.

Lia Lee is a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy,
whose family believes her seizure was caused by the slamming of a door by an older sister,
which caused Lia's soul to flee her body and the soul became lost to a dab.

dab, a spirit, is pronounced "da"
txiv neeb, a Hmong shaman, is pronounced "tsi neng"
(pp. 291-292)

Life Went On Around Her, Redefining Care by Bridging a Divide
-- Margalit Fox, The New York Times (15 September 2012)

Read: Read Buffalo, "Nature and the Concept of Power Among Mississippi and Lake Superior Ojibwa: Reflections of Paul Buffalo." From When Everybody Called Me Gah-bay-bi-nayss: "Forever-Flying-Bird" An Ethnographic Biography of Paul Peter Buffalo, Timothy G. Roufs.

top of page

A-Z index

TR HomePage

The Culture and Personality Midterm Exam will be in class Week 7 Day 13 Tuesday, 9 October 2018

REM: Bring your Laptop
Laptop

Exams will be open-book essays constructed from a list of study questions that you help create, so it would be a good idea for you to have your own copy of the text, and it is a good idea that you take your reading notes right in your copy of the text itself.

Midterm exam information is at <http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth4616/cpexams.html#midterm>, and the final exam information is at <http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth4616/cpexams.html#final>.

One thing that you should keep in mind when approaching these readings, which I will talk more about as the class progresses, is that, as mentioned above, the exams are open-book. You should read the texts carefully and be able to discuss the materials therein intelligently. That is, you should read the texts as if you had picked them up at an airport or neighborhood bookshop on the way to Austria or the South Seas because you were interested in the subjects and wanted to know more about them, like literally millions of people are doing in everyday life.

PLEASE NOTE: Some students are used to principally memorizing facts in classes. This class is not one where that is the focus.It is about investigating and discussing new topics, reading, listening, synthesizing ideas, thinking, exploring, and becoming familiar enough with the various subjects, peoples and places to carry on an intelligent conversation in modern-day society.

In short, this class aims to give you practice in critical thinking, and even creativity, avoiding rote memorization if possible. Please keep that in mind when thinking about, and getting ready for, the exams.

Critical thinking, involving evaluation and synthesis, has long been regarded as essential for success in the modern-day world. In recent years, actually for two decades, creativity has also become central to success, and "process skills" have become vital to creativity. Process skills involve "strategies to reframe challenges and extrapolate and transform information, and to accept and deal with ambiguity" (Pappano, "Learning to Think Outside the Box," The New York Times EducationLife, 9 February 2014, 8). Laura Pappano, writer in residence at Wellesley Center for Women at Wellesley College, points out that "In 2010 'creativity' was the factor mos crucial for success found in an I.B.M. survey of 1,500 chief executives in 33 industries. These days 'creative' is the most used buzzword in LinkedIn profiles two years running" (2014, 8).

One of the four main characteristics of American Anthropology is fieldwork, "a primary research technique, involving “participant observation," which usually means living among the people one is interested in learning from and about. It would be wonderful if for anthropology classes we could just charter a plane or rent a coach and take off for a year or more to learn first-hand from the people themselves. Money, time, and practicality prohibit that, so the next best things—when it comes to studying anthropology—is going to places and viewing subjects by video. So we’ll do that occasionally. More information on Visual Anthropology is available online at <http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth1604/visual_anthropology.html#title>.