Culture, Art, and Technology (CAT) 1B Fall 2004 Room: Center Hall 115 TTH 11-12:30

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1 Culture, Art, and Technology (CAT) 1B Fall 2004 Room: Center Hall 115 TTH 11-12:30 Instructor: Dr. Linda Strauss Pepper Canyon Hall 249 Office hrs: W-TH TA(s): office, contact, office hours tba) OVERVIEW: CAT 1B considers the pre-historical and historical foundations of culture, art and technology. It centers on the questions of what it is to be human, and how we express and shape our natures and our world through culture, art and technology. To understand this, we examine what human beings are like physically, mentally, and socially in comparison to other beings, with special attention to how we have developed over time. We then examine how human beings relate to, affect, and are affected by the rest of the world through our bodies, minds, social structures and cultures. We will focus on how we make use of two important aspects of culture--art and technology-- to identify and address the problems that we perceive in the world and in ourselves. GOALS: This course is designed to help you understand what it is to be human, in terms of human physical, mental, social and cultural characteristics and in terms of their relationship to the larger world in which they have developed and lived understand how human beings use culture to express themselves and their nature, as well as how they use culture both to solve, and, inadvertently to generate problems concerning their relations to nature and to each other understand art and technology as particular instances of culture, with similarities and commonalities as well as differences. understand culture, art and technology in terms of their interactions, development over time, uses in different societies, and their effect on human characteristics and capacities understand the ways that art and technology shape how people think about and act upon what it means to be human. CAT 1 is also intended to help you learn how to take an interdisciplinary approach to complex issues. This includes enabling you to

2 Learn to read more acutely Gain an understanding of how and why scholars in different fields formulate questions and problems as they do, and how they go about assembling, assessing and analyzing evidence as they make and test claims; understanding the main purposes of scholarly argument, and appreciating the inquiry-driven nature of scholarly work. Learn that your work in this sequence, like that of professional scholars, is not mainly about memorizing information and giving back pre-formulated answers, but about first crafting and pursuing thoughtful, fruitful questions to see where they might lead and then seeking out meaningful answers to such questions. Learn to examine problems and subjects from more than one disciplinary perspective in order to gain a more complete and deeper understanding of it Bring appropriate and critical questions to bear on your own thinking and writing through a process of writing and revision, so that your writing and composition in other media become a means of discovery as well as communication Finally, CAT is intended to empower you start taking charge of your own education, as well of your own life. It does this by helping you to exercise Self reliance and responsibility Reflexivity, so that you learn to apply your questions and what you are learning to yourself and your situation in the world Collaboration, in teams and across cultures Required Course Books Anderson, Richard L. Calliope s Sisters: A Comparative Study of Philosophies of Art, 2 nd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Ed., Inc., 2004) Ehrlich, Paul R. Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect (NY, New York: Penguin, 2000) Sophocles. Oedipus the King, trans. H.D.F Kitto (Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1994 [5 th century B.C.E.]) Strauss, Linda. CAT 1B Reader (AS Soft Reserves)

3 Schedule of Assignments Date Week 0 Sept 23 Theme and Assignment Beyond Dancing Monkeys: Culture, Art, and Technology in Thought and Action Course introductions View: Balinese Monkey Dance from film, Baraka Listen: Ernie Cline, Dance, Monkey, Dance Week 1 Sept 28 Questions of Identity and Right Action Read: Begin Sophocles, Oedipus the King, Introduction, ix-xxi and at least first half of play Video interview assigned Sept 30 Reading the Riddle: What is Man? Read: Complete Sophocles; Paul Ehrlich, Human Natures, Preface ixxii and spend 20 minutes looking through whole book, including notes and bibliography to get a sense of it as a whole Consider starting on next week s reading now, since this week s reading load is fairly light Week 2 Oct 5 Culture and Art Video Interview Assigned Read: Richard Anderson, Calliope s Sisters, sample and examine whole book for 20 minutes, then read Introduction, 1-8; and ch 13, Art as Culturally Significant Meaning, ; Ellen Dissanayake, The Core of Art, from The New Humanities Reader, Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer, eds. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003), Oct 7 Culture and Technology Read: Melvin Kranzberg, and William H. Davenport, Introduction: At the Start [of the Society for the History of Technology], in their Technology and Culture (New York: New American Library, 1972), 9-19; William F. Ogburn, Technology as Environment, in Technology and

4 Change, John G. Burke and Marshall C. Eakin, eds. (San Francisco: Boyd and Fraser Pub. Co, 1979), Week 3 Oct 12 Envisioning Nature/ Envisioning Ourselves Read: Ehrlich, ch 1 Evolution and Us pp. 1-14; Leslie Stevenson and David L. Haberman, Rival Theories in their Ten Theories of Human Nature (Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1998) 3-21; Frank Black Elk, Observations and Marxism and Lakota Tradition, in Literacies: Reading, Writing, Interpretation, 2 nd ed., Terence Bunk et al, eds. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000) ; John G. Neihardt, from Black Elk Speaks, Thunder Beings and Dogs Heads, in Encompassing Nature, Robert M. Torrance, ed (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1998), Oct 14 Cultural Foundations for Natural and Human Relations Read: Book of Genesis 1:1-3:24; Stevenson and Haberman, Hinduism 50-56; Book of Latter Instructions, A World of Creatures Groaning in Torment, in Encompassing Nature, Robert M. Torrance, ed., (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1998) ; and Roland B. Dixon, World of Butterflies and Coyotes: Maidu Myths, in Encompassing Nature, Robert M. Torrance, ed., (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1998), Week 4 Oct 19 Putting Visions of Nature and Humans into Practice Assignment Due: First Commentary Read: David Abram, The Ecology of Magic in Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer, eds., the New Humanities Reader (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003) 1-22; Benjamin Franklin, The Convenience of Being Reasonable (1791); Roger M. Keesing, Not a Real Fish: The Ethnographer as Inside Outsider, in The Naked Anthropologist, ed. Philip DeVita (New York: Wadsworth Pub., 1992) Oct 21 Flies, Fish and Being Human Why examine one organism to understand another? Read: Samuel Scudder, Learning to See, in The Dolphin Reader, Douglas Hunt, ed. ( 1993 ) ; Ehrlich, ch. 2 Tales from the Animal House, pp 15-43

5 Week 5 Oct 26 Evolutionary Theory ***** Video Interview Due at Lecture ***** Read: Ehrlich, Ch. 3 Our Nature and Theirs, 44-67; Stephen Jay Gould, The Evolution of Life, in Evolution! Facts and Fallacies, J. William Schopf, ed. (San Diego: Academic Press, 1999), 1-6 Oct 28 The Riddle of the Sphinx: Patterns of Change Read: Stephen Jay Gould and Rosamund Wolff Purcell, Preface and The Yellow Leaf Road, in their Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet. (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000), and ; Gould, Stephen Jay, The Ladder and the Cone: Iconographies of Progress, in his Wonderful Life. (New York: WW Norton & Co., 1989), Week 6 Nov 2 Becoming Upright: Human Physical Evolution Read: John H. Relethford, The Human Species, 4 th ed. (Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub., 2000), 271; ; Ehrlich, ch. 4 Standing Up For Ourselves (And speaking of standing up for ourselves, don t forget to vote!) Nov 4 Animal Mind/Human Mind: The Nature(s) of Consciousness ***** 2 nd Commentary Due in Lecture ***** Read: Lewis Thomas, Comprehending My Cat, Jeoffrey, in his The Fragile Species (New York: Charles Scribner s Sons, 1992), ; Richard Byrne, Understanding Minds: Doing and Seeing, Knowing and Thinking, in his The Thinking Ape: Evolutionary Origins of Intelligence (Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1995), ; Ehrlich, ch. 6 Evolving Brains, Evolving Minds, Project Paper Assigned in Section Week 7 Nov 9 Animal Mind/Human Mind: Language and Cooperation

6 Read: Ehrlich, ch. 7 From Grooming to Gossip? ; Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Roger Lewin. Talking to Each Other, in their Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind (New York: Wiley, 1994), Nov 11 Week 8 Nov 16 ****** No Class-- Veteran s Day (End of First World War)***** Sections will meet on Friday Nov 12 Mind, Mental Maps, and Tools Read: Steven Mithen, Natural History Intelligence: Mental Maps and Hunting Behavior, in his The Prehistory of Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion, and Science (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996), and notes; Ehrlich ch 5. Bare Bones and a Few Stones plus ; Robert Boyd and Joan B. Silk, Oldowan Toolmakers and the Origin of Human Life History, in their How Humans Evolved, 3 rd ed., (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2003), Nov 18 Animal Origins of Human Technology and Culture? ***** 3 rd Commentary Due ***** Read: Craig Stanford, Got Culture? in his Significant Others: The Ape-Human Continuum and the Quest for Human Nature (New York: Basic Books, 2001), ; Andrew Whiten and Christopher Boesch. The Cultures of Chimpanzees, Scientific American, Jan 2001, 61-67; Mumford, Lewis, Technics and the Nature of Man, in Melvin Kranzberg and William H. Davenport, Technology and Culture (New York: New American Library, 1972), ; Joe Alper, Rethinking Neanderthals, Smithsonian, (June 2003), Week 9 Nov 23 Technology and Art Read: James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould, The Finer Things: Tools and Aesthetics, in their The Animal Mind (New York: Scientific American Library), 83-86; Margaret W. Conkey, Humans as Materialists and Symbolists: Image Making in the Upper Paleolithic, in D. Tab Rasmussen, The Origin and Evolution of Humans and Humanness. (Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1993), ; Ferguson, Eugene S. Nonverbal Thought in Technology, in Technology and Change, John G. Burke and Marshall C. Eakin, eds., (San Francisco: Boyd and Fraser Publishing Co, 1979), ; D.

7 Schmandt-Bessarat, The Earliest Precursor of Writing, Scientific American 238 (1978), Nov 25 ***** Thanksgiving Holiday ***** Week 10 Nov 30 Art in Hunter-Gatherer Cultures Read: Anderson, Calliope s Sisters, ch. 1, San Aesthetics: The Enhancement of Life in a Foraging Society 9-35; ch. 2, Inuit Aesthetics: Art as Transformer of Realities, 36-62; and ch. 3, Australian Aboriginal Aesthetics: Union with the Eternal Dreamtime Recommended: Ann Fienup-Riordan, Ann. Yup ik Lives and How We See Them, in Literacies: Reading, Writing, Interpretation, 2 nd ed., Terence Bunk et al, eds. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), **** Project and Paper Due Wed. in CAT TA office *** Dec 2 Art, Aesthetics, and Right Living Read: Anderson, ch. 5 Navajo Aesthetics: A Unity of Art and Life, and ch. 6 Yoruba Aesthetics: Goodness and Beauty in West Africa, ****** Last Day of Class ***** Tues Dec 7 ****** Final Exam 11:30 am- 2:30 pm ****** Please note carefully: Do not make travel plans that conflict with this scheduled final exam time makeup exam times will not be offered Please note: For the year , UCSD is requiring every first-year student to maintain a portfolio containing copies of all completed written assignments (in every course: not just writing courses) that have been commented on and/ or graded and returned by instructors or TAs. The portfolio would not include exams except for essay exams. Students must have portfolios complete and available for selection by the Writing Director of their respective colleges at the end of the academic year. If selected, the work in these portfolios will not be returned; keep copies for your personal files separately.

8 Percentages for grading: Video Interview 5% 1 st Three- page Commentary 10% 2 nd and 3 rd Three-Page Commentaries 15% each Project + 4 page paper 25% Participation 15% Final Essay Exam 15% ABOUT COMMENTARIES: For the sake of simplicity, construct your commentary into four paragraphs (the total length should be about 3 doublespaced, typed pages, in a font about this size). In the first paragraph, paraphrase the readings as clearly and precisely as you can. In the second paragraph, point out important connections between the readings, especially connections that demonstrate what the readings share in common with respect to evidence, argument or viewpoint. In the third paragraph point out subtler similarities and differences between the readings (i.e.: what connections might you draw which are not at all obvious? What differences or contradictions between readings might not be apparent to an otherwise thoughtful reader?). Most importantly, use this third paragraph to point to any evidence you might find in the readings of a dialectical process). In the final paragraph, reflect upon the course: Are the readings elucidating the problems being posed in lectures and discussion? Are the readings helping to deepen your explorations or do you find them merely confounding? What s helping? What s not? Have you any creative suggestions? What questions might you pose to either deepen the enquiry or to simply help clarify what we are doing? IMPORTANT NOTES re GRADES Policy on missed exams and late assignments Unexcused late assignments will be docked 1/3 (one-third) of a letter grade for each day late (e.g. A becomes A- the first day late, B+ the second day late, etc.). Make-up exams must be arranged as soon as possible after illness, injury, or family emergency. The policy on make-up finals follows UCSD policy, since there are strict calendar deadlines established by the University for the submission of grades at the end of a quarter. Sudden long-term illness, injury, or family emergency may necessitate an incomplete for the course, or withdrawal from it. Excuses and incompletes must be negotiated with your TA and the course instructor(s) prior to the final exam.

9 ACADEMIC INTEGRITY UCSD has a university-wide Policy on Integrity of Scholarship, published annually in the Catalog (pp for ), online at All students must read and be familiar with this Policy. Receipt of this syllabus constitutes an acknowledgment that you are responsible for understanding and acting in accordance with UCSD guidelines on academic integrity. Academic stealing refers to the theft of exams or exam answers, of papers or takehome exams composed by others, and of research notes, computer files, or data collected by others. Academic cheating, collusion, and fraud refer to having others do your schoolwork or allowing them to present your work as their own; using unauthorized materials during exams; inventing data or bibliography to support a paper, project, or exam; purchasing tests, answers, or papers from any source whatsoever; submitting (nearly) identical papers to two classes. Plagiarism refers to the use of another s work without full acknowledgment, whether by suppressing the reference, neglecting to identify direct quotations, paraphrasing closely or at length without citing sources, spuriously identifying quotations or data, or cutting and pasting the work of several (usually unidentified) authors into a single undifferentiated whole. Students with special needs: Students with physical or learning disabilities should first work with UCSD s Office for Students with Disabilities to obtain current documentation, then contact instructor and TA s to arrange appropriate academic accommodations. This should be accomplished as soon in the quarter as possible. To be fair to all students, no individual accommodations will be made unless the student first presents the proper documentation.

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