Readings:
None for today. You need a break and you have a paper to write.
Formal Paper Assignment:
1. Write a formal analysis of Chagnon's rhetorical tactics: how does Chagnon establish his authority? How do people challenge his authority? Taking a relativistic stance, where is the validity of the work? What are the uses of numerical data? What is the use of good English? Various Aristotelian tropes? Whatever. The question is, how does Chagnon attempt to convince?
2. I have read that the various editions of Chagnon's Yanomamoare by far the best-selling anthropology books ever written, beating out such classics as Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa. Why? And do you think the instructors who chose this book for their courses made a wise choice pedagogically? Why or why not?
In class:
2nd hour: Discussion of the films in light of ideas about ethnographic authority and the ability to convince.
Choose one of the following topics:
1st hour: Two films by Chagnon: "The Feast" and "The Axe Fight"