SYLLABUS, SPRING 1996

ANT 448X AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

Course Objectives: 
The objective of this course is to increase appreciation of American Indian languages understood in their various cultural contexts. It presents the language families and languages of North America and it examines the structure and functions of American Indian poetry, song, narrative, conversation, and prayer with special attention to metaphor and other forms of figurative language. 

Required Texts: 

• Bahr, Donald, Juan Smith, William Smith Allison, and Julian Hayden (1994) The Short Swift Time of the Gods on Earth. University of California Press.
• Basso, Keith (1979) Portraits of the "Whiteman": Linguistic Play and Cultural Symbols among the Western Apache. Tucson: The U. of Arizona Press.
• Bright, William (1993) A Coyote Reader. University of California Press.
• Hinton, Leanne (1994) Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages. Berkeley: Heydey Books.
• Powers, William (1993) Sacred Language: The Nature of Supernatural Discourse in Lakota. University of Oklahoma.

Expectations: 
In this class I place a high value on three things, given in order of importance: 
(1) You exercise initiative in choosing an American Indian language and pursuing independent study of the language in its cultural context through library research. This does not mean that you have to learn to speak the language. Find out about the language, where its speakers live, and how many people still speak it. Find out what other languages it is related to, and what languages lie on its borders. Find out how to write the sounds of the language. Assemble vocabulary lists on interesting topics, such as kinship, religious deities, or directions, and analyze them to the best of your ability in ways that I will present in class. Find and analyze songs and narratives in ways that I will present in class. Discover how the language is used for addressing people of different ages, genders, or kinship relations, for joking, for story-telling, and so on. Finally, you present your most interesting findings to the class and hand in a final paper on the language that you have studied. 
(2) completion of assigned written work on time; 
(3) evidence that you have actually thought about your reading and evaluated it or applied it to your own life's experiences. 

Assignments: 
Chapter summaries, mid-semester precis, and a final paper, as described below. 
All chapter summaries and papers should be typed and double spaced (mandatory after week 2). You may use both sides of the paper if you desire. 

Precis and Final Paper: 
Every student will pick one language to study for the semester and write a paper discussing that language in its cultural context. Students will present portions of their papers in class. A precis of the paper will be due at mid-term. The precis must specify the language chosen for study, it must include a bibliography of sources that you plan to use to write the paper, and it must propose themes for investigation that are possible given the bibliographic resources. Grading of the paper will be based on the overall quality and quantity of the work. For the final paper use the submission format for the UNLV Journal of Anthropology or any standard manuscript format that you are familiar with. For papers longer than a single page, use a staple in the upper left-hand corner. Make sure your printer ribbon or cartridge has plenty of ink. Never use any plastic or fiber-board cover. 

Chapter Summaries, how to do them: 
For each chapter of assigned reading hand in a one-paragraph summary of essential or interesting points and one additional paragraph in which you critique or discuss the information in terms of its validity, usefulness, interest, or whatever. Just say something about it and I will respond to it with notes in the margins. I find that students get better at this throughout the semester. This work will be marked either "OK" or "Good" or "Not satisfactory; rewrite and hand in." Summaries are due on Wednesdays and Fridays, as specified below. 

Grading: 
Precis 100 pts., final paper 200 pts. where 60% = C- , 80% = B-, and 90% = A-. These major projects anchor your grade. Other features of your participation and performance in the class may raise or lower your grade. There is no fixed number of points given for chapter summaries and they are graded only "OK" or "Good". It is best to think of them as your entry fee to the course. Unsatisfactory papers and late papers in excess of 2 prior to midterm and 2 after mid term will result in a deduction from your grade. If you anticipate that you will be absent more than twice before mid-term and twice after mid-term, or that your chapter summaries will be late more than twice before mid-term and twice after mid-term, please come and discuss it with me during the first week. Excessive numbers and absences and late or unsatisfactory chapter summaries will result in half-grade deductions or more. If you seldom come to class, I will not give a passing grade unless you can demonstrate to my satisfaction through an oral or written examination in addition to your assigned written work that you have done a significant amount of work for the course. Attendence and informed contributions to discussions are also taken into consideration. Class attendance and discussion are important because they afford an opportunity for all of us to verbally rehearse the facts and vocabulary of our topic. We can only do this effectively if we have done the reading. That is why chapter summaries must be handed in on time. Much of our time will be spent in discussion of the readings and your own research projects. Lectures will be kept to the minimum necessary to enable you to read the assignments and conduct your own research projects. If you are shy and quiet by nature, making participation in discussions difficult for you, please come and speak to me about it and I will try to make allowances. 

Schedule: 

WEEK 1: LANGUAGES OF NORTH AMERICA 
Read: Hinton, Introduction, Pt. I (FRI) 

WEEK 2: LANGUAGES OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA (IF TIME PERMITS) 
Read: Hinton, Pt. II (WED), III (FRI) 

WEEK 3: WOMEN'S AND MEN'S LANGUAGE 
Read: Hinton, Pt IV (WED), V (FRI) 

WEEK 4: JOKING AND COYOTE TALK 
Read: Basso, Ch. 1 (WED), Ch. 2 (FRI) 

WEEK 5: RHYTHMS OF SPEECH AND SILENCE 
Read: Basso Ch. 3 (WED), Ch. 4 (FRI) 

Be prepared to discuss the work that you have done in selecting a language for study and the materials that you have discovered. 

WEEK 6: SOCIAL CONTROL THROUGH LANGUAGE 
Monday: Washington's Birthday 
Read: Basso Ch. 5 (WED-see below), Appendix (FRI-Instead of a summary and critique, make a list of things that Apache's find humorous and see if you can explain why.) 

WEEK 7: COUPLET STRUCTURES AND MARKING OF VERSE 
Read: Bright Ch. 1, 3 (WED - omit ch. 2), Ch. 4 (FRI) 

For chapter 4, Wednesday, instead of a summary and critique, make a map of Coyotes travels as best you can and answer the following questions about "Coyote Goes to a Dance": 

1. What do you think is the significance of Coyote's behavior at the flower dancing?
2. Exactly why are ants called "Coyote-peeling-back-his-foreskin"?
3. Why do you think that Coyote's helpers are mice?
4. How many phrases begin with "And then"? How many do not? What do you think is the discourse function of the phrase translated as "And then"? Your explanation should account for why it occurs with such frequency.
5. How many phrases have "he/she said" or "they said"?
6. Discuss the differences in styles between the first two tales told in Karuk by Mamie Oldfield and Chester Pepper versus the last tale written by Simon Ortiz.

WEEK 8: NARRATIVE THEMES AND MOVEMENTS 

Mid-semester Week: Be prepared to discuss the progress you have made in selecting a theme or developing a theme for your final paper. 

Read: Bright, Ch. 5 (FRI) Instead of a summary and critique, answer the following questions: 

1. What does the story "How her teeth were pulled" say about gender relations in Northern Paiute culture?
2. Make a xerox copy of the story "Coyote establishes fishing taboos" and circle all the phrases that are couplets. For example, you would draw a circle around the following two phrases:

He was coming. 
he came to Got'at. 
3. In the story "Coyote establishes fishing taboos," list, from highest to lowest, the three most common ways of beginning a phrase and give the number of instances for each.
4. What is your theory about why Coyote consults his own shit, rather than, say, an elder, a deity, or another animal?
5. In the story "Coyote gives birth," what is the most frequent way to begin a sentence?
6. Make a diagram of Coyote's travels in the story "Coyote gives birth" complete with directions where available.
7. Is there any connection between the first part of this tale and the last part? That is, does Coyote losing his feathers have anything to do with Coyote teaching the people how to give birth?
8. Why does Coyote prescribe that the woman giving birth shall scratch her head with a head scratcher?
9. What are the introductory phrases in the four Indian tales in chapter 5?
10. What are codas to the four Indian tales in chapter 5? Which of these codas imply an extension of mythical conditions, events, or practices into today's world?

WEEK 9: METAPHOR AND METONOMY 
Read Bright Ch. 6, 7 (WED), Ch. 8-11, 18 (FRI) 

For Chapter 6,7, instead of doing a summary and critique, do the following assignment: 

Personal narratives in English are often constructed of 6 components: 

 
1. Abstract, summarizes main point or result of story
2. Orientation, identifies time, place, characters
3. Complicating action, recounts events, in chronological sequence
4. Evaluation, transmits attitudes or affect of speaker and/or other charcters
5. Result or resolution, provides point of story
6. Coda, terminates story (i.e. so that listeners do not ask: "And then what happened?")

1. Make a xerox copy of the story "Coyote turns into driftwood" in chapter 7 and analyze the story by writing the appropriate narrative component in the margin. You may use ditto marks where appropriate.

Ex.: So then he stooped to the water. Orientation 
Are any of the narrative components missing from the story? 
2. Make a list of all the verbs in the story "Coyote turns into driftwood". Underline the active and transitive verbs (e.g. stoop, got up) and circle the experiential verbs (e.g. feel, see, hear).
3. Discuss the last stanza (5 lines) of the tale "Coyote sucks himself".

WEEK 8: THE LANGUAGE OF GEOGRAPHY AND DIRECTION 
Read: Bahr, et al., Introduction (WED), Ch. 0 (FRI) 
Write a standard summary and discussion of each chapter. 

WEEK 10: TIME AND SPACE IN LANGUAGE 
Read: Bahr, et al., Ch. 1,2 (WED); Ch. 3-4 (FRI) 

For Ch. 1,2 "Genesis" (WED), instead of a summary and critique, do the following: 

1. Make a list of the couplets in story 1, "First Creation".
2. Provide at least one example of each of the six narrative components (see above) that appear in the supplement by Thin Leather (p. 53-58) (If a component does not appear, note that also.).

Ex.: Orientation: In the beginning there was no earth, no water. 
3. Is there anything in story 1, First Creation, that is not found in any of the supplements?
4. What is found in Thin Leather's supplement (p. 53) that is not found in the first story?
5. What is found in Delores supplement (p. 59-) that is not found in the first story?
6. What do the differences in the O'odham creation story tell us about the nature of myth? Are there many myths or does each teller own just a peice of a single fragmented myth? Do all the peices fit together or are they contradictory?
7. Make a list of all the characters in Story 2 (p. 69-) "Destruction through Sex". How many are male and how many are female? How are the characters related to one another?
8. What is Coyote's role in Story 2?

Example: 

Earth doctor, Siuuhu, and Coyote plan to make people. 

• They make people in their own likeness.
• They make quails and roadrunner and send them to west and east.

WEEK 12: PRAYER AND RITUAL LANGUAGE 
Read: Bahr, et al., Ch. 9,10, 11 (WED); Powers, Introduction, Ch. 1 (FRI). Do a standard summary and discussion of each chapter. 

WEEK 13: PERSONAL NAMES AND TRIBAL NAMES 
Read: Powers, Ch. 2,3 (WED), Ch. 4,5 (FRI) 
Do a standard summary and discussion of each chapter. 
Begin presentations based on final papers. 

WEEK 14: DISAPPEARING LANGUAGES AND THE AM. IND. LANGUAGES ACT 
Powers, Ch. 6 (WED), 7 (FRI) 
Continue presentations based on final papers. 

WEEK 15: Continue presentations based on final papers, if necessary. 
MONDAY, MAY 6, FINAL PAPERS DUE When grading is completed, all papers will be left in a file in the anthropology office where you may pick them up.