Curriculum Transformation

General Education/Institutional Models

Common Core Requirements

Syllabus--Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Fairleigh Dickinson University

CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
Syllabus, Fall 1996

Required Texts: Yusuf Idris. The Cheapest Nights.
Helen Watson. Women in the City of the Dead.
The Bhagavad Gita: Krishna's Counsel in Time of War. Trans. Barbara Stoler Miller.
Supplementary Readings for UC 103. Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye. Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Modern China.
Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart.
Buchi Emecheta. The Joys of Motherhood.
Style Manual for Papers:
Diana Hacker. A Pocket Style Manual. Boston: Bedford Books/ St. Martin's Press, 1993.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADES

• 25% Daily grade: includes classroom participation and journals. Class participation requires not only that students be present and prepared, but that they bring text(s) to class as well. Journals are to be turned in regularly. Sometimes the topics may be assigned, but if an assignment is not given, the journal is to be done on the subject matter of the course, on readings, videos, class discussions. If they are written on a computer or a typewriter, they should have one inch margins and fill more than one page. If they are hand written they must fill at least two pages. A journal need not be all on one topic. You may stop and start as often as you wish.
• 40% Papers: Two papers of five pages each (20% each). Both papers are to be drafted and revised. At the instructor's option, there may be one grade for the final draft or separate grades for the draft and revision.
• 15% Midterm exam.
• 20% Final exam: The final exam will be compiled from questions submitted by the faculty on each campus.

THEMES

1. What causes the people in the culture you are considering to follow the rules of the group? Consider whether this obedience is the result of willing choice, simple conformity, or some sort of coercion. On the other hand, what causes people to reject or go against the rules of their society? In the case of both obedience and resistance, consider specific examples from the readings. In your second paper on this theme, assess and compare the degree of obedience in the first culture with that of the second culture you study.

2. What defines a family in the culture you are studying? Who is included and how does a person come to be excluded? How do parents treat their children? Does this treatment fulfill the obligations and expectations of parents or violate these standards?

3. In what ways does violence enter the culture you are studying? What form does it take? How is it regarded: for example, is it regarded as a breakdown of order or as a natural occurrence, or in some other way?

4. How does the society you are studying respond to the Western notion of progress?

5. Consider the role of women in the culture you are studying. Note that it will be necessary to clarify your own standards in assessing the role of women in these cultures. In your second paper decide which of the two cultures gives women the more influential role.

6. Consider the culture you are studying in terms of one or more of the books you have read in previous core courses, Tell Me a Riddle, Pioneer Women, "I Have a Dream," or The Jungle, or other books.

EGYPT

1. Class Lecture and Discussion: Introduction to Islam as religion and world civilization. The lecture may be supplemented with audiocassette of Quranic recitation, and/or a documentary such as There Is No God but God, from "The Long Search" series.
Focusing Questions: How is Islam a culmination of the Judeo-Christian tradition? What is the Quran? What are the basic beliefs of the religion? What are the Five Pillars of Islam? What are some of the obstacles Westerners face when approaching Islam?
ASSIGNMENT: Read, in Idris, The Cheapest Nights: "The Cheapest Nights," "You Are Everything to Me," "The Errand."

2. Class Lecture and Discussion: Introduction to Egypt as Islamic and Arab country, located in the Middle East, North Africa. Brief history of modern Egypt (from Napoleon to Nasr). Discuss stories.
Focusing Questions: How does Egypt respond to the formidable challenge of the West? What are the social repercussions of poverty, illiteracy, and corruption? How is the family depicted? How does impotence function as a metaphor for Arab incompetence? What are the effects of Egyptian Bureaucracy? How effective are Idris's similes, caricatures, descriptive passages? What can we deduce about the Arabic language? What role does Islam play in these lives?
ASSIGNMENT: Read, in Idris, "Hard Up," "The Queue," "The Dregs of the City."

3. Class Lecture and Discussion: "Hard Up," "The Queue," "The Dregs of the City."
Focusing Questions: What are some of the differences between urban and rural life? What is the livelihood of the men in the city? How are the poor further victimized in the city? How do the majority of peasants (fellahin) triumph? How is Cairo a divided city? How is the poor woman presented as the most victimized of all? How is Idris a political writer, exposing the social ills of his culture? Who or what is to blame? ASSIGNMENT: Read, in Idris, "Death from Old Age," "Bringing in the Bride," "The Shame."

4. Class Lecture and Discussion: "Death from Old Age," "Bringing in the Bride," "The Shame."
Focusing Questions: How have the elderly lost their dignity within the modern bureaucracy? When has traditional Arab generosity gone too far? Why does "shame" control the lives of a small farming community? What are the different expectations and responsibilities between genders with regards to sex? What is the relationship between the individual and the larger community? What reforms do you think Idris would propose?
ASSIGNMENT: Read, in Women in the City of the Dead "Introduction" (3-20), "Amira" (27-44).

5. Class Lecture and Discussion: Brief lecture on contemporary Egypt, from Nasr to today. Supplement with documentary like Cairo: Survival of a Mega-City, or Daughters of the Nile. Discuss "Introduction." "Amira."
Focusing Questions: How is the ethnography of this book different from the ethnography of Oscar Lewis's Five Lives? Why does Helen Watson invoke 1001 Nights? What is the City of the Dead? What are the migration patterns within Egypt? How are the sexes separated? What is the anthropologist's role? What is the worth of a barren woman? What are some of the reasons for and reactions to veiling?
ASSIGNMENT: Read, in WCD, "Oum Mohammed" (74-95), "Laila" (96-105), "Oum Karim" (126-158). First paper due in session 16. Professors see attached suggestions. Typically a theme is traced across the two cultures: Nigeria-Egypt. Revisions are to be handled as the professor thinks best.

6. Class Lecture and Discussion: "Oum Mohammed," "Laila," "Oum Karim."
Focusing Questions: What is the significance of storytelling as a great craft? What role does humor play? What role does fantasy play? Why do some of the tales reflect upon the real lives of the women? How are women empowered? How are some young women rebelling against traditional values? What are the dilemmas faced by working mothers? How does the storytelling circle serve as a support system? Where are the men?
ASSIGNMENT: Read, in WCD, "Oum Mustafa" and final tale (183-211).

7. Class Lecture and Discussion: "Oum Mustafa" and final tale.
Focusing Questions: What are some of the privileges of female seclusion? What is the relationship between the widow and the larger community? How do the tales serve to bridge differences? How is the anthropologist made to feel inadequate? How do the women tease the anthropologist? How is she, in the end, perceived? Come back to the central question on Egypt and the West: how do these different cultures view each other? How are these women moslem?
ASSIGNMENT: Read pp. 29-80, "Philosophies of China" in Supplementary Readings.

INDIA

8. Introduction to India materials, assign material from Supplementary Readings, "India" video.

9. Class Lecture and Discussion: BG.
Focusing Questions: (1) Social Organization: The traditional caste system of India stands in stark contrast to fundamental aspects of the American dream. Does the spiritual significance attributed to this system in the BG prompt a rethinking of attitudes toward the caste structure? What attitudes toward violence are evidenced in the BG? Does the BG, as is often charged, sanction violence? If so, in what sense does it do so? (2) Worldview: How is the concept of supreme or absolute being presented in the BG? How is this absolute, or Brahman, manifested in the individual? How is Brahman to be distinguished from the Judeo-Christian God? In what ways is Brahman similar to God? Traditional Hindu thought emphasizes the existence of a variety of paths to the divine. Each path (discipline or yoga) addresses itself to the specific temperaments, inclinations, and talents of individual humans. These yogas are (a) the yoga of knowledge, (b) the yoga of action, and (c) the yoga of devotion. How is each of these yogas presented in the BG? What are the advantages and pitfalls of each for individuals striving to attain the life of the Divine? The BG stresses the active life of the individual in the community; it thus refuses the advocacy of "retreat from the world" which characterizes many of the sects of this period. The BG proclaims, however, that an individual's acts must be accompanied by "nonattachment." What does the BG mean by this teaching? How does nonattachment differ from abstinence? How does it differ from the pragmatism which pervades American thought?

10. Class Lecture and Discussion: BG.

11. Class Lecture and Discussion: Gandhi.
ASSIGNMENT: "People's Court," and "Satyagraha," in Supplementary Readings.

12. Class Lecture and Discussion: Reading at option of faculty member.
ASSIGNMENT: First paper due in session 16. Professors see attached suggestions. Typically a theme is traced across the two cultures: Nigeria-India. Revisions are to be handled as the professor thinks best. 13. Class Lecture and Discussion: Reading at option of faculty member.

14. MIDTERM EXAMINATION

CHINA

15. Class Lecture and Discussion: Confucianism.
ASSIGNMENT: First paper due.

16. Class Lecture and Discussion: Taoism.
ASSIGNMENT: Second paper due in session 22. A theme developed in the first paper could be extended in new directions.

17. Class Lecture and Discussion: Buddhism.

18. Class Lecture and Discussion: Mao Tse-tung
ASSIGNMENT: Read selections from Chinese Lives.

19. Film: Small Happiness (optional)

20. Class Lecture and Discussion: CL.
Focusing Questions: (1) Livelihood: What is the significance of the fact that 80% of China's population depends on agricultural work for a livelihood? In 1987, at the time of the publication of CL, China's population was approximately 1,200,000,000, and increased by 200 million each year. How does this bear on China's development? Today China is striving to achieve the four modernizations: in science and technology, defense, industry, and agriculture. What were the technological and economic goals of the Cultural Revolution? How would you characterize the Chinese economy: before "liberation," during the Cultural Revolution, and in the late 1980s? (2) Family: What vestiges of Confucian values can be found in the families portrayed in CL? What are the most obvious examples of the breakdown of that value system? Among the Chinese peasants in particular, what is the relationship between family size and survival, male versus female offspring and survival? What CCP policies of the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and contemporary China have specifically challenged traditional family structure and values? (3) Social Organization: What is the particular nature of the struggle between individual and community needs and state control in China before the Cultural Revolution (1949-1956), during the Cultural Revolution, and in the 70s and 80s? How did the events of April-June 1989 reflect this struggle? What are the implications of "Marxism, Leninism, and Mao-Tse-tung Thought"? What does Maoism suggest concerning ambition, material wants, work, and relationship with the community? What is the meaning of "bourgeois consciousness," "feudal," "rightist," "capitalist roader," "cadre"? (You may find it interesting, if not helpful, to build a glossary of Mao-era and contemporary negativisms as they are revealed in the narratives.) Do social classes exist in China? What is the relationship between question number five and the Cultural Revolution? What was the ultimate purpose of the Cultural Revolution? Why did it fail? What replaced it? Many argue that as of June 4, 1989, the system that replaced it had also failed. Is that so? What is the People's Liberation Army (PLA)? What was the Red Guards? What is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? What is a cadre? What is "good class background" and "bad"? What was the relationship among all these as revealed in CL? What is the social significance of the fact that four out of five Chinese (in 1988, nearly 900,000,000) are peasants? What significance is suggested in CL concerning the more than 500,000,000 youth in the People's Republic of China? (4) Worldview: What diverse belief systems appear in these eyewitness narratives? Do they peacefully coexist? How would you characterize their relationship in contemporary Chinese society? Within the body of "Marxist-Leninist-Mao-Tse-tung thought," what contending belief systems and interpretations are revealed? What was the "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend" campaign? What parallels can be drawn between that "reform" and the reform movement of May 1989, culminating in the brutal suppression in Tienanmen Square on June 4? What assumption is made by all narrators, at least in their early years, concerning the future of China? How is the world outside of China seen?

21. Class Lecture and Discussion: CL.
ASSIGNMENT: Read pp. 93-106 in Supplementary Readings.

NIGERIA

22. Class Lecture and Orientation: (1) Major themes, goals, connection to Cores I and II, assignments, grading. Select a reading assignment on Africa from Supplementary Readings. NB: Some flexibility is allowed in the arrangement of the Africa materials, but two periods are to be spent on each of the novels.
ASSIGNMENT: Read Things Fall Apart. Second paper due.

23. Optional video: "Chiefs and Strongmen," "The Africans." Introduction to the two texts.

24. Class Lecture and Discussion of TFA.
Focusing Questions: (1) Livelihood: How does the self-perpetuating agricultural economy affect the village's attitudes toward change? Explain the role of yams as a food staple and as a measure of personal wealth and attainment. What is revealed about the village from the fact that Okonkwo could start from nothing and become wealthy? How does the method of agriculture relate to the physical building and arrangement of dwelling places? How much of the method of agriculture is individual and how much cooperative? How does the introduction of new weapons affect the society's attitudes toward the means of producing a livelihood? What does the coming of the missionaries do to the agricultural economy? (2) Family: Explain the family structure under the system of polygamy practiced in the village. What are the roles of husband, wives, and children? What obligations do family members have to one another? How important is individual liberty compared to family obligations? How important are parents and more distant ancestors in the family structure? What is the role of the extended family? What forces prior to the missionaries threaten the family structure? After the missionaries? (3) Social Organization: Who governs this society and makes necessary decisions? What is the source of authority and power? How does one get prestige and status? How does the buying of titles relate to status? How is justice and fairness defined in the society? How are punishments enforced? What is the role of ostracism? What is the role of women? What is their status? How and why does the coming of the missionaries destroy this social organization that has lasted through centuries? (4) Worldview: Why do the people of the village refer to myths and legends so often in their conversation? What religious beliefs are followed? Why was the Christianity of the missionaries so strange to the villagers at first? What is the role of the chi? What is the role of the oracle? What is the villagers' attitude toward other Ibo villages that they know about? What do they think of and about the world beyond the Ibo culture with which they are familiar? Does the influence of the missionaries destroy or revolutionize the villagers' culture?

25. Class Lecture and Discussion: TFA
ASSIGNMENT: Read The Joys of Motherhood.

26. Class Lecture and Discussion: JOM
Focusing Questions: (1) Livelihood: How did the move to Lagos affect the way the Ibos made their living? How did international events affect it? How did the move to the city influence the way men earned their livelihood? How about women? In what way does the concept of "working woman" in the book differ from that of contemporary America? Whose means of livelihood changed more in Lagos, the men's or the women's? (2) Family: What happens to the family organization when the traditional agricultural way of life changes to an urbanized one? Does Nnu Ego benefit or suffer from leaving her village? How does the extended family continue to exert its influence in Lagos? Polygamy was an accepted system in the traditional Ibo society. How did this system change among the Christianized Ibos of Lagos? Was it still operative? What obligations do family members have to one another? (3) What role does education play in the book? What is the role and status of women? How is it different from the role they played in the Achebe book? How has Nnu Ego's role changed? Does she experience something that changes her way of thinking? In what was has the traditional role of the man changed and how has it remained the same? (4) Worldview: How has the traditional belief system changed among the Ibos living in Lagos? What functions do these traditions continue to play? Has the concept of the chi changed from the way Achebe used it? Why is a male child of such importance? What is the significance of the novel's last line?

27. Class Lecture and Discussion: JOM.
ASSIGNMENT: Read selection of Africa material from Supplementary Readings.

28. Class Lecture and Discussion: Africa material.

FINAL EXAMINATION