CF 3333
CLASH OF CULTURES:
1450-1850
Syllabus
ABOUT THIS SYLLABUS
CF (Cultural Formations) courses are probably a bit different from other courses you have taken in college. The point of view for courses in the CF series is interdisciplinary, drawing on the insights of several fields of study. The chances are that you have never taken a course quite like this before. In any case, it normally takes students several weeks to become accustomed to the distinctive outlook of a CF course. We urge you to be patient. You will be able to master this approach. Over the years the staff of CF 3333 (previously listed as CORE 1333) has designed and redesigned this syllabus to make the point of view taken by this course more clear to you. That is why our syllabus contains much more than a listing of required books, written assignments, readings, and due dates.
We shall approach the problem of “cultural formations” from a particular perspective; namely, the perspective of “institutions.” What are institutions [note the use of the plural!]? Every human population, from a band of hunter-gatherers to a large-scale industrial society, faces certain problems. It has to maintain itself in its environment, supplying the immediate needs of the individuals of which it is composed. It has to perpetuate itself through successive generations of individuals, and it has to give its members the sense that the benefits of belonging to their society outweigh the costs; otherwise, it disintegrates. It has to provide directions for common under-takings (leadership), to enforce norms of socially approved behavior (reinforcement), and to find means of settling disputes within the group (mediation). It has to answer people's questions about the place of humankind in the world at large and the worth of their own existence.
The simplest way to think of institutions is to regard them as subsystems of the society oriented toward the solution of one or more of these problems. The subsystem may be so large as to include nearly the whole population of a given society, or it may be relatively small (think of food supply as a problem, agriculture as a solution; then contrast the proportion of agricultural workers to total population in a peasant society with the corresponding proportion for agriculture in the United States). The members of the subsystem may have highly specialized functions (contrast a group of fishermen all mending their nets with the workers in a Ford factory). The members of the subsystem may all enjoy roughly the same status, or they may be sharply differentiated as to the status they enjoy (contrast a New England town meeting with Queen Elizabeth's opening of Parliament).
Thanks to their problem-solving orientation, institutions are not just subsystems or groups of people considered from any point of view. They are subsystems or groups whose members have more or less similar roles to play, and these roles are governed by rules. The study of roles and rules is a major part of the study of institutions, so that institutions thus form a bridge between society and culture. At times an ambiguity creeps into our speaking and writing about institutions. It is not always clear when we refer to “the king,” for example, whether we are referring to the king as a person or as a role in a certain kind of state (a monarchy).
To some extent this ambiguity reflects our own experience of identification with the roles we play in various institutions: we are unique, named individuals, but we also have an identity by our membership in particular institutions: as Republicans or Libertarians, Baptists or Episcopalians, Teamsters or Bank Presidents. Abstracting slightly from these identifications, we find ourselves considering such institutions as political parties, churches, labor unions, and the nobility.
To organize our abstractions, we can classify institutions according to the particular kinds of problem they solve, and speak of those concerned with the production and distribution of goods as the economic institutions of a given society, those concerned with the transmission of knowledge to new generations as its educational institutions, those concerned with leadership, mediation, and reinforcement as its political institutions, and those concerned with meaning and value as its religious institutions.
But these neat pigeonholes work only as abstractions, as instruments of thought. In practice, institutions usually show a blend of functions. A college of priests may pass on secret religious teaching to a few disciples: does this make them an educational institution as well as a religious one? A bank president may bring home a few trout from a weekend's fishing: does this shift him from finance to food-gathering? And finally, we might ask whether such classification by function tells the whole story about institutions. The problems remain constant throughout the spectrum of human societies, but the particular institutional arrangements found in different societies vary widely. Particular institutions (e.g., a hunting party, a group of farmers maintaining an irrigation system, a royal court, a university, a temple, an army, a factory, a prison) can only be understood if we look both at their role(s) in their own society and at how they compare with institutions of similar types found in other societies.
No human population exists in a vacuum. It has an environment that favors some kinds of activity and discourages others. It makes contact with other human groups. It faces short-term and long-term change. If it is to thrive, or even to survive, it must adapt to these changes, just as an individual organism must. Institutions adaptive at one stage of a society's career may be neutral or even maladaptive at another. The persistence of institutions which have ceased to be adaptive is one sign that a purely functional approach to institutions does not tell the whole story about them. Human behavior is a complex phenomenon, one complicated by the ability of human beings to reflect on their own behavior. And institutions consist of human beings and share in their complexity!
ABOUT CF 3333
We eat Chinese food, we worry about the conflicts in the ethnic states emerging in the Middle East, from the former Soviet Union, and elsewhere around the globe; and we debate the merits of the extension of the North American Free Trade Agreement to other Latin American nations. It was not always so. In 1450 the civilizations of Europe, Arabia, India, and China coexisted with little knowledge of each other. In 1450 Muslims and Christians still fought in Spain. At the same time, the peoples of the “Americas” lived in splendid isolation from the rest of the world. By 1850, all this had changed. The outward expansion of European societies ended the old pattern of regionalism. This breakdown of the global equilibrium and its consequence – what we call the “clash of cultures” – are examined in CF 3333.
That Europeans were "successful" in this global clash of cultures still surprises many historians and social scientists. We shall look at how rearrangements of European institutions, first between church and state and later between the public and private sectors, were critical to the transformation of the global system. We shall also examine the clash of cultures from the perspective of the non-European peoples who found their traditions challenged, threatened, and often destroyed.
Thus, CF 3333 focuses on key "transformations" in our recent past: religious transformations (the Reformation); cultural transformations (the confrontation of Europeans and the native peoples of the Americans); political transformations (the English "Glorious Revolution," the American Revolution, the French Revolution); social transformations (efforts at equality in gender relations in England and France); economic transformations (industrial capitalism spreading from Britain across the globe); and ideological transformations (socialism and communism as challenges to European "democratic" capitalism).
In the period 1450-1850, the world grew richer, more complex, and closer together. The global village of the late 20th century was created by the clash of cultures during the age of European expansionism. Today and in the future we live with the consequences of this conflict.
COURSE EXPECTATIONS
1. It is expected that you will attend, and be on time for, all lectures and discussions. For an absence to be considered “excused,” appropriate documentation must be provided to your section leader. You will be expected to bring the materials appropriate for the lectures and the materials assigned for the day to the discussion section.
2. CF 3333 requires the following written work: one take-home essay (20%), a map quiz (5%), a midterm examination (30%), quizzes (10%), a final examination (30%). The remaining 5% will be based on attendance at lectures and participation in discussion sections. An attendance roster may be distributed on any given day. Please also note that the weighting assigned to each component is not intended to reduce the teacher’s discretion. A brilliant job on the later assignments may serve to minimize the effects of earlier unsatisfactory work. As you can tell, we are concerned about your attendance.
3. For best results on essays and exams, please arrange to contact your section leader for any extra assistance that may be required. Late essays will be penalized heavily (i.e., one full letter grade per class day) and missed quizzes cannot be retaken.
4. Section grades will be based on quizzes and class discussion. Section discussion should be worthwhile; that is, we expect you to have read what you are talking about. Each week, you must prepare a written question about the readings/videos/lecture materials. The questions submitted will constitute an important part of your section grade.
5. The Final Examination is from 12:00 noon to 1:50 p.m. on the last day of class (August 1st). No examination will be scheduled at an earlier time. You must plan to be present at this examination. To sit for an examination takes precedence over all other obligations.
6. If you need academic accommodations for a disability, you must contact the Coordinator, Services for Students with Disabilities at 214-768-4563 to verify the disability and to establish eligibility for accommodations. Then, with documentation in hand, you should meet with your discussion section leader to make appropriate arrangements regarding class participation, quizzes, essays, and examinations.
TEXTS
Philip J. Adler, World Civilizations. Volume Two: Since 1500. Sixth Edition. Wadsworth.
George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara. [any one of several available editions will do].
Clash of Cultures: A Sourcebook. [will be made available on the course web site].