IDS 4933 Honors Law and Anthropology

Professors Rachel Corr and Mark Tunick
 Fall 2010

Description: This course focuses on how legal systems do and should cope with people of different cultures. For example, should we allow a cultural defense to people who violate U.S. law while engaging in practices that are a legitimate and accepted part of their native culture, on the ground that complying with the law for them is more difficult? What are the costs of accommodating people of different cultures, and what are the costs if instead we force them to assimilate? Are people accountable for the way in which they are brought up? Are there universal standards of justice that should be common to any legal system, or should we rather say that concepts such as justice, due process, and law are socially constructed and vary among different societies, with no particular conception having any more intrinsic value than another?  The class will be discussion based, and students must come to class prepared to discuss the day's readings. This 1-credit course counts toward the Honors College critical inquiry seminar requirement.

Requirements: Attendance and participation in class discussion is required. Grades will be based on 2 papers, each ~ 3-5 pages in length (35% each), and on in-class essays/quizzes and participation in class discussion (30%). Excessive absences will result in a reduced grade for the course. One or two additional sessions may be scheduled for screening of films.

Readings:  Readings will be available through Blackboard.  Some online materials require you to use a computer within the FAU domain or, if you use a computer not on campus, to use a proxy. Complete court cases are available online at westlaw or lexis-nexis via the online library database. Syllabus: http://www.fau.edu/~tunick/courses/ids/law_anthropology/index.html

Office Hours: Corr: M, F 9-12; Tunick: tba. Email: rcorr@fau.edu ; tunick@fau.edu

Honor Code: Students agree to adhere to the honor code, available online at http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/students/honorcode.html

Aug. 26

Introduction and in-class discussion.
Handout: French, “A Cultural Clash Forces Korea to Beware of Dog,” NYT 12/13/01, online

Sept. 2

Relativism vs. Universalism 
Rdg: Ruth Benedict and Walter Stace, “Debate on Moral Relativism”; Abu-Lughod “Do Muslim Women Need Saving?”, American Anthropologist 104(3):783-790 (2002); T.B. Macaulay, “Minute on Education,” Feb. 2, 1835
Recommended: article on Univ of Arizona study challenging creation myth; “Folk belief” from Intro to Cultures of Multiple Fathers

Sept. 9

The Concept of False Consciousness
Video: Star Trek Next Generation, “Half a Life” (to be screened prior to class)
Rdg: Marvin Harris, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches, pp. 11-45

Sept. 16

Should there be a Cultural Defense?
Rdg: Michelle Moody-Adams “Culture, Responsibility, and Affected Ignorance,” Ethics 104:291-309 (1994); Lambert v. California 355 US 225 (1957)

Sept. 23

Cultural Defense: Cases
Rdg: Maine v Khargar, 679 A 2d 81 (1996); Yen, "Chen Case"

Sept. 30

Honor Killings
Rdg: Catherine Warrick, “The Vanishing Victim: Criminal Law and Gender in Jordan,” Law and Society Review 39(2):315-48 (June 2005); Paul Rubin, "Inside Story of Young Muslim Woman Honor Killed," April 1, 2010, online.
For those interested: Filkins, ''Honor killings' defy Turkish efforts to end them’, New York Times July 13, 2003: online; Fadia Faqir, “Intrafamily Femicide in Defence of Honour: The Case of Jordan,” Third World Quarterly 22(2):65-82 (Feb. 2001)

Oct. 7

Hmong ‘Marriage by capture’ and other marriage customs 
Rdg: Choua Ly, “Comment: The Case of the Hmong in America,”  2001 Wis. L. Rev. 471 (2001); Wikan “Citizenship on Trial: Nadia’s Case” (in Daedalus)

Oct. 14

Female Genital Mutilation 
Rdg: Wairimu Njambi, "Dualisms and Female Bodies in Representations of African Female Circumcision"; Lynn Thomas, “Ngaitana (I Will Circumcise Myself)” (in Female Circumcision); Susan Okin, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?”
For those interested: Fuambai Ahmadu, “Rites and Wrongs: An Insider/Outsider Reflects on Power and Excision”
Paper 1 Due

Oct. 21

FGM and the Law
Rdg: Merilee Salmon and Elliott Skinner, “Taking Sides” on “Should Anthropologists Work to Eliminate the Practice of Female Circumcision”; Doriane Coleman, “The Seattle Compromise: Multicultural Sensitivity and Americanization,” 47 Duke L. J. 717 (1998)

Oct. 28

Sati in India
Rdg: Hawley, Sati: The Blessing and the Curse, pp. 3-53
Recommended: R. Hartley Kennedy, “The Suttee: The Narrative of an Eye-Witness,” Bentley’s Miscellany 13:241-256 (1843), item 78 in vol. 13, online. Dorothy Stein, "Women to Burn: Suttee as a Normative Institution," Signs 4(2):253-67 (Winter 1978), online.

Nov. 4

Culture, Religion, and the 1st Amendment
Rdg: Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 US 205 (1972); Sean Hamill, “Religious Freedom vs. Sanitation Rules,” New York Times, June 14, 2009, online; U.S. v. Lee, 455 US 252 (1982)

Nov. 18

Culture, Religion, and the 1st Amendment (continued)
Rdg: Osman v. JFC Inc. (2009 WL 5091919 (Minn. App.); State of Minnesota vs Tenerelli, 598 NW 2d 668 (1999); Bowen v. Roy, 476 US 693 (1986)
For those interested: Sultaana Lakiana Myke Freeman v Florida, Case No. 2002-CA-2828, 9th Circuit, Orange County, online..
Monday, Nov. 29th: Paper 2 due.

Additional notes:
Policy on Accommodations: In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), students who require reasonable accommodations due to a disability to properly execute coursework must register with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) -- SR 110 (561-799-8010) – and follow all OSD procedures.

Academic Integrity Policy:Students at Florida Atlantic University are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards. Academic dishonesty is considered a serious breach of these ethical standards, because it interferes with the university mission to provide a high quality education in which no student enjoys an unfair advantage over any other. Academic dishonesty is also destructive of the university community, which is grounded in a system of mutual trust and places high value on personal integrity and individual responsibility. Harsh penalties are associated with academic dishonesty. For more information, see University Regulation 4.001 and http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/students/honorcode.html

Classroom Etiquette Policy: In order to enhance and maintain a productive atmosphere for education, personal communication devices, such as cellular telephones and pagers, are to be disabled in class sessions.

updated 10-28-10