KINSHIP AND FAMILY IN THE GLOBAL ERA SBSA 280-01 Fall 2013

Dr. Pellegrino A. Luciano Email: pluciano@auk.edu.kw Class Time: Mon & Wed. 11am -12:15pm Classroom: A205 Office Hours: T, Th 10 am 1 pm, and by appointment Office: A-318

Course Description: In this course we will examine the role of relatedness as a fundamental aspect of society and social organization. We will explore some of the classic and most recent anthropological findings on the topic of kinship, family and friendship. We will first analyze how our actions and loyalties are influenced by the cultural rules and pressures pertaining to intimate relations. Then we will examine the way intimacy and kinship obligations and intimate relations have changed in the global era through some of the main characteristics defining globalization such as: the development of new technologies in medicine, communication and transportation, the role of the media, the movement of people through tourism and migrations, the global economy, and the proliferation of liberalism and Western values around the world. These changes have reshaped kinship and intimate relations and even brought about new forms of family and intimacy mediated by mobile technologies and the Internet, helped produce romance and marriage industries, commercialize love. Kinship and family in the global era has posed challenges to family relations but also opened new possibilities for establishing those relationships. Required Readings: All readings are available for purchase at Quick Copy, PLEASE PURCHASE ALL THE READINGS AT ONCE IN BOOK FORMAT. However, a copy of the readings can also be found on the S-drive, along with a copy of the syllabus. (You are required to bring your syllabus to each class) Class Rules: Please make sure that you get to class on time. Refrain from sleeping, reading the newspaper, or chatting. If you carry a cell phone, please turn it off before class starts. Please pay attention, or pretend to; students who appear to be in another world may find themselves called upon to comment on whats been said in class. Academic Integrity: Take a moment and purge any idea from your mind that you may have about cheating or plagiarizing. I have a strict policy for cheating on exams or plagiarizing in this class the result will be a failing grade on the assignment. If you are caught a second time I will file a disciplinary petition with the Dean to have you expelled from the school.

REQUIREMENTS AND GRADES

AUK Mission Statement: The American University of Kuwait is a liberal arts institution, based on the American model of higher education. It is dedicated to providing students with knowledge, selfawareness, and personal growth experiences that can enhance critical thinking, effective communication, and respect for diversity. AUK seeks to create leaders and life-long learners who aspire to the highest standards of moral and ethical responsibility in their societies. Class Participation: Class participation is an important part of your learning experience and every student is an important part of this class. We all bring into the classroom our own experiences and can learn a great deal from each other as well as from the readings. I will provide some background information on the class topics, but the primary focus of the class is on the readings in-depth discussions of the readings. Each student must come to class prepared to discuss the readings assigned for that class. In order for this class to be productive we must all do the reading. Please bring a copy of the readings with you to class. You should mark key points, ideas that interest you, ideas you wish to critique and ideas that are unclear. Class participation helps create an overall impression of you as a student, and can influence your grade both positively and negatively depending on your performance and preparation.

YOUR GRADE IS BASED ON 6 DELIVERABLES (3 projects & 2 exams) DESCRIBED BELOW, AS WELL AS CLASS PARTICIPATION. PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULL. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Project 1: Searching for Family Patterns Project = 20% Project 2: Charting Kinship Project = 20% Project 3: Interpreting a Wedding Project = 15% Midterm = 20% Final Exam = 20% Participation = 5%

On the following pages you will find a description of the projects and the requirements.

Project 1: Searching for Family Patterns

Worth 20% of your Final Grade DUE 10/2 Write a 2-3 page essay based on the questions and exercises posed in the Richard Robbins Patterns of Family Relations reading with the addition of including your assessment of the Kuwaiti or Arabic Family. The questions and exercises can be found on p.105, 111, 124, and 129. 1. Summarize the discussion of American, Ju/Wasi and Chinese, and Trobriand family structures as specified in the Robbins book. 2. Include your assessment of the Arab family in the same fashion the other three types of families are discussed in the reading, how does the Arab family compare or contrast? (You should try to draw from the readings on the Arab family as well as from you own family experience). 3. In the final exercise on p.129 substitute the Chinese family with the Arab family. How would you dramatize the Kuwaiti family relationships and problems in a soap opera?

PROJECT 2: CHARTING KINSHIP

Worth 20% of your Final Grade DUE 10/23
The primary goal of this project is to have you become familiar with basic kinship symbols and terms, and their use. Another goal is for you to observe social patterns in specific kinds of kinship relationships. This project should also help you to develop as a writer and interviewer. You are required to interview someone and make a kinship chart/diagram for him or her that includes at least 4 generations (but no more than 5). In addition to exploring generational depth, explore width by including cousins, aunts, uncles and their children. The kinship chart will use the symbols discussed in class and also reviewed in Linda Stones article on pp.7-9. Your informant (listed as Ego on the chart can be anyone you like, other than yourself but can be a family member. In the chart include the following 3 parts:

Part I
1. Given Name and Family names (if you dont feel comfortable using real family last names then you can use a pseudonym) 2. The persons relationship to Ego using the descriptive symbols found in Stones article; e.g Egos FB (Fathers brother) 3. The terms of reference Ego uses for this relative, such as Uncle. This term will probably not be in English but in Arabic. Write the Arabic transliteration. 4. The terms Ego uses for address (terms of address are the terms one uses when speaking to the person in question). E.g. Can I ask you a question Uncle Joe? For the sake of clarity place the terms of address in quotation marks. This term also will probably not be in English but in Arabic. Again, write the Arabic transliteration. 5. Make sure to ask your informant whether the chart includes kin that are deceased, divorced, remarried, adopted, etc. Include this information in the chart using the appropriate symbols or notation.

Part II
After you have completed the kinship chart ask your informant to talk about kin with whom he or she has the very strongest ties and the weakest ties. Ask information about how they became strong or weak? What sorts of emotional and economical or social aid did the strong kin provide? Why do they say they have weak or weaker ties with kin person x?

Part III
Hand in the kinship chart with the information requested above in digital format if possible. That is, scan the chart if possible, if not then just hand in the chart in hard copy. Then write a short 1-2 page typed and double spaced discussion of the informants weakest and strongest ties and additional observational notes you wish to make. Finally, get as long a discussion as possible from your informant on the meaning of the family, and what peoples obligations are for various family roles (E.g. mother, father, sibling, uncles and cousin of various sorts). 4

PROJECT 3: INTERPRETING A WEDDING

Worth 15% of your Final grade DUE 11/6 Marriages and wedding ceremonies often express in highly condensed ways what life is all about for members of a culture. In this project you are required to locate a married individual from your kinship chart and interview them about their wedding preparation and wedding day. Write a 3-5 page paper describing the following: Interview Goals: Give basic information such as age of the informant and how long they have been married. Description of how the married couple met and the details that went into the decision to get married (E.g. Attraction, Family status, Dowry, bride wealth considerations). Describe the wedding itself but begin with the day before. How did the person prepare for the wedding, who helped, how were decision made? Were there any problems? Make special note on how the informant dramatizes the event. Describe the wedding ceremony and celebration, how was it organized, who was invited and why, what kinds of activities took place? Describe the day after. Analysis: In what way was the wedding typical for the culture? In other words analyze what shared values were expressed culturally (not only for specific the people involved) but for the society in general. Also analyze to what degree the wedding was not typical.

CLASS SCHEDULE

Week One: Introductions (9/11) Part I Variations in Kinship and Family Week Two: Gender, Sexuality and Family (9/16 & 9/18) Readings: Linda Stone, Gender, Reproduction, and Kinship M. Aziz F. Yassin, Kinship Terms in Kuwaiti Arabic

Week Three: Ideas of the Family (9/23 & 9/25) Readings: Richard H. Robbins, Patterns of Family Relations

Week Four: Ideas of Kinship & Belonging (9/30& 10/2) Readings: G. Ferraro & S. Andreatta, Chap 10 Kinship and Descent PROJECT 1 DUE: ROBBINS PATTERNS EXERCISE Week Five: Ideas of Marriage (10/7& 10/9) Readings: Melvyn C. Goldstein, When Brothers Share a Wife Clifford Geertz, Life without Fathers or Husbands

EID BREAK OUR CLASS RESUMES ON 10/21

Part II - Modern Love and the Intimacy Revolution Week Six: Companionship and Intimacy (10/21& 10/23) Readings: Anthony Giddens, Love, Commitment and the Pure Relationship H. Wardlow & J. Hirsch, Modern Loves PROJECT 2 DUE: CHARTING KINSHIP Week Seven: Gender Bending and Alternative Families Forms (10/28&10/30) Readings: o Kath Weston, Families We Choose o Lawrence A Kurdek, Are Gay and Lesbian Cohabiting Couples Really Different from Heterosexual Married Couples? o Andrew Yip, Attacking the attacker: Gay Christians Talk Back o Omar Minwalla et al, Identity Experiences among Progressive Gay Muslims in North America Week Eight: Economy and Gender (11/6) Readings: Denise Brennan, Mens Pleasure, Womens Labor: Tourism for Sex Johanna Lessinger, Work and Love Broughton & Walton, Downsizing Masculinity PROJECT 3 DUE: INTERPRETING A WEDDING Week Nine: Science &b Medical Technologies (11/11& 11/13) Readings: Sarah Franklin, Postmodern Procreation Emily Martin, The Egg and the Sperm 11/13: IN-CLASS MIDTERM EXAM Week Ten: Transnational Bonds and Global Families (12/9& 12/11) Readings: Leah Schmalzbauer, Searching for Wages and Mothering from Afar

Part III Family in the Middle East Week Eleven: Patriarchy and Gender (11/18& 11/20) Readings: Suad Joseph, Brother/ Sister Relationships: Connectivity, Love and Power Reproduction of Patriarch in Lebanon Suad Joseph, Teta, Mother and I Week Twelve: Gender, Personhood and the Family (11/25 & 11/27) Readings: Magda M. Al-Nowaihi, Constructions of Masculinity in Two Egyptian Novels Week Thirteen: Citizenship and Gender (12/2 & 12/4) Readings: Suad Joseph, Civic Myths, Citizenship, and Gender in Lebanon Week Fourteen: Citizenship and Gender in Kuwait (12/16 & 12/18) Readings: P. Luciano & D. A;-Otaibi, Kuwaiti Women with Foreign Spouses: Marginality, Intimacy and Citizenship Week Fifteen: Citizenship and Exclusion in Kuwait (12/23) Readings: Refugees International Bulletin: Kuwait: State of Exclusion

WINTER BREAK Week Sixteen: The Meaning of Friendship in Kuwait (1/6 & 1/8) Tentative Guest Speaker Week Seventeen: Dysfunctional Relationships and Breaking-Up (1/15) Review FINAL EXAM TBA