Fred Blake 柏桦

Associate Professor

Background:

PhD University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois (1975)

MA Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri (1966)
BA University of Hawaii, Hawaii (1964)

Selected Bibliography:

Foot-binding. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, edited by Bonnie G. Smith, Oxford University Press. 2008.

Lucy Parsons. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, edited by Bonnie G. Smith, Oxford University Press. 2008.

人类学与時裝尚的研究 ["Anthropology and the Study of Fashion"], 广西民族学院学报(哲社版) 29(1):31-42, 2007.

《纸钱的符号学研究》["The Semiotic Study of Paper Money"],广西民族学院学报(哲社版), 5期，2005年第43页-49页. reprinted: 《纸钱的符号学研究》， [转载]文化研究，中国人民大学书报资料中心， 2006年第4期，第9页-第16页.

《先灵公司与中国八仙》["The Schering Corporation and the Eight Immortals"] ，装饰杂志，总第150期，2005年第68页-69页.

"Footbinding in Neo-Confucian China and the Appropriation of Female Labor," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 19(2): 676-712, 1994 reprinted:《新儒教时期的缠足与妇女劳动》，汉学研究，第三期，北京:中国和平出版社，第263页-300页, 1999.

"The Chinese of Valhalla: Identity and Adaptation in a Midwestern American Cemetery,” Markers: Journal for the Association of Gravestone Studies, 10: 52-89, 1993.

"Leaders, Factions and Ethnicity in Sai Kung," In Leadership on the China Coast, ed. Goran Aijmer, 53-90. Scandinavian Institute for Asian Studies. London: Curzon Press, 1984

Ethnic Groups and Social Change in a Chinese Market Town. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1981

"The Feelings of Chinese Daughters Toward Their Mothers as Revealed in Marriage Laments," Folklore, 89(2): 91-97, 1979.

"Death and Abuse in Marriage Laments: The Curse of Chinese Brides," Journal of Asian Folklore Studies, 37(1): 13-33, 1978

Courses Taught:

Anth 152 (Culture & Humanity)

Explores the nature of being human by studying how human cultures deal with problems of survival and meaning. These include problems of how we understand other cultures, especially from the Age of Discovery circa 1500 C.E. to the present, how we make our worlds meaningful, how we work and make things and attach value to things, how we deal with social inequalities, how we form relationships and a sense of community, and deal with rifts like illness, violence, and death

Teaching Goals

Many of today's problems, especially problems of identity, relationship, and survival, are bio-cultural problems. Anthropology, which is the study of a being that is human-like, deals with these problems by understanding them as bio-cultural problems. This means that before we rush into finding practical solutions, we become bio-culturally informed. Being thus informed is a two-sided coin. On one side it means holding up our everyday assumptions--these are the "truths" we live by--to critical scrutiny. On the other side it means becoming cognizant of and conversant with human limitations--a popular American assumption is that there are no such things as "human limitations." To become bio-culturally informed, to be critical of everyday assumptions, and to be cognizant of human limitations is "to think anthropologically." My goal is to inspire this way of thinking.

Economic Anthropology 416

My version of this course does not restrict the analysis of economic activities to "non-Western, non-industrial societies" as per the catalog description. My horizon is drawn more along the line of political economy, the inter-disciplinary study of historical formations (culturally-organized and politically-driven modes of production / exploitation) in terms of the origins, functions, structures, and teleology of social inequality, and the theories of value, alienation, and ideology embedded therein. Anthropology offers useful insights into the study of economics because it seeks to explain and understand how people in different material circumstances produce, distribute, and consume the things they define as useful and valuable. This section of the course explores the relationship between anthropology and political economy.

Anthropology of Religion 422

My approach to the anthropology of religion begins with the history of how religion has been studied mainly by social anthropologists but including the other social and behavioral sciences and, where relevant, the perspectives of theology and philosophy. These discussions lead to questions about the scope of religion within a more comprehensive anthropology of world view and its concerns with modes of cognition and realization. Our discussions focus on the phenomena of ritual, magic, myth, commonsense, belief, faith, sacrifice, aesthetics, ideology, and rationality.

Anthropology of China 488

Surveys Chinese traditions at the domestic and interpersonal levels. This includes a brief introduction to the culture history and regional expressions followed by a more intensive focus on the family system, gender identities, rites of passage, folk religion and the heating arts. Lectures and discussions are based on a series of readings, mostly well-known accounts of life in twentieth century China. The readings are a mix of Chinese-authored dramatic stories and ethnographic monographs including some foreign-authored accounts. Our task is to see how much we can glean from these stories and accounts about social life in China during the twentieth century.

History of Anthropology 490

Historical survey of watershed ideas, intellectual genealogies, and personalities that form the modern discipline of anthropology. This includes an understanding of the historical and discursive contexts for the advent and spread of these ideas and the personalities whose published writings received the most notoriety. Although our emphasis is on the modern discourses (e.g., theories of social evolution, structural functionalism, structuralism and semiotics, linguistic and cognitive, cultural materialism--ecological, functionalist, and Marxist--and practice theories), we also take up the postmodern challenges and intellectual currents in interpretive ethnography, literary and feminist and other critical theories that have redefined the calling of anthropology. Classes are mostly lectures (based on PowerPoint presentations). This is a rigorous academic course which requires active learning.

Ethnology 601

Follows in rough chronological order the development of various schools and theoretical subdisciplines in ethnology or cultural anthropology. Our goal is to develop a broad grounding in the theoretical underpinnings of the discipline so that students are prepared to undertake their own work from an informed perspective of both what has already been accomplished and what is currently shaping the discipline. There have been paradigm shifts in cultural anthropology over the past century. The post-1960s challenge includes philosophical and political questions about subjectivity and power in society and culture and anthropological studies thereof. A portion of the second part of the course is devoted to reading and discussing these recent issues. Weekly course work includes readings, written précis, student presentations and discussions on the theories, backgrounds, historical contexts, subsequent influences and critiques.

Ethnology of China (750 D: Research Seminar)

This seminar is open to graduate students who have done or who are planning to do ethnographic field work in China. This includes work among Han and non-Han groups, and we welcome students who work in Vietnam or have an interest in comparative cultures in East Asia. The primary facilitator’s focus is Han China and studies of “folk” and “popular religions,” although students with other ethnographic/ethnological interests are welcome to pursue theirs. We expect a lot of discussion concerning the topics, methods, ethics, techniques, logistics, and theoretical paradigms involved in our work. In addition, students are expected to become familiar with the ethnographic literature, old and new. We will have, for example, an occasion to discuss the history of ethnographic work in China and differences in contributions of foreigners and native Chinese anthropologists. Each student is expected to help facilitate discussions, especially those topics that he or she has some access to, experience or knowledge of. Also, each student is expected to produce an article-length monograph on his or her topic of ethnographic research or to write a research proposal aimed at doing ethnographic research in China or related culture areas. The culture area includes Han-Chinese, non-Han-Chinese, and non-Chinese neighbors. Recognizing that subaltern-hegemonic, ethnic and national, identities, boundaries, and borders evoke strong passions does not blink the probability that such differences are inversely related (or in dialectical relationship) to the culture-historical materials that pass between them. After all, boundaries, borders, and identities are formed from interaction and exchange, not from isolation.

FOCUS AREAS

Fred Blake 柏桦

Associate Professor