THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF LAW

Fall, 2006

Anthropology 422/622

Instructor: Daniel Strouthes

Office: P 246

Email address: STROUTDP@UWEC.EDU Website: WWW.UWEC.EDU/STROUTDP Telephone # 836-2843.

COURSE OUTLINE

I. Introduction

1. The nature of jurisprudence.

2. Basic legal concepts.

II. The form of law.

1. Law as a social phenomenon

2. Abstract legal norms (rules)

1.) Definition of legalism.

2.) Legalism (in China, Europe, the U.S.).

3. Abstracts from behavioral and ideal culture (Ehrlich's "living law").

4. Legal realism (Llewellyn and Hoebel, Nader, Gluckman, etc.).

III. Attributes of law.

1. Legal authority.

2. Intention of universal application.

3. Obligatio.

4. Sanction.

IV. Law and Society.

1. Societal organization and multiple legal systems.

2. Law and social status.

V. Legal Change.

1. Change of legal systems.

2. Change of laws.

VI. Justice.

1. Justice of facts.

2. Justice of law.

VII. Substantive law.

1. Ethnographic examples.

2. Formal analysis of substantive law.

VIII. New subjects in the anthropology of law.

1. Biology and the law.

2. Anthropology and native legal rights.

Required books: Pospisil's Anthropology of Law, Llewellyn and Hoebel's The Cheyenne Way. Both of these are rentals.

READING LIST FOR THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF LAW

9/6 Introduction (no readings)

9/11 Basic legal concepts:

Stone, Julius

1950 The Function and Province of Law. Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press. Pp. 115-133.

Session presenter: Dan Strouthes

9/13: Legalism:

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 The Anthropology of Law. New Haven: HRAF Press. Pp. 20-28.

Ch'u, T'ung-Tsu

1965 Law and Society in Traditional China. The Hague: Mouton and Company. Pp. 226-279.

Session presenter:

9/18 The legalist approach to the study of social science:

Durkheim, Emile

[1893] 1964 The Division of Labor in Society. New York: The Free Press. Pp. 63-110, 115-132.

Radcliffe-Brown, A.R.

1933 "Law, Primitive" in Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 9, pp. 202-206.

1956 Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press. Pp. 212-219.

Session presenter:

9/20 The behavioralistic approach to the study of law:

Malinowski, Bronislaw

1959 Crime and Custom in Savage Society. Patterson, New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams & Co. Pp. 39- 62.

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 The Anthropology of Law. Pp. 28-31.

Session presenter:

9/25 the first attribute of law, authority:

Ch'u, T'ung-Tsu

1965 Law and Society in Traditional China. Pp. 20-41.

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 Anthropology of Law. Pp. 39-78.

Session presenter:

9/27 The second and third attributes of law, intention of universal application and obligatio:

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 Anthropology of Law. Pp. 78-87.

Hoebel, E. Adamson

1954 The Law of Primitive Man. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Part I, chapter 4, pp. 46-63.

Session presenter:

10/2 The fourth attribute of law, sanction:

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 Anthropology of Law. Pp. 87-96.

Schneider, David M.

1957 "Political Organization, Supernatural Sanctions and the Punishment for Incest on Yap." American Anthropologist, 59(5): 791-800.

French, Rebecca

1995 The Golden Yoke: The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pp. 315-325.

Session presenter:

10/4 The case study method:

Gluckman, Max

1955 The Judicial Process Among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia. Manchester: University of Manchester Press. Pp. 224-290.

Llewellyn, K.M. and E.A. Hoebel

1941 The Cheyenne Way. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Pp 20-40.

Hoebel, E. A.

1969 "Keresan Pueblo Law." Pp. 92-116 in Laura Nader ed., Law and Culture in Society. Chicago: Aldine.

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 Anthropology of Law. Pp. 31-37.

Session presenter:

10/9 Societal organization and multiple legal levels:

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 Anthropology of Law. Pp. 97-126.

Llewellyn, K.N. and E.A. Hoebel

1941 The Cheyenne Way. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Pp. 50-55.

French, Rebecca

1995 The Golden Yoke: The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Pp. 164-171.

Session presenter:

10/11 Change of legal systems:

Engels, Friedrich

1964 The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. New York: International Publishers. Pp. 18-24, 144-158.

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 Anthropology of Law. Pp. 127-192.

Vinogradoff, Sir Paul

1923 Historical Jurisprudence. London: Oxford University Press. Pp. 147-160.

Session presenter:

10/16 The change of laws:

Hogbin, H. Ian

[1934] 1961 Law and Order in Polynesia. Hamden, CT: Shoe String Press. Pp. 225-231.

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 Anthropology of Law. Pp. 193-232.

Prawdin, Michael

1940 The Mongol Empire. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd. Pp. 69-93, 412-435.

Schapera, Isaac

1969 "Uniformity and Variation in Chief-Made Law: A Tswana Case Study" In Law in Culture in Society, Nader, Laura, ed., pp. 230-244. Chicago: Aldine.

Session presenter:

10/18 Justice

Gluckman, Max

1955 The Judicial Process among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Pp. 82-98, 125-129, 136-138.

Hoebel, E. A.

1954 The Law of Primitive Man. Pp. 12-17

Llewellyn, K.N. and E.A. Hoebel

1941 The Cheyenne Way. Pp. 297-309.

Pospisil, Leopold

1971 Anthropology of Law. Pp. 233-272.

Session presenter:

10/23 Formal analysis of substantive law:

10/30: Examination

11/1: No class meeting. Outside class assignment. Analyze and write up 2 cases from a source area different from those which you will utilize for your research paper. Due 11/8.

11/6-12/13 Presentation of research paper results.

12/13 Research papers due at class time (papers may be submitted at any previous point in the semester).

12/20 3:00 PM. Research papers returned and discussed.

Course Objective: This course will provide students with a basic understanding of the law, its functions and forms as it appears cross-culturally. It will also train students to learn to analyze legal systems as they occur throughout the world.

Student performance will be evaluated on the basis of one midterm examination, class participation (including leading class discussion and presenting of results of research papers), and a research paper which will be presented in class and submitted, which will all carry equal weight (30% each). The examination will cover the assigned readings and the material presented in class. Your exam will consist entirely of essay questions.

Your November 8 case analysis will be worth 10% of your grade.

Session presenters will also write and distribute to each class member a 1-2 page synopsis of the major points of the session’s readings. Meeting and discussing the material with the instructor prior to the class session is encouraged.

Research presentations will, in most cases, also include analyses of two legal cases, synopses of which will be written up on handouts and given to the members of the class.

Grades will be computed on a percentage basis, using the following scale:

90%: A

88%: A-

85%: B+

80%: B

78%: B-

75%: C+

70%: C

68%: C-

65%: D+

60%: D

58%: D-

Below 58%: F

Books and other readings: The Pospisil book is available as rentals at the bookstore. All other readings will be on ereserve and regular library reserve.

Class attendance is required. Official university policy is that all students are expected to attend all classes. Finally, it is the student’s responsibility to obtain class material missed from a competent classmate.

Any student who has a professionally certified disability and is in need of classroom accommodation please contact me AND the office of Students with Disabilities (S 201 836-4542) during the first week of classes.

The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire baccalaureate degrees have eleven (11) goals. Each student is also supposed to keep a portfolio of class assignments, projects, and other materials that demonstrate how they have met these goals through their courses (http://www.uwec.edu/AcadAff/policies/assessment/FAQ-students.htm You may scan your exams into a PDF file to upload them.). The goals are listed in the table below along with references to particular assignments that you could save to demonstrate work toward that particular goal.