View source for ANTH245 2007 Notes

= Cybernetics =
* Read something by Wiener, e.g. "Rigidity and Learning" in ''The Human Use of Human Beings''.
* Pay much more attention to ''learning''
* Connect learning and evolution early on
* Read only two essays by Bateson, on art and learning
* Read only Rapport 1971
* For L-S 1955, read only the middle -- exclude the set up (requires knowledge of history of anth) and the Zuni stuff (way too complicated)
= Postmodernity =
* Put Lyotard before Suchman, et al. &rarr; the latter follow closely the sporit of his recommendations
* Emphasize cyberpunk ... de Certeu?
* Focus on Community -- have students read [http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/intro.html Rheigolds, ''The Virtual Community'']
= General Remarks =
* Bateson's opposition between Purpose Mind and Greater Mind pervades the course
* To what extent is Cybernetics the "backstory" of the computerized society?
* One possible course -- The Anthropology of Google -- would eliminate Suchman, etc.
* May want to divide the course into parts, integrate more activities
** Cybernetic Anthropology
** Computational Anthropology
** Ethnography of Computing
** Anthropology of Google (Cyberia)
*** Virtual Community 
*** Hypertext
*** Databasification
** Posthumanism