Trinity College

At a fundamental level we take for granted the ways in which time is organized in our lives. Yet there is nothing “natural” about most temporal divisions. This course investigates concepts and practices of time across cultures, paying particular attention to the roles of power, economy and technology. We will consider the relationship between time and economic organization, looking at the impact of industrialization on the development of clocks, watches, schedules and deadlines. We will examine the cultural politics of calendars and computers. We will think about ideas of time travel, the “past,” “future” and “progress” and question the ways in which these shape our views of societies worldwide. Finally, we will research the ways in which individuals narrate their own life times.

This is a community learning course. We will have the opportunity to conduct research and life story interviews on time, work and identity at the Hartford Artisan’s Center. This means that you will learn valuable research and interviewing skills. It also means that you must be fully committed to the class from the start, for we will have a professional responsibility to the people at the Center.

Required Readings:

Two books have been ordered through the Trinity College Bookstore and a course reader will be available for purchase. Readings will also be on reserve at the library.

Levine, Robert, A Geography of Time, New York: Basic Books, 1997.

Meyerhoff, Barbara, Number Our Days, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.

Course requirements:

1) Active participation 20%: I expect that you will come to class having done the readings and having thought about them. I will often ask you to write in-class responses to questions on the readings. More than two missed classes without a medical or family excuse will result in the lowering of your grade. As part of class participation, you are required to attend a:

*Night Oral History Workshop on either Monday 1/22 or Tuesday 1/23, 7-9pm, Terrace B

*Field trip to the Lowell, Mass. Industrial Museum, Monday 2/19

2) Short Assignments, 10% each

*Calendar Project and Presentation to Class, due 2/8

With a partner from class, report on a calendar from another culture, or create your own ideal calendrical system. Prepare a 5 minute presentation for the class, including visuals.

*Assignment: Personal Schedule, due 2/22

Keep track of your schedule for one 24 hour period. Record the time you spend doing each activity over the course of the day (for example “sleeping, 12 pm - 8am”). After any one activity is finished, record how you experienced the time passing (for example, “time flew”). Then write a one page analysis of your schedule. How would you categorize the different activities of your day? To what extent was your schedule controlled by others? How do you account for the way you experienced time? Did any aspect of your schedule surprise you? Why or why not?

3) Hartford Artisan’s Center Project, 60%

The bulk of your grade will be based on the community learning project. You will be responsible for making at least three trips to the Center, the first to observe, and the second two to interview an individual artisan. You will be asked to give a 10 minute presentation on your interview to the class and then hand in a final paper which analyzes the interview.

*Small Group Observation Trip and Notes -- 5%

*Tape and Transcript of First Interview – 10%

*Tape and Transcript of Follow-Up Interview – 10%

*Class Presentation of Interview, either 4/17 or 4/19 – 10%

*Analysis of Interview, 5 pages (and attached interview), due 4/24 before class – 15%

All written assignments should be typed in 10 or 12 point font, double-spaced with 1" margins .

* * * * * * * *

Course Schedule

Tues. 1/16 Introduction

Thurs. 1/18 Cultural Differences and Event Time

Compare the ways in which the Nuer reckon time with your own. What similarities and differences do you see?

Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, 1960 [1940], 94-108.

Levine, “Preface,” “Tempo,” “Time Literacy,” A Geography of Time, 1997, xi-xx, 3-25, 187-206.

Tues. 1/23 No regular class, night Workshop

You are required to attend a workshop on conducting oral history and life story interviews on either Monday 1/22 or Tuesday 1/23 from 7-9 pm in Terrace Room B, Mather.

Thurs. 1/25 Dis-Locating “Others” in Time

What is Fabian’s critique of the ways in which anthropologists have described cultural others? What assumptions does he reveal about ideas of “progress”? Can you think of other examples of ways in which the media temporally represents “exotic” peoples?

Fabian, Time and the Other, 1983, ix-35.

Tues. 1/30 Calendars

Achels, The Calendar for Everybody, 1943 (selections).

Zerubavel, The Seven Day Circle, 1985, 1-59.

*Assignment: Calendar Project, due 2/8

Thurs. 2/1 Again and Again

Film: Groundhog Day

Tues. 2/6

Discussion of film.

Thurs. 2/8 Calendar Project Presentations

Tues. 2/13 From Farm to Factory: Time and the Economy

What impact did industrialization have on peasant culture? What was Taylor’s idea of “scientific management” and how has his idea been implemented for production? What is Foucault’s critique of industrial time?

Frykman and Löfgren, Culture Builders, 1987, 13-41.

Taylor, Shop Management, 1911, 148-177.

Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 149-169.

Film clip: Modern Times

Thurs. 2/15 By the Clock

Zerubavel, “The Schedule,” in Hidden Rhythms, 1981, 31-69.

Levine, “A Brief History of Clock Time,” 1997, 51-80.

*Assignment: Personal Schedule, due 2/22

Mon., 2/19 Fieldtrip to Lowell, Mass. Industrial Museum

Thurs., 2/22 Introduction to the Hartford Artisan’s Center and Participant Observation

Spradley, “Doing Participant Observation,” and “Making Descriptive

Observations,” in Participant Observation, 1980, 53-62, 73-84.

Tues., 2/27 Age, Economy and Identity

What is the relationship between modes of production and treatment of the elderly in a society?

Halperin, “Age in Cultural Economics,” in Kertzer and Keith, eds., 1984, 159-194.

Meyerhoff, chap.1, Number Our Days, 1978.

Thurs. 3/1 Life Stories

Hoopes, Oral History,1979, 72-120.

Meyerhoff, chap.2, 1978.

Tues. 3/6

Practice in-class interviews

Thurs. 3/8 Ritual Time

Leach, “Two Essays ...,” in Rethinking Anthropology, 1966 [1961], 124-136.

Zerubavel, “Sacred Time and Profane Time,” in Hidden Rhythms, 1981, 101-137.

Meyerhoff, chap.3, 1978.

Tues. 3/13

Meyerhoff, chap.4-6, 1978.

Thurs. 3/15 Age and Gender

Meyerhoff, chap.7, 1978.

Film: Number Our Days

3/20-3/22 Spring Break!

Tues. 3/27 Life Out of Balance

Film: Koyaanisqatsi

Thurs. 3/29

Discussion of Film

Tues. 4/3 Life in the Fast Lane

Technology has enabled faster rates of movement and exchanges of information. What implications does this acceleration have for other areas of our lives?

Gleick, Faster, 2000, 135-138, 147-150, 239-247.

Levine, “Where is Life Fastest,” “Japan’s Contradiction,”1997, 129-152, 169-183.

Thurs., 4/5 Waiting

Who waits for whom and why?

Levine, “Time and Power,” 1997, 101-126.

Tues., 4/10 Individual Conferences

Thurs., 4/12 Individual Conferences

Tues. 4/17 Presentations

Thurs. 4/19 Presentations

Tues. 4/24 For the Last Time

Bibliography

Achels, Elisabeth, The Calendar for Everybody, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1943.

Evans-Pritchard, E.E., The Nuer, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960 [1940].

Fabian, Johannes, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object, New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.

Foucault, Michel, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, translated by Alan Sheridan, New York: Vintage Books, 1979 (Orig. Surveiller et Punir, Paris, 1975).

Frykman, Jonas and Orvar Löfgren, Culture Builders: A Historical Anthropology of Middle-Class Life, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987.

Gleick, James, Faster: the Acceleration of Just About Everything, New York: Pantheon Books, 2000.

Halperin, Rhoda, “Age in Cultural Economics: an Evolutionary Approach,” in David I. Kertzer and Jennie Keith, eds., Age and Anthropological Theory, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984, 159-194.

Hoopes, James, Oral History: an Introduction for Students, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1979.

Kertzer, David I. and Jennie Keith, eds., Age and Anthropological Theory, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

Leach, E.R., “Two Essays Concerning the Symbolic Representation of Time,” in Rethinking Anthropology, New York: Humanities Press, 1966 [1961], 124-136.

Meyerhoff, Barbara, Number Our Days, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.

Ritchie, Donald A., Doing Oral History, New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.

Spradley, James, Participant Observation, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.

Taylor, Frederick Winslow, Shop Management, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1911.

Zerubavel, Eviatar, Hidden Rhythms, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.

________, The Seven Day Circle: the History and Meaning of the Week, New York: The Free Press, 1985.

Reader List

Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, 1960 [1940], 94-108.

Fabian, Time and the Other, 1983, ix-35.

Achels, The Calendar for Everybody, 1943 (selections).

Zerubavel, The Seven Day Circle, 1985, 1-59.

Frykman and Löfgren, “The Time Keepers,” in Culture Builders, 1987, 13-41.

Taylor, Shop Management, 1911, 148-177.

Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 149-169.

Zerubavel, “The Schedule,” in Hidden Rhythms, 1981, 31-69.

Leach, “Two Essays ...,” in Rethinking Anthropology, 1966 [1961], 124-136.

Zerubavel, “Sacred Time and Profane Time,” in Hidden Rhythms, 1981, 101-137.

Gleick, Faster, 2000, 135-138, 147-150, 239-247.

Meyerhoff, Number Our Days

Levine, Geography of Time

Ritchie, Doing Oral History

Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer, 1960 [1940], 94-108.

Fabian, Time and the Other, 1983, ix-35.

Achels, The Calendar for Everybody, 1943 (selections).

Zerubavel, The Seven Day Circle, 1985, 1-59.

Frykman and Löfgren, “The Time Keepers,” in Culture Builders, 1987, 13-41.

Taylor, Shop Management, 1911, 148-177.

Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 149-169.

Zerubavel, “The Schedule,” in Hidden Rhythms, 1981, 31-69.

Leach, “Two Essays ...,” in Rethinking Anthropology, 1966 [1961], 124-136.

Zerubavel, “Sacred Time and Profane Time,” in Hidden Rhythms, 1981, 101-137.

Gleick, Faster, 2000, 135-138, 147-150, 239-247.