IntroductionMeeting 1

Matakuliah : G0862/American Culture and SocietyTahun : 2007

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IntroductionClass BusinessAdvice from the Experts

Absolutely, positively, and without doubt, the best way to achieve a good grade in this class is to: 1. Read the required text before attending the appropriate

lecture. Without having read the assigned material a student has no context for the class presentation and therefore misses the important cultural points and connections.

2. Attend the class – attendance will be counted and will determine your final grade

3. Do the homework, assignments and all required in the class

4. Be active in class. Feel free to ask questions.

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Expected Student OutcomesAt the completion of this course, students will be

expected:

1. To recognize and understand major American cultural concepts, movements, key figures, periods, and events from the 1670s through the present time.

2. To acquire an appreciation of the diversity of American identities and experiences, particularly with respect to issues of race, class, gender, and region.

3. To understand a range of cultural artifacts—novels, plays, autobiographies, memoirs, photography, film, painting, and music—that one can utilize in the study of the American experience and cultural values.

4. To engage critically this range of cultural artifacts alone and in combination with one another in an interdisciplinary manner in order to identify and interpret significant cultural moments and concepts.

5. To link the information they get in class and assignment toward understanding of most the characters of most Americans

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Evaluation and GradingGrading Formula and System 30% Exam I UTS50% Exam II UAS 20% Assignments, projects

Total possible 100%

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Requirements

• All students are expected to show that they are intellectually engaging the subject matter of every lecture/presentation. Prohibited behavior includes sleeping, talking to neighbors, reading magazine, typing SMS or doing your homework.

• PLEASE BE ON TIME to avoid disrupting class, you are expected to stay in class for the duration of the lecture/ presentation. You are not allowed to enter class if you late more than 10 minutes of the scheduled time. The teacher has the right to ask you to leave if you are insisted to come to class.

• Pagers and cell phones are strictly prohibited in this class.

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Readings and Screenings

ReadingsKearney, M (1997), The American Ways an introduction to

American Culture, Longman: New YorkBerkin, C, (2006), Making America : a history of the

United States. Volume II : since 1865. Houghton Mifflin, USA

E-book as mentioned in the URL – look at BINUSMAYA

ScreeningsDVD and Movies as mentioned in SAP/MP and BINUSMAYA. Contact SALLC administrators to schedule for movie

viewing.

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Mayflower

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MayflowerHarbor.jpg

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Puritans

Beginning in 1630 as many as 20,000 Puritans emigrated to America from England to gain the liberty to worship God as they chose. Most settled in New England, but some went as far as the West Indies. Theologically, the Puritans were "non-separating Congregationalists."

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Puritans

Puritans were English Protestants who wished to reform and purify the Church of England of what they considered to be unacceptable residues of Roman Catholicism. In the 1620s leaders of the English state and church grew increasingly unsympathetic to Puritan demands. They insisted that the Puritans conform to religious practices that they abhorred, removing their ministers from office and threatening them with "extirpation from the earth" if they did not fall in line. Zealous Puritan laymen received savage punishments. For example, in 1630 a man was sentenced to life imprisonment, had his property confiscated, his nose slit, an ear cut off, and his forehead branded "S.S." (sower of sedition).

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continuedUnlike the Pilgrims, who came to Massachusetts in 1620, the Puritans believed that the Church of England was a true church, though in need of major reforms. Every New England Congregational church was considered an independent entity, beholden to no hierarchy. The membership was composed, at least initially, of men and women who had undergone a conversion experience and could prove it to other members. Puritan leaders hoped (futilely, as it turned out) that, once their experiment was successful, England would imitate it by instituting a church order modeled after the New England Way

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Mayflower Route

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/voyage3.php

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American HistoryThe Pilgrim and the Puritans

Source: http://www.mayflowerhistory.com

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The Puritans

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Puritan LeaderRichard MatherRichard Mather (1596-1669), minister at Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1636-1669, was a principal spokesman for and defender of the Congregational form of church government in New England. In 1648, he drafted the Cambridge Platform, the definitive description of the Congregational system. Mather's son, Increase (1639-1723), and grandson, Cotton (1663-1728), were leaders of New England Congregationalism in their generations.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html

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Puritan leaderCotton MatherCotton Mather (1663-1728), the best-known New England Puritan divine of his generation, was a controversial figure in his own time and remains so among scholars today. A formidable intellect and a prodigious writer, Mather published some 450 books and pamphlets. He was at the center of all of the major political, theological, and scientific controversies of his era. Mather has been accused, unfairly, of instigating the Salem witchcraft trials.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel01.html

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Religious Belief in the US• Religion brought by the Puritans:

Christian (see the Protestant Ethics on the next meeting)Christian denominations (Quaker, Mennonites, Amish, Mormons, etc)

• Indigenous Religions:- worship the nature (mostly the Indians)- shamanisms (beliefs on spirit)

Movie Preview:“The Crucible” a movie based on Arthur Miller’s drama about the Salem Witchcraft trial.