ANTH 161: World Cultures

Cultural anthropologists study the behavior of humans within particular cultures.   We are interested in the connections among the social, political, economic, and psychological aspects of people’s lives.   In this course, we will examine fundamental topics in cultural anthropology, and will explore the methods and theory that help us understand human societies around the world.  We will consider the general influence of culture on thoughts, feelings, and moral beliefs, and we will also examine the specific effects of particular elements of culture such as family life, gender and sexuality, inequality, poverty, and medical and political systems. We will discuss the ways in which colonialism, globalization and the West in particular has influenced cultures worldwide.  One of my goals is to, in the words of Melford Spiro, "make the strange familiar and the familiar strange.”  What he means is that what we take for granted and see as "natural" is, in fact, culturally constructed;  on the other hand, what seems "unnatural," bizarre," "wrong" and even "evil" may be understandable in its own cultural context, as part of our shared human experience.  I hope you'll come away from this course with an appreciation for the various ways in which people create, adapt to, resist, and change their culture.