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Course Description

Summary

This course introduces the field of sociocultural anthropology through investigations into the concepts and theories—particularly the idea of “culture”—employed by anthropologists to understand the unity and diversity of human thought and action. With the aim of investigating both how societies are organized and how they adapt to change, we will explore a range of topics studied by sociocultural anthropologists, including economics and exchange, kinship and marriage, gender and social difference, religion and ritual, politics and power, and the forces of globalization. We will also examine the historical development of anthropological perspectives and the culture concept, applying them in ways that may challenge our existing assumptions about the diverse societies we read about (and in which we live). The course draws on both classic and contemporary ethnographic examples from the Kalahari Desert, Papua New Guinea, Egypt, India, Japan, Indonesia, East Harlem, and elsewhere.