TimeDaysLocationInstructorGERCreditOPUS Class NumberSyllabus (Tentative)
2:30pm-3:45pm
TuTh
Anthropology Building 303
Bruce Knauft. HSC. 42561 TBA.

January 13, 2010- April 26, 2010

Prerequisites: This course has no pre-requisites and is geared to the interests of any student who is seriously interested in the dynamics of cultural diversity.

Catalog Description: Basic concepts and theories of cultural anthropology and linguistics. Comparative economic and political systems, social organization and the family, belief systems, and modes of communication. Diverse levels of sociocultural complexity from primitive tribes to industrial societies.

Semester Details:

This course provides a broad yet engaged exposure to human cultural diversity in the present and the past.  Across different world areas, we will discuss the nature and range of cultural orientations, including belief systems and religion, ethnicity and race, gender and sexuality, power and politics, and environment and economics.   The course considers how cultural beliefs inform - and are sometimes at odds with - general patterns of behavior.  We will also explore how global and international forces both constrain and fuel cultural differences. This course can be taken by beginning students and also by anthropology majors interested in expanding their overview of social and cultural diversity.

Reading for this course includes a broad cultural anthropology source book and three cultural anthropology case studies, including one authored by the instructor, that concern societies in different regions of the world.

The schedule of courses on O.P.U.S. is the official listing of courses, including days and times they meet and the General Education Requirements they satisfy. Students should use course descriptions as general guidelines. Course requirements, grading details, book lists, and syllabi are subject to change.