Description
This course introduces the discipline of cultural anthropology as an elective in sociology from both a holistic and critical approach. The holistic aspect will include a survey of the major areas of study within the discipline of cultural anthropology including: culture, ethnography, language and communication, ecology and subsistence, economic systems, kinship, identity, politics, religion and worldview, globalization, and culture change from a cross-cultural geographical and historical perspective. The critical component of the class will draw from post-structural feminist theory to critique issues of power involved in self/other analysis. By practicing film and textual analysis, students will learn to draw on post-colonial race theory to examine cultural appropriation and the issues involved with representation of insider cultures by cultural outsiders through the scholarly enterprise. By course end, students will have the ability to argue for or against the continuation of the disc