Introduction to Cultural Anthropology:
Unraveling Riddles of Culture (ANT211)
Through this course, students become anthropologists. By introducing students to anthropological ways of looking at, asking about, thinking about, and discussing the social world, they come to realize (and hopefully embrace) new creative and critical perspectives on their own ways of living. This course offers an introduction to anthropology by exploring themes and field methods in the discipline. Creative and critical thinking and writing are essential to anthropological research; students are invited to engage with anthropological texts through reading, critical analysis and comparisons, and ethnographic research and writing of their own.
In this course we will explore fundamental issues of how people represent others, and how people might better understand themselves and their own cultural settings through insightful observation and critical analysis. By introducing students to the theoretical and methodological foundations of anthropological inquiry, students will (hopefully) gain new intellectual insights on other peoples and places, even as they come to appreciate their own cultural contexts from new and surprising perspectives. Fundamentally, the course helps students learn to observe and listen carefully, record and analyze data thoroughly, and write and reflect on cultural phenomena. Through this course students develop an appreciation for the wonderful opportunity that anthropology affords as a way of thinking and learning. Anthropology is literally the study (logia) of people (anthropos). As students become anthropologists, they will experience the tremendous challenge and insight of being people who are engaged in studying people.
This course is designed to introduce students – majors and non-majors alike – to core concepts and methods in the field of anthropology.
Unraveling Riddles of Culture (ANT211)
Through this course, students become anthropologists. By introducing students to anthropological ways of looking at, asking about, thinking about, and discussing the social world, they come to realize (and hopefully embrace) new creative and critical perspectives on their own ways of living. This course offers an introduction to anthropology by exploring themes and field methods in the discipline. Creative and critical thinking and writing are essential to anthropological research; students are invited to engage with anthropological texts through reading, critical analysis and comparisons, and ethnographic research and writing of their own.
In this course we will explore fundamental issues of how people represent others, and how people might better understand themselves and their own cultural settings through insightful observation and critical analysis. By introducing students to the theoretical and methodological foundations of anthropological inquiry, students will (hopefully) gain new intellectual insights on other peoples and places, even as they come to appreciate their own cultural contexts from new and surprising perspectives. Fundamentally, the course helps students learn to observe and listen carefully, record and analyze data thoroughly, and write and reflect on cultural phenomena. Through this course students develop an appreciation for the wonderful opportunity that anthropology affords as a way of thinking and learning. Anthropology is literally the study (logia) of people (anthropos). As students become anthropologists, they will experience the tremendous challenge and insight of being people who are engaged in studying people.
This course is designed to introduce students – majors and non-majors alike – to core concepts and methods in the field of anthropology.