59 courses with the subject ANT, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
Course The basic concepts, methodology, and findings of cultural anthropology. Examines the similarities and diversity of human societies through in-depth case studies and cross-cultural comparisons. CC: LCC, SOCS,
Course CC: LCC, SOCS
Course This course examines some of the theoretical issues surrounding myth, ritual and magic as well as specific examples of their cultural expression. How do people make sense of themselves, their society and the world through myth and ritual? How do cosmology and belief systems help them gain and organize knowledge about the world and themselves? The course will be examining a number of "occult" and "esoteric" practices, that is, practices that were not commonly known to all members of society, including sufism, kabbalah, alchemy, and shamanism. Cross-Listed: REL 170 CC: LCC, HUM, SOCS ISP: REE
Course This course offers an ethnographic and ethnological survey of the diverse peoples and cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. To gain insight into the lives and experiences of peoples from across the region, we will examine both historical and contemporary forces that continue to shape political, economic, and sociocultural development. The course is organized thematically around a series of readings that give students an overview of the continent, its history and key topics in African anthropology. Anthropological approaches will be used to understand many of the challenges and innovations experienced across sub-Saharan Africa, including political conflict and democratization, development dilemmas, disease etiologies and witchcraft, popular culture, urbanization and environmental conservation. Through lectures, course readings, and discussions, students will enhance their knowledge of both Africa and anthropology. CC: LCC, SOCS ISP: AFR
Course An anthropological introduction to contemporary Japanese society and culture. Provides an historical overview, then explores in greater depth such topics as family structure, education, religious traditions, the work place, women, and contemporary social problems. CC: LCC, SOCS ISP: AIS, GSWS
Course This course places students in internships in local organizations dealing with poverty for several hours each week. In class, we use this experience to reflect on larger debates about poverty in the US. Why has urban poverty remained so entrenched in the United States, even amidst the unprecedented economic expansion of the postwar period? This course will seek to answer this question by exploring the relationships between race, public institutions, economic change and inequality within American society. In doing so, the course will examine the theoretical and practical dimensions of anthropology's engagement with poverty. We will begin by examining theoretical approaches for understanding the persistence of poverty in the United States, as well as the major policy frameworks that seek to reduce poverty. In addition, the course will cover anthropological critiques of these approaches and anthropological accounts of the everyday realities and struggles of poor people. CC: LCC, SOCS, WAC, WAC-R, JCHF, JSPE ISP: AMS
Course Examines women's lives in different cultures through detailed case studies and film, focusing on common experiences (e.g., motherhood, work), gender-based inequality, and sources of women's power and influence. It also examines topics that exclusively or disproportionately affect women (e.g., female genital cutting, domestic violence, rape, sex tourism) as well as the varied forms feminism takes in other cultures. CC: LCC, SOCS ISP: GSWS
Course Law is everywhere but it is not everywhere the same. How do diverse social, cultural and historical contexts shape the workings of law? This course introduces students to a series of critical perspectives about what law is and how it contours the fabric of everyday life. Students will learn how key legal issues such as dispute management, decision-making, and reconciliation are actualized in different settings. The ultimate goal of the class is to equip students with the tools to critically evaluate legal processes in multicultural and plural societies. The course begins with a consideration of customary practices and conflict resolution in non-Western societies and then looks at how anthropology helps us to understand law in contemporary societies. CC: LCC, SOCS, JCHF, JSPE ISP: LAW
Course This course examines childhood across cultures. Lectures and readings will use case materials drawn from North America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and Asia to explore ways in which culture affects how parents deal with children. We will also examine the acquisition of culture by young children. We will look closely at ways in which different cultural practices shape the experience of childhood from infancy to adolescence. Topics addressed will include: beliefs about infants, language acquisition, cultural differences in theories about learning, the nature of schools in various cultures, the role of play and mass media in shaping children, the cultural shaping of gender identity, and adolescent initiation rites. CC: LCC, SOCS, GCHF, GSPE ISP: AIS, GSW
Course Cultural diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, and religion is the focus of a great deal of controversy in many nations. This class examines the politics surrounding cultural difference in nation-states and the paradoxes of "multiculturalism," a popular strategy that on the one hand, validates cultural difference, and on the other hand, can be seen as reinforcing divisions and barriers. Does multiculturalism benefit racial, ethnic and religious minorities or does it construct barriers to equal opportunity? How can we get beyond multiculturalism to appreciate the benefits of cultural diversity? CC: LCC, SOCS, JCHF, JSPE
Course An examination of the role gender plays in human life. How does being labeled and socialized to be male or female shape peoples' daily life and life chances? How do our culture and others regard people who do not fit mainstream conceptions of maleness or femaleness? The course will discuss the concepts of gender and sex, gendered behavior and expectations, "third genders" (e.g., the North American berdache, the Indian hijra), homosexuality, transgendered individuals and sex-reassignment surgery, and cross-cultural similarities and differences. CC: LCC, SOCS, JCHF, JLIT, JSPE ISP: GSW
Course The Western Hemisphere is a violent place: drug wars in Mexico, street gangs in Central America, mass killings in the United States, and everywhere soaring rates of violent crime. What kinds of responses are emerging to problems of law, order, and public security in the Americas? How are these responses reshaping our societies? To what extent is the current situation the legacy of failed security policies? What is the role of the police and policing in all of this? This class adopts an anthropological perspective on the practice of policing. It looks at policing as the production of law and order-not just by local cops on the beat but also by actors involved in national and international security. The focus is on the Western Hemisphere and the influence of the United States on the ideals, institutions, and practices of policing. Key topics include: immigration, incarceration, deportation, frontiers, the movement of licit and illicit goods, democratic rights, and the regional impact of U.S. security initiatives including the Cold War, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terrorism. These topics will be grounded in studies of policing and police reform in the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico. By the end of the semester, students will have a working knowledge of critical issues in contemporary policing as well as the legal, socio-cultural, and economic factors behind the emerging models of police in the Americas. CC: LCC, SOCS, JCHF, JSPE ISP: AMS, LAS, LAW
Course An examination of beliefs about illness, healing, and the body and how these are shaped by culture and society. Topics include healing practices across cultures, political forces shaping medical practice in the U.S., and birthing practices in different cultures. CC: LCC, SOCS, GCHF, GSPE ISP: GSW,STS
Course This course will explore the diversity of health-related beliefs and practices across Africa. We will firmly situate perspectives and approaches to health and illness within a broad sociocultural and historical context, also helping to challenge stereotypes associated with the continent. By cultivating a deeper knowledge of how African communities perceive and treat afflictions as well as international responses to health crises (e.g. Ebola), we will develop a cross-cultural perspective that expands our understanding of global, as well as local, health and healing. CC: LCC, SOCS ISP: STS
Course Bloods. Crips. Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). The 18th St. Gang (M-18). Latin Kings. The names have become synonymous with senseless violence. Both feared and fetishized, the street gang became a focal point of urban politics in the United States and Latin America during the late twentieth century. Beginning with the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s, young, poor, minorities have found themselves at the center of a socio-economic crisis that has been accompanied by the rise of zero-tolerance policing. For the purposes of this class, the youth gang phenomenon will serve as a window in to the experience of racial, ethnic and economic marginalization under late capitalism. We will explore the context that gives rise to gang violence through a combination of anthropological, sociological, and historical approaches. By the end of the quarter, students will be familiar with the macro-social factors that shape both gangs and the politics of urban violence in the Americans. CC: LCC, SOCS, JCHF, JSPE ISP: AFR, AMS, LAS
Course How do families differ across cultures? How do families change with globalization, urbanization, migration and mass education? This course examines families and extended family networks in Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa and the US. We will start by examining marriage, looking first at marriage in linage-based societies where family ties structure economic and political relationships and where marriages are used to establish alliances between groups. Next, we will focus on the reasons why arranged marriages are giving way to love marriages in many areas of the world and why people in many countries are postponing or opting out of marriage. A subsequent unit will look at international "care chains" in which people in wealthy first world nations pay people from poorer nations to care
Course Examines the role of technology in cultural change and the role of culture in technological change. Particular attention will be given to: the Internet and other so-called "virtual community" formations, graphic design and other media, "reality" TV, cross-cultural advertising, and popular music. CC: LCC, SOCS ISP: FLM, GSWS, STS
Course This course examines anthropological approaches to the environment and environmentalism. It asks questions such as: How does culture shape our perception of nature? What can conflicts over environmental protection, natural resources and human manipulations of natural materials tell us about contemporary societies? What does it mean to call an issue "political" or "cultural," versus "scientific" or "technical"? Students will develop the critical analysis skills to examine the natural world as a site of cultural politics, using anthropological concepts to examine environmentalism in diverse geographical and historical settings, including the Amazon, the Niger Delta, the suburban mall, and the Union campus. CC: LCC, SOCS, GCHF, GSPE ISP: ENS, STS
Course Faith in twentieth-century development and progress has been severely shaken by the environmental crisis and the failures of the international development assistance. What is development? What is the third world? How was it made? What problems does it face and how is it changing? What are the causes of failure in development / aid programs? Drawing on a variety of ethnographic materials and case studies, this course discusses the nature of economic and social changes in post colonial societies and underdeveloped areas in the West / North, offers a critical analysis of sustainable development, and introduces the students to the practices, anthropological and otherwise, of planning policy interventions. The course shows how anthropological knowledge and understanding can illuminate "development issues" such as rural poverty, environmental degradation and the globalization of trade. CC: LCC, SOCS, GCHF, GSPE ISP: AIS, REE
Course Throughout history cities have been celebrated as spaces of inclusion and diversity, so that it is all too easy to overlook the pervasive reality of exclusion, poverty, and injustice. This class looks at the promise and perils of urbanization in the 20th and the 21st centuries. The approach is anthropological, however the course also draws on materials from geography, urban planning, and political economy to understand the history, development, and everyday experience of urban space CC: LCC, SOCS, GCHF, GSPE ISP: LAS
Course The comparative study of the role of sport in society. Topics include the meaning of play and sport; the evolution of sport; sport and socialization; ritual in sport; sport and gender; sport and race; sport and education; sport, conflict and violence; and sport and cultural change. CC: LCC, SOCS ISP: AMS
Course In recent years, anthropological discussions of human rights have gone beyond the traditional debate between universalism and relativism sparked by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Marginalized peoples who are the traditional subjects of anthropological research are increasingly using human rights rhetoric to advance their own causes or draw attention to their plight. This course will examine philosophical and anthropological discussions of human rights and contemporary debates and controversies surrounding human rights. In particular, we will examine the deployment of truth commissions in the aftermath of political violence, the role of human rights NGOs, contested claims of suffering, and human rights interventions. CC: SOCS, LCC, GCHF, GSPE ISP: LAW,
Course In recent decades, technologically-enabled increases in flows of capital, people, things, images and ideas around the world have resulted in the process of global integration and compression commonly called "globalization." In this course we will explore globalization from the perspective of anthropology, tracing its consequences both for the world's economic and political systems, and for the everyday lives of people around the globe. Topics will include: cultural dimensions of changing labor practices and systems of production, the role of globalization in cultural homogenization and differentiation, the ways the migrants, refugees, tourists and others forge new supra-national forms of sociality and identity, and the role of media flows and commodity consumption in the production of global identities. CC: LCC, SOCS
Course Although Christianity has its historical roots in the Mediterranean world, during its 2000 year history it has migrated to almost every geographical area of the globe giving rise to many vibrant local Christianities with distinct and culturally specific identities. While many people associate contemporary Christianity with Euro- Americans, scholars point to Christian churches dating from the 5th century in North Africa and in India. Scholars argue that the demographic center of Christianity has already shifted to the Global south. This course investigates the ways Christianity has been shaped by contact with different world cultures and the social processes and religious changes implicit in the acculturation of Christianity in diverse geographical regions and cultural contexts. Questions addresses will include: i) how has Christianity been localized in various areas of the world?; ii) what is the appeal to Pentecostalism in the global south? Is it a conservative force directing attention away from social inequalities or does it challenge social inequalities? iii) what kinds of transnational networks are formed by contemporary Christians and how do these shape new kinds of identities?; iv) what is the appeal of apparently patriarchal and conservative forms of Christianity to women, who form the majority of Christians in most areas? CC: LCC, SOCS ISP: REL
Course This class provides an anthropological perspective on Islam, one that tries to understand Islam as a living tradition. There are well over a billion Muslims in the world who speak countless languages and reside in dozens of nation-states. The immense diversity of Islamic practice and Muslim life is bewildering and defies any simple generalization. However, this diversity need not blind us to the themes that connect Islam and cut across Muslim life around the world. While not an exhaustive survey of Islamic practice and ways of life, this class focuses on the themes that connect Islam across diverse regions and peoples. These themes include: Islamic authority, conceptions of gender,
Course How do communications media reshape ourselves and the worlds we inhabit? This course examines the influence of media on contemporary society. It focuses on identity formation and the different ways that scholars have approached the relationship between media and our taken-for-granted norms, practices, and beliefs. Readings draw from a wide range of disciplines and intellectual traditions, including cultural studies, critical media theory, critical race studies, feminist studies and communication. However, the fundamental approach is anthropological. Our aim is to understand how everyday media practices relate to larger issues of personal, social and cultural identity. To this end, the class moves back and forth between theory and ethnography so that students develop both a sense of key questions in the field and an idea about how to answer them. CC: SOCS, WAC, GCHF, GSPE ISP: STS
Course This course examines the practice of tourism as a way of knowing the world and constituting the self. It also explores the role of tourism in the lives of those who act as hosts to tourists. Topics include the role of tourism in the essentialization and commodification of culture, the emergence, organization, and effects of mass tourism, the cultural dynamics surrounding several kinds of niche tourism, and the possibility of socially and ecologically responsible tourism development. CC: LCC, SOCS
Course This course examines the influence of culture and society on individual psychology. Readings and class discussions examine the history of the way anthropologists have thought about the relationship between culture and personality. Issues examined will include: Do cultures produce and favor distinctive personality types? How is mental illness shaped by cultural beliefs and social practices? Are there distinctive "culture bound syndromes" and, if so, what produces them? Do cultures provide tools to help individuals adjust to crises? Do some cultures do this better than others? Are emotions fundamentally the same across cultures or does emotional experience vary significantly with culture? Is there a culture of psychiatry in the US? How do our cultural assumptions and our pharmaceutical industries shape our views of personality and mental illness? Cases will be drawn from Oceania, Asia, North America, and the Middle East. CC: LCC, SOCS, JCHF, JSPE ISP: AIS, GSW, STS
Course The second-fastest growing major economy in the world, India is also a country with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty. Arguably the most successful democracy in the postcolonial world, Indian politics is also pervaded by corruption and violence. The course will examine recent political developments in India such as the rise of Hindu nationalism, the spread of lower-caste politics, and economic liberalization. We focus on the challenges that India faces in the twenty-first century, including land and water scarcities, the already visible effects of global warming, and growing inequalities between regions and social groups. This will add complexity and balance to the now widespread image of India as a rising economic superpower within an emergent "Asian Century." CC: LCC, SOCS, GCHF, GSPE ISP: AIS
Course Examines the peoples and cultures of Latin America in historical and contemporary perspectives. Uses case studies, accompanying articles, and a range of media. Themes include: colonialism, identity politics, expressive culture, religion, gender, race, ethnicity, nationalism, and political economy. CC: LCC, SOCS ISP: LAS
Source: Union College's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 61
