Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 2010
This course is an introduction to cultural anthropology. As one of anthropology’s main sub-fields, cultural anthropology provides conceptual and analytical tools for a comprehensive understanding of culture and its manifestations. It is concerned with the ways in which individual experience is inserted in social and historical contexts, providing meanings to everyday life. We will explore ideas and behaviors related to culture in different societies and social groups. Topics include culture, meaning, development, globalization, experience, kinship, identity, social hierarchy, and conflict. Course material combines introductory readings, academic articles and films with the analysis of journalistic pieces addressing currently important issues. It also combines the study of culture in the United States with that of other countries. Class meetings will consist of lectures to introduce topics and concepts and group discussions to apply the concepts and examine them critically. Students will also work on an ethnographic project, derived from the service-learning component that consists on volunteering with Casa de Paz, an Aurora, Colorado non-profit organization that offers support to migrants recently released from detention.