Examines the major effects of culture contact between East and West. Examines cultural pluralism. Considers cultural adaptations and change among minorities such as Moslems, Tibetans, and Mongolians in China, and ethnic groups of Japan and Korea. Outlines kinship, religion, organization, and technological factors in the Asiatic culture complex. Examines the current aspirations and problems of the Chinese and Japanese in terms of their traditional cultures, and explains how their histories, values, world views, and intellectual traditions affect their lifestyles and their international relations today.
Treats cuisine as a systematic product of the interaction between culture and ecology.
Focuses on sociocultural rather than bio-nutritional factors in the preparation and ritual implications of food in Mainland and Insular Asia. Students learn to prepare and serve a variety of Oriental dishes. A survey of Native American cultures of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico from their prehistoric origins to the present. Emphasis is placed on cultural continuity and change during the past 400 years of contact with western culture. Special studies in the theory and practice of organized cooperation and conflict in nature and culture.