A close examination of selected cultures through ethnographic books and films. This course, through intensive focus on specific cultures, teaches ethnographic analysis, how to use an anthropological lens to understand other cultures. It also teaches critical thinking about the nature of ethnography, examining both the methods used by anthropologists to understand other cultures and the ways in which anthropologists have described and interpreted these cultures via the written word and visual media. See department chair. The course offers an overview of all of Europe as a culture area, but focuses most closely on the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions.
Themes covered include family, gender, community, religion and regional identity.
See department chair. The relationship between culture and the individual is considered using both studies from the field of psychological anthropology and narrative accounts focusing on the lives of individuals. Examples from a variety of cultures are used. Methodological and theoretical issues implicated in the anthropological study of the individual are examined. See department chair.