This course highlights the distinctive features of the evolving cultural traditions of Mesoamerica, one of the oldest living civilizations in the world. Precolumbian religion, arts, cultural ecology, and construction of power and social identity through myth, ritual, and official history are explored first. Continuities and changes in those traditions resulting from the Spanish conquest, colonial rule, and subsequent global change in the 20th century are then analyzed. In Mexico and Central America, the past continues to shape the present, and living cultures help illuminate processes, events, and worldview in the archaeological past. Topics include marriage and adoption strategies, concubinage, inheritance patterns, gender roles, lineage organization, and life crisis rituals.
Second half focuses on postrevolutionary society and Maoist attempts to construct a new culture.
Topics include land reform and collectivization, marriage, women's liberation, changing family organization, antisuperstition campaigns, population control, and the impact of post-Mao reforms. For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Foreign Cultures or Social Analysis, but not both. 15 Examines the role Chinese literary texts have played in articulating the place of the individual as part of, or against, the authority of community and state. For students under the Core requirement, counts as either Foreign Cultures or Literature and Arts A, but not both. M., W., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged.