ANTH 260 - Current Themes in Anthropological Theory and MethodSemester Offered: Fall 1 unit(s) The focus is upon particular cultural sub-systems and their study in cross-cultural perspective. The sub-system selected varies from year to year. Examples include: kinship systems, political organizations, religious beliefs and practices, verbal and nonverbal communication.
Topic for 2013/14a: Virtually Mediated Social Worlds. This is a class designed to explore a set of emerging questions about the virtual- or computer- mediated character of contemporary social worlds. The class will consider three broad themes in the literature: 1) the significance for human social life of the possibility of living in multiple, parallel social worlds; 2) the relationships that obtain between computer-mediated “virtual worlds” and other forms of sociability (e.g., “actual worlds” characterized by social differentiation and local forms of cultural imagination); and 3) methodological questions about the proper ethnographic or discourse-based ways to study virtually-mediated social worlds. Students will complete a research project in which they participate in and make observations about some online, virtual world. May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed. Mr. Smith.
Prerequisite(s): previous coursework in Anthropology or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Add to Portfolio (opens a new window)
|