ANTH 360 - Problems in Cultural Analysis

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

Covers a variety of current issues in modern anthropology in terms of ongoing discussion among scholars of diverse opinions rather than a rigid body of fact and theory.

May be repeated for credit if topic has changed.

Topic for 2022/23b: Planetary Alternatives and the Postcolonial World. (Same as ENST 360 and INTL 360 ) How have the societies outside the “West” come to inhabit and represent the modern world? Outside the Euro-American nation-states, a vast and expansive world has continued to unfold emerging out of the event of colonialism. Variously termed the “Global South,” “Emerging Markets,” “Majority World,” “Developing Nations” or “Third World”, this space outside the “West” – the space of Postcolonial Worlds – has come to pose significant challenges to some of the foundational certainties of the post-enlightenment order. Normative imaginations of the Self, of Community, of Economy, of Democracy and of Nature have to undergo significant translations and rethinking if we want to engage these worlds seriously. This course examines the material, ideological and cultural specificities of Postcolonial Worlds. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it helps students think across cultures to both identify the crucial assumptions and limitations of our normative lives in the US, for example, and formulate better frameworks for living in an interconnected world. The course uses ethnographies, histories, films, music, novels and political, literary and philosophical writings to introduce the material and the specific modes of inquiry. Kaushik Ghosh.

One 3-hour period.

Course Format: CLS