ANTH 260 - Current Themes in Anthropological Theory and Method

Semester 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.

May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed.

Topic for 2023/24a: Anthropology of Water. Many anthropologists study water as a focus of precarity, political contention and environmental impetus to action. But cultural anthropology’s special contribution to water studies may be its insights into how water is valued, socially and affectively, in culturally and historically different ways. Focusing on the relation between drinking water and wider cultural systems, in urban and rural contexts, the course takes three approaches to drinking water: (1) Semiotics of Bottled Water includes readings from the anthropology of food and beverage, contrasts consumer culture and productivist world views, and considers meaning-making in everyday life. (2) Water as Global Commodity considers water in the context of colonial and nation-state histories and the anthropology of gifts and commodities. (3) Water Projects considers state, corporate, and activist discourses about water, especially in socialist and urban situations. with attention to anthropological studies of social and environmental impacts. The course includes (group) projects on water in local cultural contexts. Martha Kaplan.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS