LALS 240 - Cultural Localities

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as ANTH 240 and AFRS 240). Detailed study of the cultures of people living in a particular area of the world, including their politics, economy, worldview, religion, expressive practices, and historical transformations. Included is a critical assessment of different approaches to the study of culture. Areas covered vary from year to year and may include Europe, Africa, North America, India and the Pacific.

May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed. The Department.

Topic for 2023/24a: Anthropology of the Middle East and North Africa. (Same as AFRS 240 ) This course introduces students to the anthropological study of the region commonly referred to as “the Middle East” – a modern geographical concept encompassing the Eastern Mediterranean, parts of Southwest and Central Asia, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. Through close engagement with scholarly texts, films, photographs, literature, and music, we will bring an ethnographic perspective to wide-ranging human experiences across the Middle East, with an emphasis on dynamics of historical transformation, cultural production and circulation, identity formation, and inequality. By exposing students to the diverse histories and everyday lives of people in this multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious region, the course invites students to challenge common media portrayals of the Middle East as a monolithic, territorially bounded place defined by a single, unchanging “culture.” Exploring topics including racial capitalism, empire, war, the state, ecology, displacement, gender, and revolution, this course is organized around a series of cross-cutting anthropological themes that not only recast many taken-for-granted stereotypes about the Middle East, but offer a critical vantage point from which to think differently about the world. China Sajadian.

Topic for 2023/24b: Caribbean Voices. (Same as AFRS 240 and LALS 240 ) The Caribbean occupies a powerful position within the Western imagination. Foundational to the development of Western political, economic, and ideological hegemony, the Caribbean today is often imagined in the singular, as a tourist paradise of palm trees and resorts. Yet the Caribbean is a diverse region with a complex history and present, seven official languages, and twenty-four-plus nations. In this course, students learn about Caribbean peoples and cultures, their migrations and diasporas, rich and diverse artistic and religious traditions, globally circulating music and styles, influential intellectual and social movements, and political formations that challenge prevailing notions of nationalism, transnationalism, and globalization. Through literature, film, poetry, and art, the course foregrounds Caribbean perspectives, while musical forms like Calypso, Reggae, and Dancehall familiarize students with Caribbean expressive culture and public performance. Ethnographic studies provide a comparative framework for students’ semester-long research on a particular country or topic. Colleen Cohen and Louis Römer.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS