ANTH 260 - Current Themes in Anthropological Theory and Method

Semester Offered: Spring
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 2026/27b: Hindutva Fascism and Dalit/Indigenous Movements in India. Demands for legal protection from Caste discrimination in Indian-American communities have emerged in recent years in the tech-hubs of California and Seattle. They also have been fiercely contested by a well-organized network of Hindu Nationalist organizations, whose ideologies emerge from a 100-year-old upper-caste Fascist movement in India called, “Hindutva” (Hinduness). This course introduces students to both the cultural, historical and political nature of anti-caste social movements in India and the parallel emergence and consolidation of Hindu nationalism. With the prominent rise of fascist and authoritarian regimes in contemporary times, the case of Hindu nationalist hegemony in India becomes a very important window into this global phenomenon. Simultaneously, the processes of contestation and cooptation through which Dalits (the ex-untouchables and most marginalized of castes) and Adivasis (indigenous tribal communities) and other marginalized caste groups – who form 70% of the Indian population – have tried to survive and overcome Hindutva, is a remarkable archive of alternative visions of modernity. Here, questions of justice around both equality and the environment are brought together and form a tapestry of a formidable imaginary of decolonization. The course uses primary texts (autobiographies, speeches, dialogues) as well as social media, literary, ethnographic and historical writings and films. Kaushik Ghosh.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS