Courses

This course will introduce students to the meaning and significance of forms of cultural diversity for the understanding of contemporary issues. Drawing from films, videos, and selected readings, students will be confronted with different representational forms that portray cultures in various parts of the world, and they will be asked to examine critically their own prejudices as they influence the perception and evaluation of cultural differences. We shall approach cultures holistically, assuming the inseparability of economies, kinship, religion, and politics, as well as interconnections and dependencies between world areas such as Africa, Latin America, the West. Among the issues considered: political correctness and truth; nativism and ecological diversity; race, ethnicity, and sexuality; sin, religion, and war; global process and cultural integrity.

Full details for ANTHR 2400 - Cultural Diversity and Contemporary Issues

Human children are packets of genes that represent individual reproductive success. Like all animals, humans are selected by evolution to care for their offspring, but human infants and children require more intense parental investment than the offspring of most other species. Why is this so? Human parents are also influenced by cultural belief systems and ideology that play out in parenting styles. How do various belief systems influence parent-offspring interaction? In this course we will examine the human infant as a biologically designed organism that has co-evolved with caretakers, and then look at the various parenting styles across cultures that also mold our young.

Full details for ANTHR 3305 - Anthropology of Parenting