Anthropology and Utopia

Catalog description

Utopia: designs for good societies and efforts to create them; and Anthropology: observation and description of societies. A wide-ranging reading and discussion class that will address such questions as: Does Anthropological description contribute to the design of good societies? Have Anthropologists been looking for Utopia? What does Anthropology suggest is wrong with existing societies? Whose job is it to judge societies? How would Utopias be like to live in? How have people tried to build Utopias? Have they failed completely? Is failure inevitable? Is a better world possible? What would it look like? How would we get there?