World Cultures

Catalog description

This course is a survey of the world's culture areas as described and conceptualized by cultural anthropologists. While the course has a significant geographical component, emphasis is placed on an anthropological perspective on cultural dynamics in terms of general subsistence patterns, sociopolitical organization, and the increased globalization over time of the world's cultural systems. Societal types such as hunter gatherers, horticulturalists, pastoralists, intensive agriculturalists, and industrialists are described and compared from an anthropological perspective. Culture contact and change models are also included as a substantive part of the course content.