C Anthropology of Death

Catalog description

Completion of ANTH 102 C or 104 C or 107 C . Term hours: 54 lecture. This course is a cross-cultural exploration of the beliefs and practices surrounding death, dying, mourning, and mortuary customs, as well as conceptions of the afterlife, in both Western and non-Western cultures around the world, and how the individual is impacted sociologically, physiologically and psychologically throughout the life course by issues related to death and dying. It will emphasize how human social, political and economic institutions are inextricably interwoven using an integrated anthropological approach, including data from archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology and cultural anthropology, as well as broader social science perspectives, methods, values and ethics. This course is specifically designed as a general education social science course and to illustrate how understanding beliefs and practices related to death and dying provide lifelong appreciation of the individual as an integrated physiological, social, and psychological being. Duplicate credit not granted for ANTH 308 C . (UC/CSU, AA GE, CalGETC).