World Cultures

Catalog description

This course provides students with a comparative survey of the indigenous peoples and cultures of the modern world, from the late 1800s to the present. Course readings will focus on the ethnographic study of peoples from all major culture areas of the world outside of Europe: Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Pacific Islands and Australia, North America, and South America. Through this class, students will gain a general understanding of world cultures and the utility of ethnography as a means for exploring specific cultures and ethnology as a basis for cross-cultural comparison and comprehension.