Tradition, Modernity, and Cultural Change in South Asian Societies

Catalog description

India and its neighboring countries provide an interesting view of the ways cultural diversity functions in the world. The region contains one-sixth of humankind, and its people are differentiated not only by religion, language, caste, and ethnicity, but also by ecology, technology, dress and cuisine. ASIA 472 examines how South Asia's history may have influenced the diverse behavioral, cultural, and social norms from the ancient to the modern times Beginning with a preliminary discussion of ancient medieval, and colonial Indian history, the course examines the institutions of caste, family and kinship, marriage, gender, and religious practices of the many different religious, and regional, and language communities of the sub-continent, and how they may have changed over the years. The course concludes with a review of how the different South Asian communities both within and outside the subcontinent have dealt with modernity in the realms of politics, religion, law, arts, cinema, and popular culture. This course will be cross listed with Anthropology and will be taught by both Asian Studies and Anthropology faculty. thereby making it useful to students of both Asian Studies and Anthropology. Furthermore, students in this course will be exposed to research methodologies used by scholars of history, literature, and anthropology.