ANTHROPOLOGY, LIFE HISTORY, AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Catalog description

International/multicultural course (I).Students will examine the role of life history in ethnographic description, that is, the ways in which life narratives of one or more participants in a cultural group can be used to inform our understanding of the cultural rules, values and beliefs of the group as a whole. In addition, we will investigate the influence of the investigator on the process of data collection and on the substance of the narrative he or she collects. We will also look at other forms of the life story such as individual and group biography, as well as autobiography, outside of the social sciences, and the ways that these genres might also contribute to anthropological understanding.Faculty: L. NELSON