Mar 29, 2024  
Catalogue 2015-2016 
    
Catalogue 2015-2016 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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LALS 240 - Cultural Localities

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)


Detailed study of the cultures of people living in a particular area of the world, including their politics, economy, worldview, religion, expressive practices, and historical transformations. Included is a critical assessment of different approaches to the study of culture. Areas covered vary from year to year and may include Europe, Africa, North America, and India.

May be repeated for credit if the topic has changed.

Topic for 2015/16a: Andean and Amazonian Societies. (Same as ANTH 240 ) This course introduces students to the indigenous peoples of the Andean highlands and, to a lesser extent, the Western Amazon basin (also known as “Upper Amazon”). We examine the history of the polities and cultures of the Andean highlands, a goal that will require an occasional foray into the relationship between Andean and Amazonian peoples. We trace, historically, the variety of ways in which Andean peoples have been articulated with respect to more encompassing polities, economies, and cultural contexts: e.g., as ethnic groups with respect to the Inca state, as “Indians” with respect to the Spanish colonial state, as peasants with respect to modern states, and, as indigenous with respect to “pluri-national” states in contexts of globalization. For each of these historical moments, we analyze a variety of indigenous media (e.g., indigenous accounts of pre-Hispanic Inca life, colonial indigenous religious texts and painting, twentieth-century indigenous photography, etc.) that provide insights about indigenous practices of textual and aesthetic production. Mr. Smith.



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