Anthropology 1600: The Ethnographic Encounter

This course is a critical introduction to the premises, vocabulary, and methods of the anthropological dialogue with people of other cultures. Lectures and discussions revolve around several themes central to the discipline, such as "cultural relativism," "social structure," "interpretation," "gender," "the invention of tradition," and "reflexivity." At the same time, we will seek some fair-minded insights into the collective lives of people who work, play, fight, speak, eat and pray in ways different from our own. In the end, we will see ourselves more clearly and fairly as well.