ANTH 243L - Rethinking the Family: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Formerly Rethinking the Family
3 Credit(s) | Lecture | Graded or pass/fail
Course can be counted for credit once

Description:
This course analyzes the ways in which culture shapes perceptions of family. It explores narratives about how human family structures evolved, examines the increasing medicalization of reproduction and the body, and takes stock of the ways in which race, class, gender, and sexual orientation affect commonly held and frequently subscribed-to beliefs about what constitutes family. It illustrates the diversity of kinship definitions with ethnographic examples from the Iban of Indonesian Borneo, the Nyakyusa of East Africa, and other societies from the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the pacific Islands. Through an exploration of the pressures to which African American families have been subjected in the United States, it probes the ways in which the legacy of slavery shapes the possibilities and perceptions of contemporary families.

ANTH 243L and WGS 243L are the same course.

Course Attribute(s):
Distribution Area: Social & Behavioral Sciences | Diversity Area: International

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