Anthropological concepts relevant to the comparative analysis of political ethnography and socio-political change. Particular attention will be given to the interrelations of culture and politics.

Looking for a course to help you navigate these turbulent times? “Politics and Anthropology” is a basic course for anthropology majors and non-majors alike. It investigates often competing conceptions of what constitutes the political realm of human life and in what terms anthropology, both as a discipline and as an enterprise of detection, has studied it. “Politics and Anthropology” asks -- What is the political? What makes something political? What is political action? -- What are the primary elements of the political (e.g., power, sovereignty, membership, rights, equality, solidarity, conflict)? -- How and when does the personal become political? -- How did political anthropology emerge out of European colonial conquests and their state-directed campaigns of terror? The course begins with the sixteenth-century European conquest of the Americas, focusing on problems of difference, terror, and knowledge, moves to nineteenth century “scientific” projects of “authenticating the Indian,” and then addresses such contemporary issues as urban pandemics (cholera, covid), sovereignty and settler colonialism, urban commons and rebellion, welfare and citizenship, and de-democratization. We aim to understand how anthropological studies – both conceptually and methodologically – may disrupt taken-for-granted and tired notions of political life and contribute to their reassessment and renewal.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills