ANTH 1105 - Anthropology of Everyday Life

This course is an introduction to the discipline of anthropology as the study of everyday social life for understanding everyday social life, whether in our own or other cultural worlds. The course introduces the major themes of anthropology: the concept of culture, how we get along with other people, the way our everyday lives are made meaningful and the tacit dimensions of social life. These themes are presented through case studies of everyday actions and social relations by anthropologists: the different ways people in other societies see colours, cockfights in Bali, gifts and making friends, how and why social relations split up, understanding asylums, smoking cigarettes in Australia, driving cars in Asia and Los Angeles, rituals in Africa, generation X in America, and capitalism and devil worship in South America.