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Course Description

Summary

People have always been connected, but in the last 40 years, the frequency and magnitude of people’s global interactions have dramatically increased. Look at the clothing you have on today and think of how many people from how many different places were involved in what you are wearing. Social theorists have understood globalization as a consequence of economic forces that profoundly shape people’s lives, in ways sometimes overt and sometimes unseen. The main question for this class is: what does a hyper-connected, globalized world mean for the concept of culture? Will people become so connected that distinct cultural identities meld into a homogenous blob? Drawing from ethnographies conducted in diverse settings from around the world, this course critically engages with the concept of culture and the methodologies used to understand it from a global perspective. Students will also conduct independent fieldwork to contribute to understanding globalized culture from anthropological viewpoints.