Given the frequency of travel today and histories of colonization, immigration and displacement, the experience of entering another culture is one of the abiding themes of the human experience. It is the stuff of literature, film, biography and the social sciences. What does it mean to enter another culture in another social and natural landscape?
The module will explore one of the dominant themes of anthropology - the intercultural encounter. It will expose students to some iconic essays, memoirs and reports produced by those who venture out of their own societies to discover, explore or study other peoples and places. In particular, it will analyse how these writings illuminate perceptions of peoples, cultures and places, and how these become assembled into various orders of knowledge. The module looks at how depictions of other societies can take many different forms; pejorative, judgmental, but also empathic and even 'romantic'. Along the way, we will look at missionary reports, novels, anthropological memoirs, captivity narratives and finish with a Yanomami Indian's perspective of white society. We will focus on primary source materials with additional film screenings.
The module will explore one of the dominant themes of anthropology - the intercultural encounter. It will expose students to some iconic essays, memoirs and reports produced by those who venture out of their own societies to discover, explore or study other peoples and places. In particular, it will analyse how these writings illuminate perceptions of peoples, cultures and places, and how these become assembled into various orders of knowledge. The module looks at how depictions of other societies can take many different forms; pejorative, judgmental, but also empathic and even 'romantic'. Along the way, we will look at missionary reports, novels, anthropological memoirs, captivity narratives and finish with a Yanomami Indian's perspective of white society. We will focus on primary source materials with additional film screenings.
- Module Supervisor: Colin Samson