Comparative Studies in Cultures and Transformation
ANTH 1105
Stuart Wright
Department of Anthropology, Brooklyn College, City University of New York (CUNY).
Fall 2019–Fall 2021 (eight sections over five semesters).
Course Description: This course is a thematic exploration of culture and transformation anchored primarily in case studies from two distinct non-US and non-European areas – specifically, Yunnan province in southwest China, and the country of Lesotho in southern Africa. The course will first introduce anthropology, its origins and developments, the practice of ethnography, concepts and theories of culture, race and ethnicity, gender, reciprocity, “development”, discourse, power and globalization. Secondly, it will focus on China’s “ethnic minority” theories and policies in the context of education and development practices in Yunnan Province. Thirdly, we will critically analyze the international development agenda and question assumptions about education for development and modernization, as well as education and gender equality. Finally, we will focus on the political consequences of the fight against AIDS in Lesotho.
1. Introductions: ‘Large issues explored in small places’
2. What is anthropology?
3. What is ethnography?
4. What is culture?
5. Race and ethnicity
6. Gender and social expectations
7. Discourse and power: The West and the rest
8. What is ‘development’?
9. ‘Development’ as a gift? Charity, reciprocity, and indebtedness engineering
10. China’s ‘new socialist countryside’
11. Modernity arrives in the Nu River Valley
12. Minority nationalities at the periphery of the Chinese Party-state
13. Conservation programs as social engineering
14. Education for transformation
15. Migration from the margins
16. Goals & targets 1: The global development agenda
17. Goals & targets 2: The global ‘education for development’ regime
18. Languages and identities in education
19. Negotiating ‘education-as-development’ in rural North India
20. Is ‘development’ an ‘anti-politics machine’?
21. Biopolitics, global health, and critical medical anthropology
22. The politics of AIDS in Lesotho
23. Democratic deficits
24. Global health initiatives and ‘competent citizens’
25. Venerated communities and vulnerable citizens
26. Clinical governance, support groups, and NGOs
27. The Lazarus effect
28. Philanthrocapitalism, humanitarian consumption, and social transformations