Anthropological Perspectives of Latin America

Course Description

This course will provide students with an introduction to the perspectives of North American and European Anthropologists studying human diversity by conducting research in Latin America. Students will also learn from the Latin American perspectives of what it means to be human through surveying how Latin American people have confronted common challenges: colonialism, resource extractivism, racialization, liberalism, modernization, and, more recently, neoliberalism. Through the holistic approach of Anthropology, this survey class introduce students to ethnographic writing, film, novels, and cultural productions on topics including race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, immigration, Indigenous and human rights in Latin America. Over the course of the semester, students will learn the historical, political, and cultural processes which have shaped Latin America beginning with European colonization to the present day.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Adopt a hemispheric perspective of the historical political and cultural processes which have shaped the Americas.
• Understand ethnography as 1) a social scientific research method and 2) a genre of analytic writing. Students will learn strategies for reading contemporary ethnographies and connect ethnographic research with anthropological theories.
• Draw from the concepts and methods of cultural anthropology to holistically approach how race and ethnicity shape key issues in Latin America such as nationality and citizenship, gender and sexuality, class inequality, environmentalism, and religion.
• Practice analytic reading, writing, and discussion skills that are broadly useful in the humanities, social sciences, and professional contexts.