Liturgical Anthropology

I don’t know what class I should take

I have room for one topics in cultural anthropology class and I don’t know which to choose:

New Ethnographies:

This graduate seminar uses the approach of student-centered learning to consider how ethnographic texts are conceived and composed, with a focus on recent modes of ethnographic narrative and argument.  Students will read and report on book-length ethnographies relevant to their own research interests and will respond to each other’s work and to the texts we examine.  Participant-observation, digital and internet ethnography, multi-sited fieldwork, issues of scale, uses of visual methods, reflexivity, and engaged anthropology are among the topics that we will discuss. After some initial foundational readings for the first two sessions, the reading list for this course will be collaboratively designed by the students and the instructor.  There will be a final paper assigned based on course readings. The aim of this course is to help students improve their own ethnographic writing and ability to apply conceptual approaches to empirical material through a careful reading and critique of recently published books based on ethnographic research.

Culutral Change:

Survey of social science theories of socio-cultural change, 18th century to present.  Culture is considered as a dynamic system.  Emphasis on the impact of planned change and “development” on traditional systems, and on anthropological understanding of change in the modern world.

Political Anthropology/Political Memory: 

No description available, but the title sounds good.