Calla Jacobson
Block 1
In the first block, we examine the diversity of human cultural
forms in areas such as economics, social and personal identity,
emotions, ritual and belief, social inequality, family and kinship,
and gender. We will look at the disordered experiences anthropologists
have during their ethnographic fieldwork and interrogate their written
attempts to impose conceptual order on human life and action through
the concept of culture. Throughout the course we will challenge
the traditional anthropological ideas of perfectly patterned cultural
behavior by examining such topics as intercultural contact and conflict,
social inequality, and differential experiences within ‘cultures.’
The course is designed both to teach about the unfamiliar practices
and beliefs of others and to encourage an examination of our own
actions and assumptions about the world. We will pay particular
attention to ethnography, the unique methodology of anthropology,
and will look at the experiences and results of various kinds of
ethnographic fieldwork. Students will be expected to design
and carry out an ethnographic study.
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PY 116
Cross-Cultural Psychology
Tricia Waters
Block 2
The second block, Cultural Psychology, is an introduction to cultural
variation in psychological phenomena. The course will place particular
emphasis on variation in normal developmental processes (for example,
intellectual and social development, variation in contexts of development,
and diversity in clinical experience). The course will include an
examination of methods used to study psychological processes in
non-western settings, and will explore both quantitative and qualitative
approaches to uncovering cultural variation in human behavior. Students
will develop a research proposal to investigate one aspect of psychology
in a non-western cultural setting of their choice.
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