Cultural Anthropology

Semester Courses

Cultural Anthropology

This course is offered through the Siena Art Institute's partner institution, The Siena School for Liberal Arts.

SOC201 - Cultural Anthropology

The course will focus on cross-cultural encounters and research, presenting the critical, theoretical and methodological tools with which cultural anthropology has been broadening our perspective on what it means to be “human,” challenging “common sense” evaluations of what it means to be “civilized”, or “normal”.

The goal of this course is to apply anthropological knowledge, analytical abilities and research skills to investigate and make sense of cultural differences and similarities, thus stimulating students to get involved in the major issues debated in inter-disciplinary exchanges on cultural description and comparison, as well as on the nature and properties of human culture itself, in the context of the “globalized” world.

The course will present specific research methods and will give students the opportunity to go in the field as ethnographers doing participant observation, interviewing the informants and collecting life histories.