ANTH 4135 - Symbolic Anthropology

Meets with ANTH 6135. Additional work required of graduate students. This course reviews the classic theories, models, and ethnographies in anthropology as well as the recent findings on symbolic communication in anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and cognitive studies with examples ranging from prehistory to the contemporary Western culture. Course examines the symbolism of colors, food, animals, human body, gender, art, myth, ritual, and politics across cultures, as well as the symbolic meanings in the worldviews of the native Pueblos of the American Southwest, China, India, Mexico, central and South Africa, Iceland, Jewish culture, Polynesia, and Western cultures.