121-063 Culture Change and Protest Movements

This subject addresses problems of culture change and the ways that people respond to the experience of change, including cultural protest. While a major focus will be on the ways that non-Western societies have responded to encounters with the Western world, it is concerned more generally with the experience of, and responses to, modernity and globalisation in all cultures. Students who complete this subject should have a knowledge of the range of ways in which societies have responded to encounters with missionaries, colonisers and imperial control; mastered the principal anthropological approaches to the study of social and cultural change; engaged in a critical assessment of the impact of change in different societies, including the emergence of alternative modernities; acquired a knowledge of the ethnographic and ethnological literature on Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Melanesia and South America.

• have practice in conducting research and speaking articulately;

• have practice in writing clearly in a variety of formats and reading with attention to detail;

• have experience of systematically evaluating a body of empirical data and identifying its theoretical context;

• have experience of methods of critical inquiry and argument leading to improved analytical skills;

• have acquired awareness of issues relating to cross-cultural communication.

Two 500 word tutorial papers 15% each (due during semester) and a 3000 word essay 70% (due at the end of semester). A hurdle requirement of participation in 8 of 10 tutorials (ie. 80% of tutorials).

A subject reader will be available from the Bookroom at the beginning of semester