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Academic Year 2001/2002

Advanced Seminar: Critical Issues in Anthropology
ANTH 398 FA

This seminar is intended mainly for anthropology majors and graduate students but is open to all advanced students in the social sciences. The particular topic changes each year and is intended to reflect student interests. This semester we will examine the relationship between indigenous peoples, nationalism, and national conflicts in Mexico and Central America. We will begin by profiling colonization and colonial rule, and then move to considering state formation and current issues of politics and race, nationalism and ethnicity. We will focus on the ways in which nationalist rhetorics, practices and symbols have constructed, encompassed and marginalized those considered indigenous, and on the meanings indigenous peoples give to their own pos itions and indentities as Indians. Areas of inquiry will include the Miskito Indians and the nation-state in Nicaragua, the position of Guatemalan Indians in national political conflicts, and the recent Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico.

MAJOR READINGS

Benedict Anderson, IMAGINED COMMUNITIES Tzvetan Todorov, THE CONQUEST OF AMERICA Greg Urban and John Sherzer (eds.), NATION-STATES AND INDIANS IN LATIN AMERICA Carol A. Smith (ed.), GUATEMALAN INDIANS AND THE STATE: 1540-1988 Judith Friedlander, BEING INDIAN IN HUEYAPAN Eduardo Galeano, THE OPEN VEINS OF LATIN AMERICA Kay Warren, THE SYMBOLISM OF SUBORDINATION: INDIANS IN GUATEMALA Also a number of articles on politics, race and ethnicity in Latin America.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Take home mid-term exam, final research paper.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Class attendance, participation in discussions. Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: NONE    Grading Mode: Student Option   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-19-2002

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