[
Wesleyan Home Page
] [
WesMaps Home Page
] [
WesMaps Archive
]
[
Course Search
] [
Course Search by CID
]
| |
Sacrifice, as part of ritual practice and economic necessity, occurs in some form or another in all the documented cultures of the world. This seminar explores the phenomena and depiction of sacrifice, cultural violence, and warfare in a number of areas, particularly focusing on South America, Mesoamerica, and South Asia. The course introduces the major anthropological works on the subject and explores how objects, images, and buildings can be understood to have grown out of and in turn influenced the visual and conceptual development of sacrifice. We will address such questions as the role of sacrifice in systems of exchange and ritual economies, the mechanisms by which blood sacrifice was rationalized as both natural and necessary, the development of classes of images and objects that acted as substitutes for the sacrifice of living entities, the reasons for the depiction of sacrifice and institutionalized violence, the colonial debate on sacrifice that ensued with the expansion of European powers, and the ethical issues which stemmed from these encounters and that continue to be of critical importance to this very day.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ART Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-30-2006
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459