ANTH 50.57 Cultural Diversity in the United States
Is the United States a melting pot or a salad? Is it an assimilation machine or a gestalt hodgepodge of culture that is, in other words, more than the sum of its distinct parts? Whether a melting pot, a salad, both or neither, most agree that the United States is a complex geopolitical space that brings together diverse cultural threads, each of which has a particular history. This course provides a critical introduction to American society in all of its diversity. We will explore historical and ethnographic materials revealing broad trends in the cultural and social trajectory of the United States. Through a comparative and critical review of a wide range of cases – ranging from the settling of European colonies in North America, to slavery and its abolition, to the institution of quotas on legal immigration – we will learn how the United States has been forged through histories of settlement and migration, displacement and slavery, and industrialization, inequality, and protest.
Instructor
Novacich