Course Number:

Credit Hours:

4

Course Title:

Anthropology of Africa

Course Description:

Conveys a sense of the cultural diversity of Africa through a reading of ethnographies and key texts. Examines aspects of the social life of some African peoples, and places those examples in specific social and historical contexts. Explores both precolonial and colonial social systems, concentrating on the adaptations that African peoples have made to life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Begins with an introduction to the geography and history of the continent and develops an appreciation of Africa’s major regional differences. Considers several topics of contemporary relevance drawn from West Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa, such as issues of religion, commoditization, gender, tribe and ethnicity, and violence and displacement. In the process, students pay particular attention to the ways in which the idea of “Africa” has come to be understood through Western perceptions and influenced the historical and contemporary treatment of Africa.