Sugar and Rum

3 credits · Undergraduate Emory College

Sugar and rum were for centuries the quintessential Caribbean products, commodities which created fortunes for planters and merchants, while changing the lifestyles of the European working classes. This class will examine not only the development of sugar and rum production and its effect on the Caribbean's socio-economic organization in the form of the plantation, but also how these commodities have come to define social status in the metropolis through changing patterns of consumption. Students will use materials from a variety of genres and disciplines, from social history to advertising, and from anthropology to popular music and film.