Muslim Cultures

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course will examine the role of anthropology and anthropologists in the history of the contact that Europe and the U.S.A. have had with the Muslim World. Examples will include anthropological writing produced both during and following the period of British, French, and Russian colonialism in places such as Afghanistan, North Africa, and in the Caucasus and Central Asia (all readings are in English). The intellectual lineage assignment will allow students to trace “schools” of anthropologists who study Muslim cultures. In order to learn about the everyday lives of Muslims in different places, ethnographic studies of Indonesia, Bosnia, Turkey and Uzbekistan will be examined. Students will form groups to take up and present an ethnographic study from Kenya, Syria, Los Angeles, or another Muslim context. A study of Muslims in Germany and an examination of global musical trends among Muslim youth will round out the course. Talal Asad’s critique of the Anthropology of Islam will inform course readings and discussions exploring the history of academic orientalism and the theoretical challenge to it as elucidated by Edward Said. Intellectual engagement with both primary anthropological texts and critical responses will be required. This course is open to both upper-level undergraduates and graduate students. The assignments for graduate students will have longer page limits and should be done in close consultation with the professor.