Cultures in Contact: The Anthropology of Travel, Trade, and Transformation

3 units

This course looks at past and present interactions of people with the idea that people meet, greet, listen, process, and react to one another as part of larger networks and processes that bring worlds together. Cultural contact is not just about warfare, not just about the Olympics, not just about McDonalds; cultural contact involves people in time, space, and history where political motives, racism, religious conviction, personal gain, and curiosity all play part. This seeking of new knowledge has led us to cross seas and borders throughout prehistory. What motivates people to explore? And what happens when they do?