Culture Change and Protest Movements

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

How have cultures throughout the world responded to changing economic, political, and environmental transformations? How have new world views emerged from highly charged cross-cultural encounters? And how have communities found innovative ways of resisting or modifying unwanted transformations in their 'ways of life'? In this subject, using theories of cultural change drawn from anthropology and cultural studies, we explore how communities, particularly in the global south, have coped with and creatively re-worked the demands of an often foreign-dominated market economy, with a particular focus on struggles around natural resource extraction and privitization. Paying special attention to what James C. Soctt has called, the 'weapons of the weak', we explore the ways - both overt and subtle - that different societies have used symbolic pracitices, rituals and mythologies to accomodate, transform and mount resistance to the diverse agents and processes of global capitalism over the past 100 years. Case studies will be drawn from Africa, South America, North America, Eastern Europe and Asia.

Students who successfully complete this subjects will:

• have a knowledge of the range and variety of ways in which non-Western societies have evolved and acculturated under the influence of western missionisation, colonialisation and imperial control.
• have mastered the principal anthropological approaches to the study of acculturation and theories of social change.
• have engaged in a critical assessment of the impact of western cultures on the non-Western world.
• have acquired a knowledge of the ethnographic and ethnological literature on Africa, south and South-East Asia, North and South America.

Two 500 word tutorial papers (15% each) due during the semester, and a 3000 word essay (70%) due during the examination period. A hurdle requirement of participation in 8 of 10 tutorials (ie. 80% of tutorials) applies in this subject. Regular participation in tutorials is required. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop at the beginning of semester. Set readings will also be available online, through LMS.

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Students who successfully complete this subjects will:

• have practice in conducting research and speaking articulately.
• have practice in writing clearly in a variety of formats and reading with attention to detail.
• have experience of systematically evaluating a body of empirical data and identifying its theoretical context.
• have experience of methods of critical inquiry and argument leading to improved analytical skills.
• have acquired awareness of issues relating to cross-cultural communication.