Course Description:
The family is a central human institution and takes a wide range of forms; this study will be a cross-cultural exploration and comparison of family and kinship structures within the tradition of cultural anthropology. Looking at family and kinship holistically, within the broader context of culture, this study will examine the cultural construction of families and the roles of males and females, old and young within families across several different non-Western cultures (e.g., African, Asian, Middle Eastern and/or Latin American). By examining an array of non-Western cultures we will explore what constitutes a family, and what roles and opportunities women and men have in these various manifestations of families. We’ll explore people’s experiences in families around issues such: reproduction, parenting and parenthood, family and household economies, marriage, domestic life, post-marital residence patterns and kinship and polity.
Recommended: a lower-level social science course (such as sociology or anthropology) and advanced level critical thinking and writing skills.
This course fully meets the General Education requirement in Other World Civilizations.
NOTE: This course was previously offered as Families: A Global Perspective. Students, who completed 284434, cannot take Families in Global Perspective.
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