ANTH 3604 - Magic, Myth, Conspiracy

1 Course Unit(s)
Magic, myth, and conspiracy serve as explanatory models for communities. We will analyze thesephenomena as ways of knowing and as responses to precarity, uncertainty and the unknown. We will also explore them as reflections of historical and structural forces such as colonialism, nationalism, neoliberalism, race, gender, and class. Instead of interpreting magic, myth, and conspiracy as the absence of information, we will analyze them as venues in which alternative information is constructed and exchanged. Likewise, instead of dismissing them as the outcome of ignorance, we will treat them as symptomatic of socio-political realities. Drawing on theories from anthropology, history, political science and related fields, this course will allow us to reframe magic, myth and conspiracy as serious institutional realities or as metaphors for systemic inequalities.

General Education Requirement(s): Upper-level Liberal Arts; Writing Intensive
Prerequisite(s): FYS-1104
Corequisite(s): None
Pre/Corequisite(s): None