ANTH E398 - Peoples and Cultures of Central Asia

A general anthropological introduction to the societies and cultures of the contemporary Muslim successor states of former Soviet Central Asia and the adjacent areas of Iran and Afghanistan –i.e., western and southern Turkistan. Topics include ecology, ethnohistory and the structure of traditional subsistence strategies (nomadic pastoralism, sedentary farming, and urban mercantilism); social institutions (marriage, family, kinship, gender relations, identities and organization; religious beliefs and practices); and the assessment of socio-economic change and recent political transformations experienced by the peoples of this region under the colonial rules of tsarist and Soviet Russia, and the modern nation states of Iran and Afghanistan. The consequences of war on terrorism, volatile sociopolitical conditions and future prospects for the peoples of this region will be also critically examined. No special knowledge of the region on the part of students is presumed. However, a background in general anthropology would be helpful, but not essential. The course will consist of lectures, reading assignments, film and slide presentations and class discussions.

Cr. 3.