Societies In Comparative Perspective

This course has four main components: (1) A comparative discussion of the nature of human sociality. (2) Macrosociology: the various types of society that have existed in the past and present, with special attention to peasants (who comprise more than half of the world's people). (3) Kinship and marriage: how to study them both formally and in relation to wider cultural and societal issues. (4) Notions of the person and the self as culturally expressed in different social circumstances. Special attention will be given to social organization in India, China, the Malay world, Southeast Asia, and Europe.