APY 618SEM - Cultural Heritage: Perspectives from Sociocultural Anthropology

Since the 1970s we have witnessed what has been aptly called heritage inflation. The expression points not only to the proliferation of initiatives oriented to promote cultural heritage, but also, crucially, to the widening of the temporal, geographical and thematic scope of those objects included into the category. This seminar takes up the growing presence of cultural heritage and the contradictions that surround it as material for anthropological and social analysis, problematizing conventional understandings of cultural heritage. Through a double engagement with varied theoretical approaches and ethnographic case studies, the students will develop an approach to cultural heritage as a multi-vocal, complex process.

Credits: 3

Term Typically Offered: Spring