Macquarie University

Culture Myth and Symbolism - ANTH307

All our social practices have a cultural dimension that is as profound as anything we would usually consider to be an imperative such as earning a livelihood. In the twentieth century anthropologists concerned with the study of culture came to focus on systems of symbols and meaning. In this course we will ground the study of symbols and meaning in three dimensions of human existence: our understanding of the world around us as specific kinds of meaningful places rather than as a neutral backdrop to meaning; our own bodies and sensory bodily practices as the vehicle and means for this capacity to make the world meaningful; our capacity to experience ourselves as creatures who inhabit time, but in quite varied and distinctive ways. Throughout the emphasis will be on allowing us as students of culture with our own experiences of place, of embodiment, of ritual, of symbol and myth, of death, and of happier experiences such as music and song. While as is usual in anthropology we will read broadly from rich ethnographies of other places and people, we will create spaces to explore our own experiences as cultural beings through story telling. Where possible we will create a degree of shared experiences even of other cultures, for example, by visiting a Hindu temple.