Anthropologists working with Polynesian cultures have generated some of the discipline's most provocative and productive debates. Major topics such as identity, agency, and performance have been investigated, argued about, and continually rethought. In this class, students will read and participate in some of these debates including: arguments over Captain Cook's divine status for Hawaiians; interpretations of sexuality, power, and violence in Samoa; long-distance voyaging and settlement; ritual cannibalism; and ethnographic representation. All of these topics will be discussed with reference to their contributions to anthropological understandings beyond Polynesia itself. -- Course Website
Instructor: James Barry
Prerequisites: A first-year sequence in Anthropology or History or Politics or Sociology or a cognate discipline or by permission
