What is Culture?

What is culture? Does culture condition our subjectivity, our families, our thinking, or our lives? Can we study different cultures and understand the otherness of those who are not like us? Can we transform our culture into a more caring and supportive organization?

In this course we will examine different methods for approaching and attempting to understand culture. We will consider anthropological texts that provide a guideline to assessing cultures. We will read texts of those who migrated to different cultures and write about the difficulties and struggles they have had to overcome. We will read Rousseau’s essay on the origins of social inequality, as he attempts to explain why inequality has become a “natural” phenomenon. We will read Freud’s analysis of culture, as well as Nietzsche’s and Foucault’s attempts to provide guidelines for transforming cultural practices. We will consider Marx and Engels’ understanding of work as that which constitutres culture. We will conclude with feminists and queer writings as they argue that the family is the fundamental apparatus of oppression.