AP/ANTH 2100 6.00 Global Capitalism, Culture, and Conflict

The formation and consequences of an increasingly interdependent world amidst widespread diversity of society and culture is the theme of this course. We begin with an historical overview of the creation of this interdependence, looking at European colonial expansion from the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Industrial Revolution. We then go on to examine more closely the processes of 19th and 20th century colonialism that insured the expansion of a capitalist market and that fueled the forces of globalization in our contemporary world. Once we have gained some theoretical and historical insight into the creation of global economic, political, and cultural interdependence, we will focus on contemporary issues raised by the conditions of this interdependency. In this context, we will look at development policies and their consequences at the local level, the links between state formation and implications of cultural forms of resistance to internal colonialism, the consequences of globalization for marginalized populations, and the politics of resistance to contemporary global forces.

Course Director: S. Hussain - salhuss@yorku.ca