Using the textbook Essentials of Cultural Anthropology, this was a class on “Politics and Power.” Or: What should anthropology say about politics?
This class came after reading about the roots of the Global Economy and Globalization. The next class was on Environment.
One interesting update is an article titled “The State” Is a Story We Tell Ourselves. This article is a much-needed update on Peruvian politics, but it also takes us back to some older theoretical material from Philip Abrams. I discussed some of this material in a 2013 blog-post Is the State Relevant? That post was a reflection on Trouillot’s chapter in Global Transformations, which urged anthropology to consider the power of “state effects” rather than simply jettison the idea in the wake of what was called “globalization.”