Anthro 3691 - Kill Assessment: An Investigation into Death, Genocide, and other forms of Violence

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

Is violence best understood as a set of "random acts" marginal to society? Or, do societies need violence to make culture systematic and hierarchy functional? This course is not about the psychology of individual pathology; rather, we think about violence as a potential category of culture. We address two major issues throughout this course. First, we discuss different types of violence: physical/material violence and symbolic violence. Second, we become familiar with ways that social groups turn violence into an aesthetic object and an artistic project. To accomplish our task, we take both an ethnographic and theoretical approach, so that we may better ground our understanding of violence in various people's everyday experiences as well as develop a broader, more complete idea of what violence entails. Specific readings include the following topics: U.S. and Brazilian hip-hop; Puerto Rican reggaeton; video games; contemporary Latin American plastic arts; U.S. hate crimes, rape, and other forms of domestic violence; violence "workers" in Latin America; genocides in Rwanda, Guatemala, and Armenia; drug lords in Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles, and Mogadishu, Somalia; and the legality of lethal injections in capital punishment in the United States.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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