Being Human: Anthropologists Who Shaped the Way We Think About Human Nature

Being Human: Anthropologists Who Shaped the Way We Think About Human Nature

Class | Available (Membership Required)

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3/22/2024-5/17/2024

10:00 AM-12:00 PM on Fri

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$45.00

Are humans different from other animals? How did our species evolve? Is our behavior determined by nature (genetics) or nurture (culture)? Why are cultures different from each other? Does the language we speak determine how we think? How are race, ethnicity, and culture related?

Join us in exploring how these big questions about what it means to be human were answered by some of the most innovative thinkers of the twentieth century: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Jane Goodall, Louis and Mary Leakey, Franz Boas, Zora Neal Hurston, Bronislaw Malinowski, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf.

Format: We will cover one of these topics per week. The Coordinator will provide reading and film suggestions and class members will choose an anthropologist to focus on. The plan is to have two facilitators for each class focusing on complementary aspects of the scholar’s work as it pertains to the particular topic under discussion.

Resources/Expenses: Our suggested reading will include The Anthropological Lens: Harsh Lights, Soft Focus by James Peacock, which is available used online for $5 & up.

Donna Kerner is a cultural anthropologist who has lived much of her life in East Africa and the South Pacific conducting field research. Her research interests include: Gender and Famine; Education and Class Mobility; Material Culture and Memory; and Entrepreneurship/Micro Finance. She is Professor Emerita at Wheaton College where she taught for thirty-three years and held the William Isaac Cole Endowed Chair.