ANTH3242W: Hero, Savage, or Equal? Representations of Non-Western Peoples in the Movies

This course will explore images of non-Western peoples and cultures as they have appeared in the movies and in other popular media. It has four aims: l) to introduce the problem of non-Western peoples in the West from historical points of view, 2) to discuss the relationship between mass media and issue of representation to the marketplace, 3) to analyze the problem of moral agency in a series of Hollywood and independent movies which portray non-Western peoples and cultures and 4) to engage in the practice of essay writing and argumentation in anthropology and the social sciences. We will watch movies portraying three different groups of cultures, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and the Japanese. In each unit, we will first read important commentary on Western representations of each of these peoples and develop thesis-based essays on each.

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