ANTH 1548 - AMAZONIAN ARTS: MAKING AND MEANING

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course introduces students to the arts of the Amazonian region in the context of their function and meaning. The course will be taught as a combination of lecture and hands-on experience working with native potters from the Bobonaza river. Students will learn to make pottery in the Kichwa (Quichua) tradition, and to understand the role of pottery and material culture in the daily lives of people in this region. On a number of occasions, students will accompany the native potters on journeys into the adjacent forest to gather materials and to study the patterns in nature that inspire them. Here students will observe related arts such as face paint patterns, beaded ornaments, ritual singing and storytelling. Carefully selected readings and lectures will use these arts as a window for exploring Amazonian thinking about the natural world behind the designs, and the ways in which the designs can be used to understand patterns of social interaction. Interviews with potters will aid in understanding these arts in the context of daily and ceremonial life. In the process, the arts become a doorway allowing the student to explore Amazonian culture and environment first hand. Comparative material from several other world regions will also be discussed.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Letter Grade

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