ANTH 142 SC - State and Society in Latin America

In this class, we ethnographically examine how “the state” takes shape in Latin America across multiple scales and forms. Drawing from the field of political anthropology, this course approaches the state as a cultural and historical construct, made through social relations, practices, and norms. We begin the course by tracing connections with colonial histories and presents, examining racialized and gendered projects of nation-state building, and unsettling notions of sovereignty. In the middle part of the course, we look to the work of government in practice: the production of bureaucratic and policy documents, the provision of state services like health care, and forms of state policing and violence. Finally, we turn to civil society and social movement actors making claims on the state and transforming the nature of politics itself.

Course Credit: 1.0

Please refer to the course schedule on the Scripps Portal for current course offerings and details.