ANTH 421 - Altered States: Decolonizing Rationality

FC SSCI CD

4 credits
In this course, we will think critically about the sociohistorical conditions that led to “rationality” being installed as the normative form of consciousness and being. Might it be that so-called rationality and reason are particular and socially constructed? Might other ways of thinking and knowing also have political and social utility? We examine these questions through literature from anthropology, including ethnographies of Siberian shamanism, Moroccan dream interpretation, Silicon Valley immortalism, Thai spirit possession, Amazonian microbiology, and others. We also read across related disciplines, including New Animism and New Materialism, Black feminist philosophy, trans and post-humanism, psychedelics research, and anti-colonial theory.

Prerequisites: ANTH 353.