2005 Handbooks

Anthropology explores universals and differences in the human experience by studying the interplay of culture, social relations, biology and environment in a wide variety of ways of life. This unit surveys the way human existence has been culturally produced, elaborated and patterned. It looks specifically at sex, sexuality, and social constructions of maleness and femaleness; the presentation of the body and cultural conceptions of beauty, "racial", ethnic and physical differences; cultural perceptions of normality and abnormality; religion; language, film and art; and the impact of globalisation on cultural differences. These topics will be examined also with reference to the social realities of inequality, power and conflict. Illustrative case material is drawn from studies of traditional and contemporary social/cultural systems, especially in Australia and Southeast Asia.