When Charles Darwin first encountered the Fuegian Indiana, he found
their apparent lack of social inequality troubling.  In 1839, Darwin
wrote, “even a piece of cloth is torn into shreds and distributed;
and no one individual becomes richer than another.”  Today, the post-
Cold War world, the philosophical assumptions of social class
relations shape the interests, antagonisms, and cultural associations
of “the Other.”

The course examines the formation and deployment of the categories
caste, class, and power in historical and cross-cultural
perspectives.  The writings of Karl Marx, Kenneth Burke, Thorstein
Veblen, Pierre Bourdieu, John Cannadine and others will be used as
vehicles for understanding the communication of class and power.
Differences among cultural groups such as North Americans, Japanese,
South Africans, and the Yoruba of Nigeria, will be used as points of
comparison.

Questions covered in readings and class discussion includes:  What
are the ideological bases for the arguments about caste, class and
power?  What relationships obtain among the terms caste, class and
power?  How do scholars understand, define, and talk about the
changing nature of class and power?  What are the dynamics of class
and power?  What are the extra symbolic roots of caste, class and
power?  To what extent are class distinctions promoted through
the “pageantry of clothes,” the principle of hierarchy, material
possessions, and social values?  What forms do adjustments to social
class and power take?  What types of social values uphold principles
of social class and power?  How are symbols of class promoted and
disseminated?  And what are the implications of caste, class and
power for the coming twenty-first century?

Rather than to address these questions merely in the abstract, we
will ground our consideration of them in historical and linguistic
contexts, probing selected moments in the development of class and
power in Japan, South Africa, and Nigeria.  We will begin with
theories and characteristics of class and power, and then move to a
discussion of how language and nonverbal forms of communication
create and reinforce class consciousness.  Finally, using theories
and perspectives on class and power, we will examine social
stratification in other cultures.  Throughout the seminar, however,
we will note similarities and differences among the comparative
groups.