Semiotic Anthropology

An introduction to semiotic anthropology as a method for analyzing how language and other sign systems contribute to shape everyday interactions, social institutions and the various ways in which humans inhabit the world. Students will approach works by major authors who sought to theorize the structure of signs and sign systems, and learn to recognize the various modes of anthropological interpretation that these works inspired. Case studies will demonstrate how the toolbox of semiotic anthropology can be brought to bear on a range of topics, including gender and sexuality, the social formation of subjectivity, the emergence of political collectives, religion and modernity, and human-nonhuman interactions.