ANTH 335c - Anthropology of Space and Place: Japan

(Same as HIST 335C.) Prerequisite, consent of instructor. This travel course will explore Japan through history and anthropology to uncover the specific politics of different places: museums, temple complexes, and Tokyo Disneyland. The class will analyze how memory and memorialization play key roles in the built environment. Memory is shaped by personal and communal identities and popular understandings and interpretations of the past. It also has prompted a sense of nationalism, both during and after the Pacific War. So too have myths been an inherent part of Buddhist institutions and their dual roles as spiritual centers and sites for capital accumulation. Tokyo Disneyland acts as a place for mass consumption, but also as a space to highlight Japanese uniqueness vis-à-vis the Western world. Letter grade. Repeatable for credit if the topic is different. (Offered as needed.) 3 credits