ANTH 382 - Nations, Power, Islam: Muslim Identity and Community in the Global Age

Muslims today belong at once to a global community of the faithful and to particular ethnic and national bodies. Students examine the social significance of these intersections of identity and community: What political, cultural, and religious conflicts and negotiations mark Muslim identity in the global age? Initial readings survey the colonial age, which forced the integration of Muslim communities into the global capitalist and state systems. With this foundation students then address specific conflicts and congruencies of contemporary Muslim identity in both the Muslim world and the West: between Islamic law and national-state laws; between local Islamic norms and transnational flows of media, persons, and products; between popular Islam and political power. How do these issues affect Muslims and their neighbors? How do they affect geopolitics? What is the present and future of the “global village”?

Credits: 1.00
Corequisite: None
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: None
Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing
Core Component: None

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