Anthropology and the Cinema

While it has traditionally studied the expressive behaviors of many other cultures around the globe, American anthropology has rarely used its tools of cultural analysis to look its own storytelling, especially as seen in mass-market Hollywood movies. This course will apply textual and contextual analysis, cross-cultural comparisons, mythological and symbolic approaches, and cognitive, linguistic and discourse analysis to look at the form, content and effects of popular movies. This semester, the last segment of the course will focus on the live-action movies created by the Disney Studios: from the early family movies like Pollyanna and The Shaggy Dogto Pirates of the Caribbean and National Treasure.