ENG 4320 Society

Introduction to the course

From hunter-gatherers who
moved in small groups with few
material belongings to
urbanites with sedentary lives
full of people and possessions,
humans have experimented
with countless ways of living
together. However, this rich
and diverse spectrum is usually
presented to us as a simplistic
story of historical progress
leading from barbarism and
primitivity to sophistication and
modernity.
This course calls on anthropological and archaeological evidence to question this simplistic
story. By taking a comparative look at foraging, agrarian, and industrial societies as well as
many other forms of social organization in between, it challenges us to consider why we live
together the way we do, whether this way of living together is truly desirable or inevitable,
and how we can imagine alternative ways.