141DS Maps - Museums - Malls: Visualizing Cultural Difference

This seminar explores the ways cultural differences are manifested through visual media. We look at early maps and scientific discoveries of the 18th century, museums which classify representations of exotic peoples in the 19th century, and contemporary shopping malls in order to analyze fashion, architecture and advertising.

Note: this course satisfies the General Education Writing Requirements

This display and sale of indigenous art as a decorative backdrop to the selling of men's underwear was declared to be highly disrespectful to Australian Aboriginal people. After some public discussion the display was removed.

For further information see my article: "Aboriginality, Morality and the Law: Reconciling Popular Western Images of Australian Aborigines." In Sally Falk Moore (ed.) Moralizing States and the Ethnography of the Present. American Ethnological Society Monograph Series 5:55-77.