This course is an introduction to the study which aims to demonstrate how the basic concepts and techniques developed by cultural anthropologists help us to understand societies of various degrees of complexity, including our own. The course will consider topics such as language and symbols, kinship, gender, ethnicity, economics, politics, religion, and social change in a broad comparative framework. Major goals are an increased awareness of the social and cultural dimensions of human experience: the diversity and flexibility of human cultures; and processes of intercultural communication and conflict.