ANTHROPOLOGY IS ABOUT YOU & EVERYONE
Taught by Arnold Perey, PhD
Through the Aesthetic Realism method, anthropology is a means to understand yourself more richly and deeply. In this class you’ll see what you have in common with people whose cultures can seem very different.
People, everywhere in the world, from the grasslands of Africa to the Pacific Islands, from the tents of Asia and Native America to New York City, are understood through the principles of Aesthetic Realism: we are all trying to like the world aesthetically, as a oneness of opposites — and yet we also want to look on it with contempt. We are kind and cruel, accurate and wild, powerful and delicate—trying to put together opposites in ourselves. Through Aesthetic Realism, anthropology becomes essential for us to know ourselves, see our unquestionable kinship to people everywhere, and do away with prejudice.
Registration for the Fall 2019 semester of classes: Tuesday, Sep 3 - Friday, Sep 13
ANTHROPOLOGY IS ABOUT YOU AND EVERYONE
Spring-Summer 2019
Taught by Dr. Arnold Perey
6-7:30 PM on Alternate Wednesdays
This crucial principle by Eli Siegel is our basis: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.” True for people across the map and for thousands of years, our respect for people depends on it.
May 22. Are We Like Them? Looking at Ethics in 3 Different Cultures
The way we’re for and against the world makes people of every nation and religion akin. Yes, whoever we are, what we deeply hope, they do too.
June 5. Words: or, How Did We Come to Speak?
Words in far different languages—Paiute, French, Swahili—show how true this great concept by Eli Siegel is: “Every word is about the universe as a whole….[and it] says, ‘The universe can be this way, and I, the word, show it.’”
June 19. Bullies and Bad Guys in the Tribe and Living Room
From windigo psychosis in old Native America to Internet bullying that’s freely visible online, we see the ugliest thing in ourselves walk the floor: the desire for contempt. Seeing this we become kinder.
July 3. Civilization in East Africa: Large and Small
We study Bunyoro: an African Kingdom by John Beattie for a large-scale description–and Dudley Kidd on a village children’s party, to see lovable, small, energetic humans.
July 17. An Anthropological Potpourri: Papers by Students in the Class
Saturday, August 3 [Not Wednesday July 31st] The Sahara & World Riches
At 11 AM we join The Visual Arts and the Opposites class at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation / Terrain Gallery
August 14. The Evolution of Awareness: from Then to Now
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See Aesthetic Realism: A New Perspective for Anthropology and Sociology and his novel Gwe: Young Man of New Guinea—a novel against racism.
Three instances of how Aesthetic Realism shows people of different cultures are more alike than has been known:
[1] What Big Mistakes Do Even Smart Men Make? With a consideration of the African story “Maliane and the Water Snake” from Lesotho.
[2] About the Ethical Unconscious. The myth of the flood: discussing anthropology, the anthropologist, and a representative American woman, Daphne Baker. [3] “How Much Feeling—and What Kind—Should a Man Have?” Discussing my life, the life of Fusiwe, a head man of the Yanomami People, and men of the United StatesAlternate Wednesdays, 6:00 – 7:30 PM
Beginning date of this class: Wed, Sep 25
Fee: $60 per semester (7 classes)
Fee for auditing a class: $12
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