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.
The Fall semester of classes is now in session. For information about auditing classes, call the Registrar at 212.777.4490.
ANTHROPOLOGY IS ABOUT YOU AND EVERYONE
Fall-Winter Semester 2019
Taught by Dr. Arnold Perey
6-7:30 PM on Alternate Wednesdays
In this class we study Eli Siegel’s groundbreaking principle: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.”
September 25. Are We Like “Warrior Herdsmen” of Uganda?
We continue our surprising study of the opposites all people have in common by looking at African herdsmen Elizabeth Marshall Thomas lived with and describes in Warrior Herdsmen.
October 9. Good Will vs. Ill Will between Men and Women
We begin with the book Gopalpur, a South Indian Village by Alan R. Beals and go widely, elsewhere, to see what is true about this most primal conflict in the human self—in women and men.
October 23. The Barbaric and Civilized in Us All
Looking at Eli Siegel’s great essay “Civilization Begins” in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known we study the meaning of the word, civilized, and how we can get there.
November 6. Ethics & Power—Can America Learn from the Cherokee?
Our source to begin with is “Pursuing Longtime Promise, Cherokee Nation Seeks a Delegate in Congress,” by Jose A. Del Real (NY Times, 28 Aug. 2019)
November 20. Liking Yourself in Tribe and NYC
We begin with “The !Kung San” [Bushmen of S. Africa] in Culture Sketches by Holly Peters-Golden
December 4. Students’ Papers: An Anthropological Potpourri
Saturday, December 21. [Not Wednesday December 18] Images of Primitive Art at its Best
Meeting with Marcia Rackow’s class, “The Visual Arts and the Opposites,” we meet at 11 AM in the Terrain Galley of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation.
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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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