This undergraduate course offers an exploration of Ukrainian culture through the prism of ritual analysis. In this course, through the examination of scholarly approaches taken up by folklorists and ethnographers to the study of ritual, we will investigate several sites of Ukrainian traditional and post-traditional culture in order to understand complex processes of cultural continuity and cultural change. What is the ritual and how can ritual analysis help us to enter the domain of Ukrainian culture? Is ritual only about traditional Ukrainian weddings, Christmas and Easter celebrations, or can such events as Taras Shevchenko’s reburial, the Orange and Euromaidan Revolutions of 2004 and 2013, and recent political events in Ukraine be studied similarly, as well? And why ritual? How can ritual account for the dynamic nature of ethnic or nation building processes? What can it teach us about ourselves, our history, our culture? These and other questions will be addressed in class. Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hoursPrerequisite(s): A 200-level course in UKR, or permission of the department. Note: Students with credit for ANTH 354 Ritual Spaces in Ukrainian Culture may not take this course for credit.
This undergraduate course offers an exploration of Ukrainian culture through the prism of ritual analysis. In this course, through the examination of scholarly approaches taken up by folklorists and ethnographers to the study of ritual, we will investigate several sites of Ukrainian traditional and post-traditional culture in order to understand complex processes of cultural continuity and cultural change. What is the ritual and how can ritual analysis help us to enter the domain of Ukrainian culture? Is ritual only about traditional Ukrainian weddings, Christmas and Easter celebrations, or can such events as Taras Shevchenko’s reburial, the Orange and Euromaidan Revolutions of 2004 and 2013, and recent political events in Ukraine be studied similarly, as well? And why ritual? How can ritual account for the dynamic nature of ethnic or nation building processes? What can it teach us about ourselves, our history, our culture? These and other questions will be addressed in class. Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hoursPrerequisite(s): A 200-level course in UKR, or permission of the department. Note: Students with credit for ANTH 354 Ritual Spaces in Ukrainian Culture may not take this course for credit.
