Course Number: ARC 471b/571b
Year: Elec
Credit Hours: 3
Semester(s): Fall
Prerequisites: consent of department
Instructor(s): Dennis Doxtater
Course Description:
Explores theoretical distinctions between processes of social and symbolic space, i.e. sacred ritual, rhetorical territoriality and local ritual. Extrinsic, expressive forms in architecture and landscape serve social ends and are distinguished from more intrinsic aesthetics. This course is identical to AIS 471b/571b; American Indian Studies is the home department.
Objectives
1. Awareness of how humans use space to influence social organization.
2. Awareness of how space and social organization vary with culture.
3. Awareness of the different contributions of perceptual symbolic objects and cognitive ritual space.
4. Awareness of different effects of architecture and landscape architecture in social space.
5. Ability to access and organize social science literature.
6. Ability to create a scholarly evaluation of some aspect of social space.
Course Structure & Topics
The course follows a consistent theoretical structure as briefly outlined in the description above. Each offering advertises a different subtitle. In Fall 2006 the focus was on Native American Landscape Architecture and Architecture. For Fall 2008 the course linked together with two other courses from Astronomy and Applied Anthropology as a "mini-minor" for graduate students. The subtitle was "Sacred Ritual Process in the Context of Landscape, Architecture and Celestial Phenomena".
Course Requirements
Outside reading and class participation (10%)
Two quizzes (30%)
Term paper/project (60%)
Required Texts:
Varied articles: all required readings will be available on the University of Arizona Libraries' electronic reserve service.
Graduate students are graded separately from upper level undergraduate students.
