INST 4359: Latin America Cultures: Diversity, Paradoxes and Transformation

This course examines how the interplay of cultures affects our daily lives and how values and beliefs can shape cultural regions. While the course will cover broad theory, particular focus will be on Latin America. The key question is: who is the Latin American? This course will review and deconstruct the paradigm of Latin American character and how it impacts and is impacted by the church, work relations, family, race and gender. The influences of particular historical, geographic and socio–economic forces in Latin American build an image of a coherent cultural region. This is an image, however, full of intra–regional diversity. To what extent then does the cultural ideal type accommodate this diversity? Mexico, Brazil and Argentina will be examined for answers to these questions. Prerequisite: 60+credit hours