Critical Social Inquiry 0266 - Who Owns Culture?

This is an anthropology course on intellectual property (IP) and heritage. While IP regimes claim to balance an incentive for creators with the needs of society at large, expanding realms of IP protection have some people decrying an endless process of commodification, a closing down of the creative commons, and a transnational arrangement that favors the global North and disadvantages the global South. With reference to critical anthropological literature, this course examines IP and heritage regimes in reference to their philosophical origins, their applications in music and expressive arts, their unmooring in cyberspace, their contested applications in indigenous societies, and their transnational implications. A significant part of the class is dedicated to these questions as they relate to different indigenous and native peoples.

Multiple Cultural Perspectives Prerequisites: Students must have completed their first year of college work.