Michigan State University: Greece - Greece and Turkey: Contemporary Culture, Politics, and Society - Session I

Greek and Turkish-Aegean society and culture is relatively “open” compared with that of northern European countries and North America. Students will be exposed to the techniques of participant observation as a research field methods and will apply these techniques as part of the course requirements.  Festivals, rituals, family, household, village, and city customs and practices are all valuable mechanisms for learning the social, economic, cultural, political, and religious mechanisms that make a society definable, distinctive, and durable.   Furthermore, the relevance of archeological ancient sites for gaining an understanding of the emergence of Western civilization is obvious and the Aegean region is replete with easily accessible national monuments, parks, and sites.