This course explores how beliefs about nature and culture, both
respectively and together (namely as a dichotomy), are significant to
the structuring of worldview. We will begin by examining these concepts,
their discourses, and helpful theoretical approaches. Age as a social
category of difference will be an accompanying theme throughout the
semester. Since categories of and attitudes towards age changed
drastically at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth
century, we will discuss a variety of Progressive Era ideas about
“overcoming the elements”, including time, space, and
physiology. This context will aid in interpreting twenty-first century phenomena and perspectives that reconceptualize nature, culture, and agency.