Humans, to paraphrase Clifford Geertz, are suspended in webs of meaning that they themselves have spun. This course introduces students to the tools anthropologists and others have developed in order to analyze and understand these "webs of meaning." Readings in philosophy, cultural theory and ethnography will be used to engage with questions regarding the construction of meaning in relation to ethnic identity, social structure, gender, political economy, personhood, and religion. Drawing on classic texts and the tools of semiotics, students will learn to apply the lens of symbolic analysis to interpret a range of contemporary social phenomena.