PRST 239: Understanding Culture Through Humor

Course Description

Humor is a form of communication that is central to social and cultural background of a society, and is often molded according to specific cultures, historical periods and contexts. Humor has been shown to help diverse ethnic populations overcome misconceptions regarding one another, especially when two ethnic groups share a painful and tragic past. Humor not only represents imprint dimensions of social life, but it also allows those of us who are outsiders better understand diverse cultures. Joint laughter can thus offer an opportunity to overcome the burden of being tied to a troublesome past and provide insight to both groups into a common history. In this course, we will explore American Indian humor, in order to understand our complex history together.