This course considers human (and some nonhuman) relations of power from a broad, interpretive and scientific anthropological perspective. We will ask what politics is, what it does to people and how it is constructed and patterned in everyday life, whether through violence, coercion, collective action, ritual, child-rearing or any other social process. We’ll take special advantage this fall of the ongoing presidential election season in the United States, but will also consider diverse political systems across time and space in a comparative light. Formally, this course is a lecture. But this term I am teaching it, deliberately, in one of the university’s new “active learning spaces” — essentially, a big classroom with tables and chairs. Consequently much of the work we do will be collaborative and inquiry-based.  To do well, you will need to participate to the best of your ability in our classroom discussions, debates and activities.