Hello everyone, my name is Simon Kristoffersen and I am a senior at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. My major is in Anthropology with concentrations in both biological anthropology and archaeology. Even though this course is required for any student at UAf, whether seeking B.S. or B.A., I believe the diversity of litrature perspectives will contribute further to my anthropological studies and personal world view. While looking over the course syllabus, I noticed some familiar tales and authors, however many more are new and interesting to me, especially those concerning my regional interests.

Through various anthropology assigned readings I  received some glimpses into other cultures’ ideologies  and social norms, yet no real introduction to their great authors or legends. Through this class it seems I will get a wide array of stories portaying such legends and cultural ideologies.

Primarily, I hope to gain a base knowlege of culturally-distinct historical or mythical world views, because in order to understand one culture you first must examine ideas and ways of thinking that influence converging cosmologies. Something I always find interesting when reading works of various non-English authors is the fact that these works were not originally in English, thus the sheer fact that someone translated it in order for me to gain the original texts’ meanings is an amazing quality in its own. It would be nice to get introduced to an author I will find myself actively motivated to further investigate their literary library. I am sure this class has a lot for me to learn, and I look forward to expressing my interpretations and re-expressing the ultimate goals this diverse list of authors had envisioned for the reader.