-

-

-

-

Optional Units

This course illustrates key areas in modern social anthropological theory by taking one particular region: Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, and illustrating these countries&© significance for our contemporary understanding of ethnicity and identity and its development within the nation-state. The course also examines the complex dynamics that obtain between these nations, and evaluates the cultural background that informs them. It also considers other aspects of social life (gender, kinship, religion, environmental issues) that may pertain to the development of personhood and identity in this socio-cultural context.

This unit will explore the concept of diaspora in one particular historical and sociological context of formation of Indian communities outside India. It will emphasise the significance of colonial, imperial and postcolonial migration in the formation of transnational Indian communities. The unit will also concentrate on the impact of social change on Indians especially on the social structure of traditional caste relations. This theme will require a full discussion of universal and particular theories of caste as a phenomenon and significance of these perspectives for an understanding of complex factors, which influence diasporic and transnational configuration of caste and sectarian communities. The purpose of this theme will be to bring together a whole range of broader issues such as class, racism, religion, ethnicity, gender, nationhood, democracy and fundamentalism as well as globalisation that impact on caste and sectarian communities in diaspora.

This unit explores theoretical issues within the study of ethnicity by focusing on the constellation of distinctive communities spread in a broad diaspora throughout Europe and beyond and gathered under the collective name of Roma (or Gypsies). In particular, it examines the experience of these groups, commonly regarded as peripheral, to illustrate the nature of social exclusion and identity formation by relating these to patterns of economic and political development. Likewise, processes of ethnogenesis among Central and East European Roma are explained in the context of regional nationalisms and the projected expansion of the European Union. The extreme situation of these minorities currently plays a pivotal part in the EU accession process, compelling governments to pay unaccustomed attention to the social marginalisation and material deprivation of their Roma citizens. As well as referring to seminal theoretical texts the unit draws on a wide range of specialist studies and documents, many of which are available on the web.

This unit introduces students to key theoretical issues in the understanding of ethnographic experience, social science research and their textual transformation. It exemplifies the advantages of drawing upon conceptual approaches from several disciplines, namely, sociology, anthropology and philosophy and from narrative theory in order to construct a distinctively self-reflexive social approach to field- work methods. Students will be introduced to a range of literatures on epistemology and research methods, narrative theory, the role of memory and narrative in history, the debate on writing culture, the contribution of landscape to the construction of self and other and the contribution of autobiographical experience to the construction of social facts. It addresses issues arising from the challenge of cross-cultural translation and understanding.

This unit aims to develop an overall understanding of culture and violence how culture informs global violence and how cycles of violence are created, nurtured and sustained. The unit analyses the role of social actors in violence- men, women and children and draws on empirical examples from Sub Saharan Africa, South Asia, Middle East and Latin America. The construction of masculinity and femininity in relation to violence will be critically explored through discourses of gender, nationalism and religion. The role of global war and gendered violence in exacerbating and creating hunger and famine will be assessed. The key question -does international aid perpetuate violence- will be understood through case studies which highlight the ambivalent role of aid? The unit analyses the interconnectedness of structural, cultural and interpersonal violence through theoretical frameworks of Johan Galtung, Pierre Bourdieu, Scheper-Hughes and Veena Das. Throughout the unit, structural violence embedded in systems of stratification, their cultural manifestations, and their impact on social relations will also be examined.

This course aims to give students a broad understanding of some of the most important issues in the development of material culture studies. The Unit provides an introduction to the study of material culture by historical archaeologists and anthropologists, and to the range of material culture in the modern and contemporary worlds. The global contexts of artefact manufacture, trade and consumption will be emphasised throughout.

This unit is designed to acquaint postgraduates starting out on their advanced courses with the theoretical debates and current aims of research activity in Social Anthropology. It will develop students' confidence in understanding the content and language of contemporary anthropological debate, and allow students with particular regional and topical interests to familiarise themselves with a specified set of literature. Weekly discussion is student-led.