Optional Units

Visual Anthropology - ARCH M1009

This Visual Anthropology unit has three core themes: the historical and contemporary use of visual media by anthropologists and others, the creation and use of visual systems within societies themselves and the role and dimension of the senses in anthropological research. This course will introduce anthropological perspectives on the history and development of anthropological photography, ethnographic film and visual display. The unit also covers how students might undertake research using visual research methods, such as through film, photography, museum collections, as well as how audio-visual media may contribute to the representation of ethnographic materials. The unit also aims to introduce students to the topics, debates and analysis of: visual ways of knowing; key issues in ethnographic film and photography; social uses and local practices of visual media including indigenous media; visual media and contemporary arts practices in relation to anthropology; image ethics; visual culture and the body; anthropology and the senses; digital media practice; anthropology on TV.

Greater Amazonian Anthropology

This module focuses on recent debates in the anthropological analysis of Tropical Lowland South American societies. The area examined centres on the Amazon basin and extends North to the Isthmus of Panama and South to the upper Paraguay. The module concentrates on new historical, socio-cosmological and ecological paradigms that have been employed to understand indigenous societies in the area. Amongst the issues that are considered are 1) the landscape, including the spatial organization of settlements, the house and its relation to cultivated gardens, 2) subsistence economies, ecologies, and resources management and 3) notions of the body, body ornamentation and modernity. The module emphasizes the historical dimension of anthropological research and explores the potential for ethnography to contribute to discussions on global ecological concerns.

Diasporas and Transnational Communities - ANTH M0012

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.

Narrating the Self - SOCI M2127

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.

Culture and Global Violence - SOCI M2111

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.

Material Culture - ANTH M0008

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.

Complexity, Social Networks and Culture

Communities, as a focus of archaeology and anthropology, can be conceived as complex, dynamic entities with multiple constituents: individuals, and groups interacting with each other through geographic, social and informational relationships. In this module, we will explore relevant themes of complexity theory, including tipping points, community resiliency, the diffusion of ideas, collective wisdom, fads and fashions, as well as tools such as network analysis and agent-based simulation. We will discuss how these apply to anthropological interests in kinship and social networks, craft specialisation, hierarchy and state formation, language, wealth inequality, and technological change. Along the way, we will consider examples from the archaeological past to traditional kin-based societies, early states and cascades of social change in the 21st century.