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for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.
| Unit name |
History and Theory in Social Anthropology |
| Unit code |
ANTHM3001 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Professor. Gibson |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None. |
| Co-requisites |
None. |
| School/department |
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Arts |
Description including Unit Aims
This is a foundation theory course in Social Anthropology, a basic prerequisite for students registered for the MA in Social Anthropology. The format used is that of debates around issues and between scholars. These include 'classic' topics of scholarship that are still of relevance to current anthropology (e.g. the 'virgin birth' debate and its relevance to contemporary discussions of rationality), topics that raise methodological concerns (such as the debate concerning Mead and Freeman's studies in the Pacific) and more timely and controversial issues (such as the relevant merit and contribution of the 'postmodern' or 'experimental' anthropology to the discipline).
Aims:
- To introduce students to key theories and scholarly trends in social and cultural anthropology.
- To encourage students to engage critically with theoretical and methodological issues.
- To encourage sensitivity to the ways in which texts are constructed.
Intended Learning Outcomes
- Students should be able to place anthropological monographs and anthropological approaches within their historical and theoretical setting.
- They should become critical and constructive readers.
- They should develop confidence in handling ideas and differences of opinion in a scholarly manner.
- They should be aware of connections between scholarship and wider social practices (i.e. the politics and economics, as well as personal aspects, of research and writing).
Teaching Information
10 two hour lectures plus fortnightly reading groups.
Assessment Information
A 4,000 word essay (plus journal, non assessed, with brief reflections of topics discussed in each weeks lecture).
Reading and References
- Redfield, R. 1930. Tepoztlan: A Mexican Village. Chicago, University of Chicaggo Press.
- Moore, H.L. 1988. Feminism and anthropology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Strathern, M. 1988. The gender of the gift. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Obeyesekere, G. (1992) The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
- Sahlins, M. (1995) How Natives Think: About Captain Cook, for Example. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
- Clifford, J.1986. Introduction: partial truths. In Writing culture (eds) J.
- Clifford & G. E. Marcus. Berkeley: University of California Press.
