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for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.
| Unit name |
Contemporary Issues in Anthropology |
| Unit code |
ANTHM0015 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Professor. Alex Bentley |
| 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 course introduces you to contemporary themes and theories in Social Anthropology and provides a forum for discussion on recent debates in the discipline. The content of the course might change annually to update with recent developments in Anthropology.
Overall aims of the unit are:
- To encourage you to apply and develop further your analytical skills in evaluating contemporary theories in anthropology.
- To encourage consideration of the social context of the discipline, including the complex institutional, organisational and other factors that may be instrumental in shaping dominant ideas in anthropology today.
- At a practical level, to encourage a thorough perception of how writing is used as medium with which anthropological theories are disseminated.
Intended Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit you should:
- Be able to demonstrate a working knowledge of significant themes in contemporary anthropology.
- Have gained a good awareness of the institutional setting of the discipline in comparative setting.
- Have sufficient accumulated knowledge of the state of the discipline to be able to place any new theories that you may come across within their contemporary disciplinary context.
Teaching Information
Lectures and seminars
Assessment Information
This course is assessed through on essay of 3,500 words (70%) has to be submitted by the end of its term plus a presentation (30%)
Reading and References
Appadurai, A. 2001. Grassroots globalization and the research imagination. In Globalization (ed.) A. Appadurai, 1-21. Durham N.C. Duke University Press.
- Lansing, J.S. (2003). Complex adaptive systems. Annual Review of Anthropology 32:183–204
- Levine, N.E. (2008). Alternative kinship, marriage, and reproduction. Annual Review of Anthropology 37:375–89.
- Strathern, M. 2005 Kinship, Law and the Unexpected. Cambridge University Press.
