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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 Social Anthropology |
| Unit code |
ANTHM0014 |
| Credit points |
20 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
|
| Unit director |
Emeritus Professor. Saunders |
| 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
The course examines a wide range of contemporary issues that are of central concern to the discipline of Social Anthropology. It looks at the effects of globalisation on local communities, the spread of western models of cosmopolitanism, the political imagination of local communities, their ideas about citizenship, justice, ethnic identity and indigeneity. It also assesses the position of indigenous communities, peasants, and other peripheral groups, within the greater national economies within which these smaller groups are found. The above topics are explored with close reference to particular case studies, using ethnographic evidence from diverse contexts, such as Europe, Africa and Latin America. The module is a compulsory component of the Masters degree in Social Anthropology, it is suitable for those who are taking the degree as a potential conversion course, as well as those who may already have some knowledge of the field.
Aims:
- To encourage an understanding of the place of Social Anthropology as an academic and applied field.
- To encourage students think analytically about the interplay between global and local processes.
- To broaden students' understanding of culturally specific ideas about citizenship, justice, ethnic identity and indigeneity.
- To encourage a critical awareness in reading and assessing ethnographic writing and expose the students to a wide range of ethnographic case studies.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course students will:
- be familiar with a wide range of ethnographic material from different regions of the world.
- be in a position to assess, evaluate, and make comparisons between these case studies.
- be able to contextualise their wide reading within the development of modern anthropology.
- be able to appreciate how local communities understand global socio-political processes.
Teaching Information
Ten 2 hour lectures plus fortnightly reading groups.
Assessment Information
A 4000 word essay ( plus, unassessed, 10 minute presentation).
Reading and References
- Lewellen, T.C. 2002. The Anthropology of Globalization: Cultural Anthropology enters the 21st century. Westport: Bergin & Garvey.
- Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at large: cultural dimensions of globalization.Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Vertovec, S. & Cohen, R. 2002. Conceiving cosmopolitanism: theory, context and practice. New York: Oxford University Press.
- West, H. G. and Sanders, T. (eds) 2003. Transparency and Conspiracy; ethnographies of suspicion in the new world order. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
- Vincent. J. 1990. Anthropology and Politics: Visions, Traditions, and Trends. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
- Edelman, M. 1999. Peasants Against Globalization: Rural Social Movements in Costa Rica.
