Key Ideas in Social Anthropology

SOAN10321 Key Ideas in Social Anthropology 10 Semester 1 Undergraduate Level 1 Olga Ulturgasheva Unit coordinator Anthropology 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' First part HE study/Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 5.0 Key Ideas in Social Anthropology introduces first year students to the contemporary discipline of social anthropology. It does this by explaining how the discipline builds on, and transforms earlier theoretical approaches, in the social sciences, to the study of human culture and society. The course also addresses how an anthropological commitment to ethnographic fieldwork, as a research method, and as the foundation for cross-cultural comparison, shapes contemporary approaches to the study of human social and cultural life. Students are introduced to the history and politics of the emergence of social anthropology as a discipline and the broad approaches that have been used in the past and that are used now to understand human society and culture.  Studying anthropology in Year 1 involves assimilating a great deal of information about different human societies and various aspects of human social life. To help students make sense of all that information and to learn how to start thinking anthropologically about it, Key Ideas in Social Anthropology will provide an introduction to a general theoretical framework. This will help students to understand what anthropology is as a field of study, what kinds of questions it poses, and how it goes about answering those questions. Students will be encouraged to think critically about what kind of knowledge about people and society social anthropologists produce. The course enables students to:a) locate anthropology in a wider history of how people have sought to understand the world and the people around them, so that we can see anthropology as one form of what a “will to knowledge” - a drive to comprehend, which motivates human enquiries such as science and social science; andb) understand how the basic anthropological ways of grasping how people operate in society have emerged, developed and changed. Why did anthropologists take one kind of approach in the late nineteenth century, a different set of approaches in the middle twentieth and different ones again in the late twentieth and early twenty-first? What is at stake in these different approaches? Do earlier approaches simply pass away as “wrong”, or contribute to developing understandings (perhaps in ways we’d prefer to avoid).c) apply the ideas and concepts that anthropologists work with to reflect on the social, political and ethical stakes of a variety of contemporary issues.  The aim of this course is to give students an introduction to a history of some of the key ideas, guiding debates and underlying theoretical and methodological approaches that ground Social Anthropology as a field of enquiry. We will explore the history and politics of how anthropology as a discipline has emerged; the broad approaches it has used to understand human culture and society; and the way these have changed over time. The course has three inter-related aims:--to give students an understanding of the historical development of the discipline of Social Anthropology--to introduce students to some of the key ideas that have shaped anthropological thought and analysis--to foster students’ capacities to reason anthropologically about a variety of contemporary debates by understanding how theories and concepts are mobilised.   On completion of this module, successful students will have acquired:                                 •  A critical understanding of the context of enquiry into human social life in which anthropology first emerged as a field of study •  A critical grasp of some of the key approaches and influences in anthropology, including functionalism, structuralism, Marxism, feminism, post-colonialism and post-modernism •  An understanding of the changing meanings of “culture” and “society” in these approaches•  An ability to assess the relevance of all these approaches to anthropology today   0 Other 100% Final essay - 1200 words (worth 100%) There are 3 key ways to get feedback for this course: the most important is the tutorial, which is intended as the place to try out your ideas, raise your questions regarding the text and work through any areas that are unclear. You can also get feedback on your learning from your Teaching Assistant at their dedicated office hours and from the course leader and lecturer at their dedicated office hours indicated on the front of this syllabus.   SOAN10322 Intro to Ethnographic Reading Co-Requisite Compulsory Y Lectures 20 Tutorials 10 0 70