CMAa07 Introduction to Social Anthropology: The Way We Look and See

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2023
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Patrick Laviolette, PhD. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Irena Kašparová, M.A., Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
Mon 12:00–13:40 C34, except Mon 13. 11.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
To see does not imply mere absorption of visual effects. There is more to it, that goes somehow deeper, under the surface of the visual. To see implies understanding, comprehending, being able to link the sensory impulses with cognition. This course will teach the students that the way we look often implies the way we comprehend and understand, thus that the point we are looking from determines to a large extend our possibilities to see and to recognise. Students will learn about constitutive areas of interest of social anthropology. Culture will be looked upon as a complex system, comprised of numerous forms of power relationships among kin (family and kinship studies), believers (religion and belief studies), patrons and clients (economics) and the leading and the subordinated (politics). Anthropologist believe that in order to understand culture, you must understand it in all such complexity. Basic social theories of social anthropology will frame out exploration of similarities and differences in cultures. Multicultural background of the students in the class offers a wonderful social laboratory to do this.
Learning outcomes
After successfully completing this course, the student can use and apply his/her knowledge about the nature of social relations, social institutions and social acting in all areas of social life. S/he has the basic knowledge of core anthropological theories and basic orientation in areas of interest for anthropologists. S/he is beginning to recognise the importance of the native point of view and has a basic idea as to how to extract this knowledge.
Syllabus
  • 1. I and the Other: Roots of Social Anthropology 2. Among the Natives: Key Methods of Research in Early Anthropology 3. Seen and Unseen: Power of the Visual 4. You Are Not My Father: Kinships and Social Ties 5. One Bride Too Many: Marriage Alliances and Power 6. No Such Thing as Coincidence: Cosmology and Belief 7. Ever-present Rituals: Our Action Takes Us into Heaven 8. Death and the Manifestation of Life as Cultural Relativism 9. Subsistent Economics 10. Modern Forms of Economics 11. Conflict and Power relations 12. State and the State-less
Literature
  • A history of anthropology. Edited by Thomas Hylland Eriksen - Finn Sivert Nielsen. 2nd ed. London: Pluto Press, 2013, x, 254 p. ISBN 9781849649186. info
  • FERRARO, Gary. Classic readings in cultural anthropology. Belmont: Thomson learning, 2004, xv, 119 s. ISBN 0-534-61272-5. info
  • FERRARO, Gary P. Cultural anthropology : an applied perspective. 5th ed. Belmont: Thomson learning, 2004, xxiii, 413. ISBN 0534614973. info
  • Small places, large issues : an introduction to social cultural anthropology. Edited by Thomas Hylland Eriksen. 2nd ed. London: Pluto Press, 2001, x, 342. ISBN 0745317723. info
  • BENEDICT, Ruth. Patterns of culture. Edited by Margaret Mead. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1959, xvi, 290. info
Teaching methods
100 minutes lectures, seminars and discussions; essay writing and active participation in discussion; individual as well as collective reading and presentation.
Assessment methods
Oral presentation in seminar groups 25%, Written essay 25%, Oral exam 50%
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2022, Autumn 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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