SANb1018 History of Social Anthropologyy

Faculty of Social Studies
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Irena Kašparová, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Irena Kašparová, M.A., Ph.D.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites
! SANb2032 History of Social Anthropology
Enthusiasm for the course
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 25 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/25, only registered: 8/25, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 8/25
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
To gain general overview and knowledge about the roots of the discipline of Social Anthropology, starting from its annex from sociology and history, over the theories of evolutionism, relativism and all the way to new ethnographies in 1960´s. It builds upon the course Introduction to Social Anthropology SANb1001 but due to greater amount of time goes much more in depth.
Learning outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students shall be able to: i) critically assess key texts and thinkers to have shaped the biographical genre within the field of social anthropology and beyond over the past century; ii) engage with selected relevant readings that reflect key debates and analytically consider such debates; iii) apply skills of writing to engage in critical debate at an introductory level.
Syllabus
  • Anthropology has traditionally been conceived as the study of the ‘Other’ and this within the framework of non-western cultures. The reflexive and critical approaches within the social sciences, especially during the mid-twentieth century, have re-focused the epistemological lenses of theory and methodology (amongst others ‘ethnography’) back at many such things as the Imperial gaze and Empirical haze, Western intellectual thought and academic pursuits themselves – hence back at the very activities of the discipline itself. This move was accompanied, perhaps even prompted, by an historic shift in the field for accepting the validity of situated studies of the ‘self’, anthropologies at home and even the auto-deconstruction of western intellectual communities. After exploring such epistemological questions, the course examines the effects of recent socio-political transformations in the traditional ways of doing socio-cultural anthropology and of being professional, card-carrying anthropologist. Consequently, we will also deal with a number of themes implicitly. These include: identities and the ‘nationalisms’ of ideas; post-colonialism; multiculturalism; intellectual diasporas and transnational migration of anthropologists. Additional topics may be added.
Literature
    required 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
    not specified
  • Fieldwork and footnotes : studies in the history of European anthropology. Edited by Han F. Vermeulen - Arturo Alvarez Roldán. New York: Routledge, 1995, xi, 261. ISBN 0415106567. URL info
Teaching methods
Lectures, class discussion, group presentations, homework, reading
Assessment methods
Individual writing assignement Group presentation Final Exam
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/autumn2024/SANb1018