This course enables students to contextualize a number of influential theoretical approaches in social anthropology. Students are given the opportunity to broaden their insight into the work of scholars who have introduced key concepts into the study of social structures, societal practices, and the method of ethnography. Furthermore, students will practise critically assessing theoretical debates.

In-depth focus on a selection of historical and contemporary theoretical concepts in social and cultural anthropology.

Contents:

1. Functionalism and Cultural Materialism (Malinowski; White)
2. Social Structure (Radcliffe-Brown; Leach; Lévi-Strauss)
3. Structural Analysis (Lévi-Strauss)
4. Capital and Power in Western Anthropology (Weber; Wolf)
5. Theory of Practice (Bourdieu)
6. Interpretation and Ethnography (Geertz; Gupta and Ferguson)

Grades: 70% paper and 30% active participation.

Paper: A critical essay (12-15 pages, including bibliography) on a paper and/or theoretical theme to be selected from the study materials.

Active participation: students are to give one presentation to the group (chosen from the contents list of six themes) as well as prepare questions for each session that are to be debated between participants.

Moore and Sanders (eds.) 2006: Anthropology in Theory. Issues in Epistemology. Blackwell.

Moore (ed.) 1999: Anthropological Theory Today. Polity.