Dr Laura Bear OLD 6.09

Katy Gardner OLD 5.07

This course is compulsory on the BA in Anthropology and Law, BA in Social Anthropology and BSc in Social Anthropology. This course is available on the BSc in Environment and Development. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

This course provides a general introduction to Social Anthropology as the comparative study of human societies and cultures. The Michaelmas term will focus on the relationship between culture and nature addressing topics such as: gender, body techniques and the senses; experiences of time; relations between the environment and society; race and nationalism. The Lent term will address institutions and concepts that shape society in various contexts including: love and kinship, space, place and belonging, ethnicity and migration and different forms of inequality and hiearchy. 

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of lectures and 1 hour of classes in the ST.

Students are expected to prepare discussion material for presentation in the classes and are required to write assessment essays. Anthropology students taking this course will have an opportunity to submit a tutorial essay for this course to their personal tutors. For non-Anthropology students taking this course, a formative essay may be submitted to the course teacher.

R Astuti et al (eds.), Questions of anthropology (2007), M Bloch, Prey into Hunter (1996); M Mauss, The Gift (1970).

Exam (70%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (15%, 2500 words) in the MT.
Essay (15%, 2500 words) in the LT.