Prof David Graeber OLD 6.10, Dr Johannes Steinmuller OLD 5.06A and Dr Harry Walker OLD 5.06B

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

Students should have a substantial background in Social Anthropology.

The aim of this course is to train students to engage critically with classic and contemporary texts in the discipline. It will examine the theoretical implications of particular anthropological approaches by surveying their origins, their strengths and their critique. The course will take the form of an intensive reading group in which approximately six texts (three in each of MT and LT) will be discussed and analysed in depth, along with supplementary reading material where appropriate. Students will be expected to develop their own critical responses to the text, as well as an appreciation of the context in which it was written and its contribution to relevant theoretical discussions and debates.

10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of classes in the MT. 10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of classes in the LT.

Students are expected to prepare discussion material for presentation in weekly classes and to write short commentaries on the required readings for each week. 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.

Bateson, Gregory. Naven: Survey of the Problems Suggested by a Composite Picture of the Culture of a New Guinea Tribe. Seligman, Adam B., Robert P. Weller, and Michael J. Puett. Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity. Levi-Strauss, Claude. The Savage Mind. Descola, Philippe. Beyond Nature and Culture. Laidlaw, James. The Subject of Virtue: An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom. Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years.  Supplementary readings will be provided at the start of term.

Essay (30%, 2500 words) in the MT.
Essay (30%, 2500 words) and essay (30%, 2500 words) in the LT.
Class participation (10%) in the MT and LT.