Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ANT1004: Introduction to Social Anthropology-Theorising the Everyday World

This module descriptor refers to the 2017/8 academic year.

Module Aims

This module will deepen your foundational knowledge of anthropological theory and concepts, and expand your ability to think critically and analytically about key questions and problems in studying the worlds of other people and our own. You will also begin to develop a sensibility for the practical and ethical issues arising in the context of ethnographic fieldwork (and related qualitative social research) whose methods are increasingly used in a variety of organisational and professional contexts

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. show a solid understanding of the extent and nature of human diversity and commonality as seen from a socio-cultural perspective;
2. demonstrate - in written and oral presentations and the exams - the relationship between specific social and cultural forms in relation to broader global and historical processes;
3. show facility in the use of the repertoire of key concepts and approaches of anthropological analysis;
4. display, in written and oral form, the ability to question cultural assumptions;
Discipline-Specific Skills5. critically evaluate contemporary anthropological and related texts;
6. display - in written and oral form - an understanding of the discipline's relation to, and difference from, from other approaches and explanations offered in the social sciences;
7. identify and assess key anthropological issues relevant to the contemporary world, and develop critical, comparative and cross-cultural insight;
Personal and Key Skills8. demonstrate transferable skills in formulating, researching and addressing focused questions;
9. prepare focused and comprehensive written and oral presentations, and in discussing ideas and interpretations with others in a clear and reasoned way;
10. plan and execute work independently and in collaboration with others; and
11. demonstrate skills in cross-cultural understanding, translation and comparison, which will be of advantage in a broad range of professional settings.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Appadurai, A. (ed.) 1986. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Barnard, A. and J. Spencer (eds) 1996. Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Routledge.

Benda-Beckmann, K. von & F. Pirie (eds) 2007. Order and Disorder: Anthropological Perspectives. Oxford and New York: Berghahn.

Carsten, J. 2004. After Kinship. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press

Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and Danger. London: Routledge.

Dumont, L. 1980. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gell, A. 1998. Art and Agency in Anthropological Theory.Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Mauss, M. 1990 (1924). The Gift: The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies. London: Routledge.

Miller, D. (ed.) 1993. Unwrapping Christmas. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Turner, V. 1969. The Ritual Process: structure and anti-structure.

ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/