Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ANT2005: Current Debates in Anthropology: Practice

This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

Civil Disobedience and Activism

The Animals in our Food

Desire, Consumption and Waste

New forms of Kinship

What place for Collective Emotions?

Non-binary Genders and Non-normative Sexualities

Who is / What is a person anyway / anymore?

Tourism and the Commodification of Culture

Conflict, Violence and Terrorism

Conservation and the Anthropocene 

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
221280

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities11Lectures (including film screenings where relevant) (11 x 1 hours)
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities11Tutorials (11 x 1 hours)
Guided independent study 33Lecture and seminar preparation: Reading of the set texts for weekly lectures and the tutorials
Guided independent study 11Writing weekly response papers
Guided independent study 33Additional reading with guidance from the lecturer
Guided independent study 25Preparation and writing of essay
Guided independent study 20Recapitulation of reading done throughout the term; preparation of essay plans; portfolio revision, etc
Guided independent study 6Background research conducted by the student depending on need and interest

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

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.

Hastrup, K. 1990. Anthropological Advocacy: A contradition in terms? Current Anthropology 31 (3): 301-311. Kellett, P. 2009. 'Advocacy in Anthropology: Active Engagement or Passive Scholarship?' Durham Anthropology Journal, 16 (1): 22-31.
Scheper-Hughes, N. 1995. The primacy of the ethical: propositions for a militant anthropology. Current Anthropology, 409-440.
Ingold, T. 2002. From Trust to Domination: An Alternative History of Human-Animal Relations. In: Manning, A. and Serpell, J. (eds.) Animals and Human Society: Changing Perspectives, 1-22. Taylor and Francis.
Peace, A. 2008. Meat in the genes. Anthropology Today, 24(3): 5-10.
Evans, David (2012) “Beyond the Throwaway Society: Ordinary Domestic Practice and a Sociological Approach to Household Food Waste,” Sociology 46 (1): 1-16.
Graeber, David (2011) “Consumption,” Current Anthropology 52 (4): 489-511.
Clarke, M. 2008. New kinship, Islam, and the liberal tradition: sexual morality and new reproductive technology in Lebanon. JRAI, 14(1): 153-169.
Weston, K. 1997b. The politics of gay families. Families we choose: Lesbians, gays and kinship. Columbia University Press.
Allard, O. 2013. To cry one's distress: death, emotion, and ethics among the Warao of the Orinoco Delta. JRAI, 19(3):545–561.
Chouliaraki, Lilie (2008) Symbolic power of transnational media: managing the visibility of suffering. Global Media and Communication, 4 (3). pp. 329-351.
Astuti, R. 1998. It’s a boy! It’s a girl! Reflections on sex and gender in Madagascar and beyond. In Lambek and Strathern eds., Bodies and persons: comparative perspectives from Africa and Melanesia.
Kulick, D. 1997. The gender of Brazilian transgendered prostitutes. American Anthropologist 99(3): 574-585.
Robertson, J. 2014 “Human Rights vs. Robot Rights: Forecasts from Japan.” Critical Asian Studies 46(4): 571-598.
Shir-Vertesh, D. 2012. "Flexible Personhood": Loving Animals as Family Members in Israel. American Anthropologist, 114(3): 420-432.
Bunten, Alexis Celeste 2008. “Sharing culture or selling out? Developing the commodified persona in the heritage industry,” American Ethnologist 35 (3): 380-395.
Butt, Bilal 2012. “Commoditizing the safari and making space for conflict: Place, identity and parks in East Africa,” Political Geography 31 (2): 104–113.
Galtung, J. 1990. Cultural Violence. Journal of Peace Research, 27(3):291–305
Kuznar, Lawrence A. (2007) “Rationality Wars and the War on Terror: Explaining Terrorism and Social Unrest,” American Anthropologist 109 (2): 318–329.
Crate, Susan A. (2011) “Climate and Culture: Anthropology in the Era of Contemporary Climate Change,” Annual Review of Anthropology 40: 175-194.
Tsing, A. 2017. The Buck, the Bull, and the Dream of the Stag: Some unexpected weeds of the Anthropocene. Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society, 42(1): 3-21.