Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ANT2012: The Human Condition: Classic Readings in Anthropology

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

Module Aims

This module aims:

- To help you develop a critical, nuanced, and self-confident understanding of key concepts, theories and schools within anthropology.

- To raise your awareness of the importance of cultural, socio-economic and political factors that have shaped, and continue to shape, the study of anthropology.

- To help you explore the interdisciplinary relationships between anthropology, sociology, and philosophy.

- To provide you with opportunities interrogate difficult texts for nuances and layers of meaning, styles and strategies of reasoning, as well as tensions and contradictions.

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 Skills	1. demonstrate knowledge of the canon of anthropological literature and key historic developments in the history of the discipline; 2. understand major historical debates in the discipline;
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. critically present theoretical ideas in relation to existing body of anthropological literature; 4. demonstrate understanding of key concepts and theories in the discipline; 5. demonstrate awareness of contextual factors impacting on the study of cultural and physical diversity of humans, and ethical and political dilemmas resulting from this;
Personal and Key Skills	6. access and interpret difficult texts; 7. build and defend an argument based on close interpretation of texts; and

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:

1: Introduction

2: The Enlightenment Paradox: Kant on Race and Cosmopolitanism

3: Charles Darwin and the Evolution of Mankind

4: Friedrich Engels and the Origin of the Family

5: Franz Boas and the Critique of Race

6: Marcel Mauss on Exchange

7: Bronislaw Malinowski: Anthropology and Psychoanalysis

8: Claude Lévi-Strauss and Structuralism s

9: Mary Douglas and the Anthropology of Religion

10: Jack Goody and the Impact of Literacy

11: Summary

Learning and Teaching

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

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128	0

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

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity	22	11 x 2 hour seminars
Guided Independent Study	22	Seminar preparation
Guided Independent Study	44	Module reading
Guided Independent Study	62	Essay writing

Online Resources

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

ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/

Anthropology Online. Alexander Street Press. Access through Electronic Library.

JSTOR. Access through Electronic Library.

Internet Archive.

Bioheritage Online Library.