Course syllabus

 

Convenor:               Assoc. Prof. Susanna Trnka

Guest Lecturers:    Dr. Christine Dureau, Dr. Courtney Addison,  & Dr. Mark Busse

 

Lecture Time: Mondays 2-4 pm

Tutorial/Discussion Time: Thursdays 3-4 pm

 

Office Hours & Contact Info:                                

Office hours: Thursdays 1-3 p.m. in HSB 825 (HSB is the Human Sciences Building, at 10 Symonds St)  - no need to make an appointment, just come on in!

 

Email: s.trnka@auckland.ac.nz

 

I welcome all of your questions, queries, discussions, and debates! But outside of our allocated class time, please try and keep these to my office hours. If you genuinely need to see me outside of this time, please email me for an appointment in advance.

 

 Points: 15.0 points

 

Prerequisites: ANTHRO 100 and 15 points from ANTHRO 101, 102, 103, 104, 106 or 60 points passed.

 

 

 COURSE DESCRIPTION, AIMS AND OUTCOMES

 Welcome to ANTHRO 203!

 

The aim of this paper is to introduce you to some of the major theoretical perspectives that have shaped social anthropology through the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Centuries, reflecting on how theory shapes the ways we know and experience the world, and how anthropologists have used different theoretical approaches to make sense of human behaviour. The course is structured around two principle themes: an exploration of different theoretical approaches in anthropology, particularly the way social thinkers since Marx, Durkheim, and Malinowski have attempted to make sense of culture, society, power and agency. Second, how and why theory is useful and necessary for understanding and critiquing social phenomena, and why we need to use theory to understand 21st century life.

 

Given the vast range of different theoretical perspectives that have been developed in anthropology, we can only consider a limited number of theoretical approaches in any detail. We will examine them in reference to their social and historical contexts, their key ideas, their principle exponents, and their implications for anthropology’s explanatory power and methods. As should become apparent, no single theory has a monopoly of wisdom, and none can explain everything one needs to know about the human condition. All social theories should be evaluated in terms of their usefulness or appropriateness for the kinds of data or research questions we aim to analyse.

 

* For the schedule of lectures, list of course readings, details on additional resources and overview of assements, download the 2018 COURSE OUTLINE that appears under the "Files" tab on CANVAS. 

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due