Course syllabus

Lecturer:  Dr. Pauline Herbst

Course director:   Assoc. Prof. Susanna Trnka

Guest Lecturers:  Dr. Mark Busse , Assoc. Prof. Susanna Trnka

Lecture Time: Mondays 3-5 pm

Tutorial/Discussion Time: Mondays 5-6pm | Tuesdays 12-1pm | Tuesdays 1-2pm

Office Hours & Contact Info:                                

Office hours: From 30 March 2020 until further notice office hours will be held virtually on Zoom on Wednesdays 10.00-12.00 p.m. Meeting ID: 921-165-582.

When normal classes resume these will revert to physical office hours in SSB 806 (SSB is the Social Sciences Building, at 10 Symonds St, formerly the Human Sciences Building HSB) - no need to make an appointment, just come on in!

Email: p.herbst@auckland.ac.nz

I welcome all of your questions, queries, discussions, and debates! But outside of our allocated class time, please try and keep drop-in visits to my office hours. If you genuinely need to see me outside of this time, please email me to organise 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 20^th 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 21^st 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 assessments, download the 2020 COURSE OUTLINE that appears under the "Files" tab on CANVAS.