This module is not currently running in 2021 to 2022.
The curriculum for this module will consist of professional ethnographic monographs of varying length to be read at the rate of one (or selected substantial parts of one) monograph per week. The selection of the ethnographies will be determined by thematic conjunction with the analytical topics to be taught in the Advanced Social Anthropology 2 module, thereby divided into two congruent blocs. These are labelled ‘Power and Authority’ and ‘Belief and Practice’ [see Module specification for SE 589]. Students will be expected to come to class with notes from their reading and will be encouraged to discuss that reading and to relate it to wider anthropological issues raised or implied by the authors of the ethnographies and also dealt with historically and analytically in the co-requisite module Advanced Social Anthropology 1. Considerable time will be spent, particularly in the earlier classes, on instruction about how to ‘read’ an ethnography e.g. on how to examine its implicit (as opposed to explicit) theoretical assumptions, on how to place it within the historical development of the discipline, on how to evaluate its empirical exemplification of particular theoretical problems, on how to evaluate the relationship between ‘description’ and ‘analysis’, on how to evaluate it contribution to particular issues and topics within anthropology, and on the examination of its structure, presentation and ability to communicate an understanding of a social group through the written word.
12 x 2-hour weekly classes = 24 contact hours
This module contributes:
BA Social Anthropology, BA Social Anthropology with a Year Abroad
Assessment is by 40% unseen examination and 60% coursework.
Jackson, M. 2000. At Home in the World. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Scott, J. 1985.Weapons of the weak: everyday forms of peasant resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Turner, V.W., 1968. Schism and continuity in an African society: a study of Ndembu village life, Manchester: Manchester University Press for the Institute for African Studies at University of Zambia.
Willerslev, Rane. 2007. Soul Hunters. Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs. Berkely, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
To describe the contents of a number of ethnographic texts.
To identify the authors of specific ethnographic texts and indicate when and where the fieldwork described in the text was undertaken, as well as their conceptual background of problem-solving.
To discuss the strengths and weaknesses of specific texts.
To compare and contrast the approaches of different anthropologists and their ethnographies to questions of descriptive representation.
To explain the methods of research specific to the discipline of anthropology and illustrate them with reference to the studied local and regional ethnographies.
To relate specific texts to general theoretical anthropological topics, for example to the analysis of politics-ideology or the links of belief and practice.
To relate their reading for this module to wider conceptual and ethical concerns in anthropology, and within the social sciences in particular
University of Kent makes every effort to ensure that module information is accurate for the relevant academic session and to provide educational services as described. However, courses, services and other matters may be subject to change. Please read our full disclaimer.
