This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
To what extent is Southeast Asia a field of anthropological enquiry? Can we identify distinctive cultural similarities in this region diverse in politics and religion? How have historical, economic, political and ecological changes affected different Southeast Asian societies? With a strong emphasis on Austronesian-speaking peoples of island Southeast Asia, this course covers a selected range of key topics in anthropology. These include the differences between lowland and upland societies, the impact of colonial encounters, kinship and social organisation, power, hierarchy and the state, as well as gender, religion, ethnicity and nationalism, conflict, death, modernity, history and social change.
Contact Hours: 22
Private Study Hours: 128
Total Study Hours: 150 hours
BSc Anthropology and associated programmes; BA Social Anthropology and associated programmes
40% written commentaries on weekly readings (cumulative mark for a portfolio of selected readings – overall word count 2500 words)
60% 2000 word essay
Reassessment instrument: 100% coursework
Brenner, S.A. (1998) The Domestication of Desire: Women, Wealth and Modernity in Java. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Cannell, F. (1999) Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Leo Howe (2002) Hinduism and Hierarchy in Bali
V. King and W. Wilder (2003) The Modern Anthropology of South-East Asia
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
8.1. Identify the countries of the region and their important geographical features;
8.2. Identify the principal ethnic groups and describe their religious beliefs and practices and patterns of kinship organisation;
8.3. Critically discussin writing and orally, problems arising from modernisation and development in the region;
8.4. Critically discuss issues of gender and hierarchy as they affect the region today.
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