This module is not currently running in 2022 to 2023.
The aim of this module is to introduce students to the relevance of anthropological debates to contemporary political issues, specifically in relation to one of the most pertinent and persistent phenomena of the 20th century: violent conflict and war. Students will gain a firsthand insight into one of anthropology's main contributions: the way that small-scale issues can be related to much broader and perhaps universal questions about human nature, violence, poverty and inequality. Even though this module will focus on anthropological approaches to violence and conflict, it will also draw on discussions from other disciplines (such as philosophy and political theory), such as human nature, war and genocide, legitimacy and the state. Other topics that will be covered include memory, gender, subjectivity, structural violence, reconstruction and reconciliation, as well as anthropological approaches to peace, emotions and human suffering. In addition, by discussing the ethics of doing research in conflict situations, this module will allow students to critically engage with the challenges, dilemmas and limitations of anthropological research methods. The module is designed in a way that it encourages students to engage with current affairs and to get first insights into how anthropology can contribute to our understanding of political, social and historical events.
Total contact hours: 22
Private study hours: 128
Total study hours: 150
BSc: Anthropology; BA: Social Anthropology; Joint Honours; with a Language; with a Year Abroad
Also available as an elective module.
Research Project, 2500 words (50%)
Book Review, 1500 words (30%)
Seminar participation (20%)
Reassessment method: Like for like
Das, Veena, Arthur Kleinman, Margaret Lock, Mamphela Ramphele & Pamela Reynolds. 2001. Remaking a World: Violence, Social Suffering, and Recovery. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Farmer, Paul. 2003. Pathologies of Power. Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
Howell, Signe and Roy Wills. 1989. Societies at Peace: Anthropological Perspectives. London: Routledge.
Kiernan, Ben. 2007. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermnation from Sparta to Darfur. Yale University Press.
Kwon, Heonik. 2008. Ghosts of War in Vietnam, Studies in the Social and Cultural History of Modern Warfare, No. 27. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Navaro-Yashin, Yael. 2012. The Make-Believe Space: Affective Geography in a Postwar Polity. Duke University Press.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
8.1 be conversant with the major theoretical positions taken in contemporary Social Anthropology;
8.2 discuss critically the evidence supporting competing anthropological theories;
8.3 connect the way anthropological debates relate to current affairs, including political, social and economic developments and historical events;
8.4 describe some of the historical development of anthropological ideas in the 20th century;
8.5 have cultivated an in-depth understanding of the recognised topic in anthropology of violence and conflict and the related fields of power and politics, the nation-state, anthropological approaches to memory and emotions, gender, war and ethics;
8.6 construct coherent and logical arguments, particularly in written form, which combine general theoretical writings with discussion of ethnographic data;
8.7 plan a small research project that connects anthropological debates to broader social issues and current events;
8.8 present their findings in an oral presentation and work with other students in order to develop their ideas.
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