Preliminary reading list
Incoming students sometimes ask us to recommend books and articles they can read in the summer months, before starting their programmes of study at the LSE. Below is a preliminary reading list which you might like to explore in the coming months - through borrowing some of the titles from your local library rather than buying them. Please note, however, that you are not obliged to do any reading before the course begins.
For students who have a limited background in social anthropology, it may be useful to read one of the following textbooks.
T. H. Eriksen, Small places, large issues: an introduction to social and cultural anthropology.
M. Carrithers, Why humans have cultures.
R. Keesing & A. Strathern, Cultural anthropology: a contemporary perspective. [This book is out of print but is still available from online booksellers.]
R. Astuti et al (eds), Questions of anthropology.
You might also consider reading one or more of these classic texts:
B. Malinowski, Argonauts of the western Pacific.
Claude Levi-Strauss, The savage mind.
E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Nuer religion.
Edmund Leach, Political systems of highland Burma.
Clifford Geertz, The interpretation of cultures.
Marshall Sahlins, Islands of history.
You might also want to read one or more books or articles written by members of staff at the LSE, in order to familiarise yourself with some of our work. If you look at the departmental website, under 'people', you’ll find details of publications by individual members of staff or you can see Recent Books online. You’ll also see that many of us have articles freely available in the LSE Research Online repository. Some recent books include:
Catherine Allerton, Potent Landscapes: Place and Mobility in Eastern Indonesia.
Rita Astuti, Jonathan Parry & Charles Stafford (eds.), Questions of anthropology.
Mukulika Banerjee, Muslim portraits.
Laura Bear, Lines of the nation: Indian railway workers, bureaucracy, and the intimate historical self.
Maurice Bloch, In and Out of Each Other's Bodies.
Fenella Cannell, The anthropology of Christianity.
Matthew Engelke, A problem of presence: beyond scripture in an African church.
Deborah James (Ed), Culture Wars: Context, Models and Anthropologists' Accounts.
Deborah James, Gaining ground: “rights” and “property” in South African land reform.
Nicholas Long (Ed), Sociality: New Directions.
Mathijs Pelkmans, Ethnographies of Doubt: Faith and Uncertainty in Contemporary Societies.
Mathijs Pelkmans, Conversion after Socialism: Disruptions, Modernisms and Technologies of Faith in the Former Soviet Union.
Mathijs Pelkmans, Defending the border: identity, religion and modernity in the Republic of Georgia.
Michael Scott, The severed snake: matrilineages, making place, and a Melanesian Christianity in Southeast Solomon Islands.
Charles Stafford, Ordinary Ethics in China.
Hans Steinmuller, Communities of Complicity: Everyday Ethics in Rural China.
Harry Walker, Under a Watchful Eye: Self, Power and Intimacy in Amazonia.
Lists of course-specific readings may be found by consulting the course guide pages. Please note that pages relevant to 2016/17 studies are still being updated.
Course availability
The table below contains a listing of our intended Anthropology courses for 2016/7, but please note that these may be subject to change due to circumstances beyond our control. We have also included a listing of courses which have been run recently, but which are not available this year, for your information.
Courses marked with an (H) are half units.
The online registration facility for choosing courses is usually released onto LSE for You in September, and you will have until midday on 10 October to make your selections.
Some courses are capped to a certain maximum size. Caps are set, or not, by the Department owning each course. Details of which courses are to be capped are not yet available. Please be aware that Departments may give preference to students registered on their own programmes when offering places on capped courses.
Paper
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Course number and title (H = half unit)
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1
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AN404 Anthropology: Theory and Ethnography
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2
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Courses to the value of one unit from the following:
AN402 The Anthropology of Religion
AN405 The Anthropology of Kinship, Sex and Gender
AN451 Anthropology of Politics (H)
AN456 Anthropology of Economy (1): Production and Exchange (H)
AN457 Anthropology of Economy (2): Transformation and Globalisation (H)
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3
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One or two of the following to the value of one full unit:
Either paper(s) from section 2 above not already taken, or
AN436 The Anthropology of Development (H)
AN444 Investigating the Philippines- New Approaches and Ethnographic Contexts (H)
AN447 China in Comparative Perspective
AN461 The Anthropology of Ontology (H)
AN467 The Anthropology of South Asia (H)
AN473 Anthropological Approaches to Value (H)
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4
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AN499 Dissertation
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Notes
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The following courses will not be available in 2016/17:
AN419 The Anthropology of Christianity (H)
AN420 The Anthropology of Southeast Asia (H)
AN424 The Anthropology of Melanesia (H)
AN437 Anthropology of Learning and Cognition
AN439 Anthropology and Human Rights (H)
AN458 Children and Youth in Contemporary Ethnography (H)
AN459 Anthropology and Media (H)
AN469 The Anthropology of Amazonia (H)
AN474 Subjectivity and Anthropology (H)
AN475 The Anthropology of Revolution (H)
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Provisional Timetable
The provisional timetable for 2016/17 is not yet available. Larger Anthropology courses, such as AN404 will have multiple seminars each week. You will be put into a group at the beginning of term and will only need to attend one seminar per week in addition to the weekly lecture.
Welcome Week
In the week before the start of teaching in the Michaelmas term we will be having departmental orientation sessions for all new students. These are in addition to the LSE's Welcome Week events, and they will provide you with important information about the department and your programme of study, as well as giving you the opportunity to meet your new peers and getting to know the academic and administrative staff, who will be able to answer your questions.