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, Power and intimacy in the Christian Philippines.
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.
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
In the first year you will need to take the following courses:
1 AN100 Introduction to Social Anthropology
2 AN101 Ethnography and Theory: Selected Texts
3 LL106 Public Law
4 LL105 Property I (H) and LL109 Introduction to the Legal System (H)
Full programme regulations, including details of second and third year compulsory and optional courses can be found here.
Provisional Timetable
The provisional timetable for 2016/17 is not yet available. Larger courses, such as AN100 will have weekly lectures and multiple class groups each week. You will be allocated to a class at the beginning of term.