Professor Maurice Bloch, A611 and Dr Henrike Donner, H613

This course is compulsory for BA/BSc Social Anthropology. It is optional for BA Anthropology and Law and available to students on other degrees as permitted by the regulations.

Students should have a substantial background in Social Anthropology.

The aim of the course is to train students to look critically at the theoretical implications of anthropological approaches by examining their origins, their strengths and their critique.

The content of the course is dependent in large part on the interests and expertise of the current teaching staff. Current topics include theories of meaning, theories dealing with power relations, theories of practice and the nature of the social and of culture.  We will consider the theory of human beings that are and have been taken for granted in anthropological theory and engage with ideas about power, social reproduction, history and ethics in anthropology.

Lectures AN300 weekly MT, LT, Classes AN300.A weekly MT, LT.

Students are expected to prepare discussion material for presentation in weekly classes and to write short commentaries on the required readings for each week.

Anthropology students taking this course will have an opportunity to submit a tutorial essay for this course to their personal tutors. For non-Anthropology students taking this course, a formative essay may be submitted to the course teacher.

R Wagner, The Invention of Culture; E.R. Leach, Political Systems of Highland Burma; C. Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind; M. Foucault; M. Bloch, Essays on Cultural Transmission; P. Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice. A detailed reading list is provided at the beginning of the course.

A three-hour examination in the ST worth 80%. The remaining 20% is based on two assessed essays.