AN405
The Anthropology of Kinship, Sex and Gender
This information is for the 2011/12 session.
Teachers responsible
Dr Harry Walker, OLD 6.14 and Professor Rita Astuti, OLD 6.11
Availability
For MSc Social Anthropology, MSc Anthropology and Development, MSc Law, Anthropology and Society, MSc China in Comparative Perspective, MSc Biomedicine, Bioscience and Society and MSc Gender. Course content
An examination of the cultural frameworks and social aspects of kinship systems, gender roles, personhood and human sexuality, analysed through ethnographic examples from diverse cultures; an analysis of theoretical debates concerning core concepts such as 'kinship', 'marriage', 'gender', 'sex' and 'person' and a critical discussion of 'nature' and 'culture'.
The course charts the history of anthropological debates on kinship and gender, and the critique of the notion of 'kinship' in the light of symbolic approaches, gender theory and culturally variant theories of sexuality and procreation.
Teaching
Lectures: AN405 weekly MT, LT, Seminars AN405.A weekly MT, LT. Indicative reading
M Fortes & E Evans-Pritchard African Political Systems (1940) GN490 F73; C Lévi-Strauss The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1969) GN487 L66; D Schneider A Critique of the Study of Kinship (1984) GN487 S35; C MacCormack & M Strathern Nature, Culture and Gender (1980) GN479.65 N28; J. Goody (ed) The Character of Kinship (1973) GN487 G65; R. Fox Kinship and Marriage (1967) GN480 F79; J. Carsten (ed) Cultures of Relatedness (2000) GN487 C96; J. Carsten After Kinship (2003) GN487 C32; M. G. Peletz (1995) Kinship Studies in Late Twentieth Century Anthropology. Review of Anthropology, 24, pp 343-372. (available through JSTOR); S. Ortner. (1996) Making Gender: The Politics and Erotics of Culture; H. L. Moore. (1988) Feminism and Anthropology.
Assessment
There is a three-hour examination in the ST. ^
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