Not available in 2015/16
AN231 Half Unit
The Anthropology of China
This information is for the 2015/16 session.
Teacher responsible
Prof Stephan Feuchtwang OLD6.12 and Ms Charlotte Bruckermann KGS1.06
Availability
This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law, BA in Social Anthropology and BSc in Social Anthropology. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.
Pre-requisites
Undergraduates taking this course should have completed an introductory course in anthropology unless granted exemption by the course teacher
Course content
The anthropological study of China offers new perspectives on general topics. Topics that will be considered are kinship; relatedness; gender; gift, honour, and trust; the performance of love; ritual and belief; the ambivalence and scales of hospitality; the stranger king; gods and ghosts; civilisation and its others; and the modern state.
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the MT.
Formative coursework
Students are expected to prepare discussion material for presentation in the classes and are required to write assessment essays. 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
Indicative reading
Brandtstädter, Susanne and Santos, Gonçalo (eds.) Chinese Kinship:
Contemporary anthropological perspectives; Fong, Vanessa Only Hope:
Coming of Age under Chinas One-Child Policy; Feuchtwang, Stephan
The Anthropology of Religion, Charisma, and Ghosts; Chinese lessons for adequate
theory; Gates, Hill Chinas Motor: A thousand years of petty capitalism;
Watson, James; E Rawski (Eds) Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern
China; Stafford, Charles ;Separation and Reunion in Modern
China; Yan, Yunxiang Private Life under Socialism.
Good background reading in history: Spence, Jonathan D. (1990) The Search for
Modern China.
Detailed reading lists are provided at the beginning of the course.
Assessment
Exam (70%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Essay (30%, 2500 words) in the MT.
The assessed essay must be between 2,000 – 2,500 words in length.
Key facts
Department: Anthropology
Total students 2014/15: Unavailable
Average class size 2014/15: Unavailable
Capped 2014/15: No
Value: Half Unit
