Dr Fenella Cannell

This course is available on the BA in Anthropology and Law, BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in Social Anthropology, Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study, Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley, Exchange Programme for Students in Anthropology (Cape Town), Exchange Programme for Students in Anthropology (Fudan), Exchange Programme for Students in Anthropology (Melbourne) and Exchange Programme for Students in Anthropology (Tokyo). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

Students taking this course will normally have completed 100 level courses in anthropology; external students may be admitted by agreement with the course teacher. External students are advised to consult with the course teacher early in the term to check on assessment styles and expectations, and to ask for any additional guidance or recommended readings that may be useful. 

This course offers the chance to look at the ethnography of one country in more detail than is usual for regional courses. It considers topics taken from the ethnography of the lowland and highland Philippines, with a focus on exciting new high quality writing, drawing on the recent renaissance in Philippine Studies. The course will include works by expert non-Filipino ethnographers, and will also focus on the work of Filipino scholars whether resident in the Philippines or elsewhere. The course will be framed within the colonial, religious and social history of the archipelago, and will consider both new interpretations of Philippine history, and topics on contemporary social issues, as well as using classic works on the Philippines. Teaching each week will normally be organised around the reading of one outstanding ethnography, allowing students to look closely at particular cases; in some years, particular key ethnographies may be used to link more than one topic. Topics in any year are likely to be drawn from the following list (although obviously only ten topics can be offered in one year): migration and overseas Filipino workers; transnational marriage and the Philippine diaspora; new religious movements; Philippine colonialism and the processes of conversion; healing, spirit possession, midwifery and local medicine; the contemporary Catholic Church; ecology, landscape and environmental politics; Kinship and its transformations; gender, Philippine queer theory and Philippine cross-dressing practices; ritual, drama and local performance traditions; Philippine architecture and material culture; Philippine cinema; colonial politics and its legacies; indigenous and minority rights and issues of self-representation; magic, sorcery and "anitismo"; tourism, symbolic economies and the impact of international capitalism; post-colonialism; the Duterte period and authoritarianism.

LSE is currently evaluating the use of edit tracking tools for AI-resilient assessment. This course might use edit tracking tools for assessments.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Students can expect to read two article-length pieces of work in preparation for each class, as well as making a note of any questions from the lecture for that topic. 

Essay (1500 words).

Students will be encouraged to think ahead to their eventual rationale for the summative work as part of their formative assessment.

Michelle Rosaldo, Knowledge and Passion;

Vicente Rafael, Contracting Colonialism;

Fenella Cannell, Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines;

Sally-Ann Ness, Where Asia Smiles;

Heather L Claussen, Unconventional Sisterhood;

M F Manalansan, Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora;

Vicente Rafael, White Love and Other Events in Filipino History;

Nicole Constable, Maid to order in Hong Kong;

Albert Alejo, Generating Energies in Mount Apo.   

Deirdre de la Cruz: Mother Figured

Vicente Rafael: The Sovereign Trixter: death and laughter in the age of Duterte.

Mina Roces: The Filipino Migration Experience: global agents of change 

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in Spring Term Week 1.

Summative essays should demonstrate the student's independent close readings of course materials. Essays should show familiarity with and understanding of materials from the reading list.  Unless you have been given instructions to the contrary by your course teacher, the Anthropology Department expects that at least approximately 90% of the sources used in your summative essay will come the course reading list, but you may optionally include approximately 10% from outside the reading list.