AN469 Half Unit
The Anthropology of Amazonia
This information is for the 2026/27 session.
Course convenor
Dr Harry Walker
Availability
This course is available on the MA in Modern History, MRes/PhD in Anthropology, MSc in Anthropology and Development, MSc in Social Anthropology and MSc in Social Anthropology (Religion in the Contemporary World). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Course content
The course will introduce students to selected themes in the anthropology of Amazonia. It will provide a grounding in the ethnographic literature of the region while seeking to engage with current theoretical debates, highlighting their potential importance to the discipline of anthropology. Topics to be covered include history, indigenous social movements; sexuality and gender; trade and inter-ethnic relations; politics and power; illness, well-being and death. Students will be encouraged to reflect on the broader relationship between ethnography and theory, to challenge common stereotypes of Amazonia and its inhabitants, and to explore ways in which the region has inscribed itself on the imagination of anthropologists and laypersons alike.
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Essay (1500 words).
Students will have the opportunity to submit one formative essay of up to 1500 words during the course.
Students will be informed of their formative submission deadline by email by the end of Week 4 of term.
Indicative reading
- Overing, Joanna. & Alan Passes (eds). 2000. The Anthropology of Love and Anger: The Aesthetics of Conviviality in Native Amazonia.
- Penfield, Amy. 2024. Predatory Economies: The Sanema and the Socialist State in Contemporary Amazonia.
- Walker, Harry. 2012. Under a Watchful Eye: Self, Power and Intimacy in Amazonia.
- Campbell, Jeremy. 2015. Conjuring Property: Speculation and Environmental Futures in the Brazilian Amazon.
- Costa, Luiz. 2017. The Owners of Kinship: Asymmetrical Relations in Indigenous Amazonia.
- Seeger, Anthony. 2004. Why Suyá Sing: A Musical Anthropology of an Amazonian People.
Assessment
Essay (100%, 3500 words).
Key facts
Department: Anthropology
Course study period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ level: Level 7
Total students 2025/26: Unavailable
Average class size 2025/26: Unavailable
Controlled access 2025/26: NoCourse selection videos
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