The social relations anthropologists study in the world’s cultures have traditionally been categorised under major headings, although they all depend upon actions by and between persons. These categories—kinship, descent, economics, religion, politics—have sometimes been thought to mark significant social kinds susceptible to specific explanatory modelling, although they have also been criticised as ethnographically inauthentic or of no more than typological value. The course aims to familiarise students with the range of classical and contemporary approaches to the issue of sociality and its empirical and institutional forms.

Drawing on the expertise of the different specialists in the Anthropology Graduate Study Field at the ANU, and using extensive ethnographic cases, the course will cover:

Agency; social action; transactionalism; reciprocity and exchange; kinship and descent group theory; local- and macro-level politics; forms of leadership and stratification; gender relations; religious and ritual action.

Students will also be expected to gain an understanding of the manner in which different theoretical approaches (functionalism, structuralism, interactionism, etc) have tackled these topics, in both theoretical and ethnographic writings.

Class presentation (25%), major essay (40%) and exam (35%).

Three contact hours per week