Topics

The details for the course, Themes in Anthropology II (ANTH2051), apply to all of the following topics. Specific descriptions for Syllabus and Proposed Assessment that apply to each topic are detailed below.

Anthropology of Environmental Disasters

Syllabus

Academic contact: Dr. Alison Behie (email: ambehie@ucalgary.ca)

This course provides an overview of the types of environmental disasters that commonly affect both human and non-human primates. When considering humans alone, we will examine the effect of such disasters cross-culturally by comparing how different populations have prepared for, responded to and recovered from past environmental disasters. We will then expand on this by doing cross-species comparison with the way other primates respond to and recover from the same (or similar) disasters.

Indicative Assessment

250 word essay proposal 5%
2,500 word essay 35%
Tutorial presentation 30%
On-line discussion 20%
Tutorial participation 10%

 

Enduring Themes in Anthropology

Syllabus

This course aims to prepare students for honours study by introducing them to some of the knotty problematics that have endured in anthropological theory from the early days of the discipline to influence the latest poststructuralist perspectives. We will find our feet in the past and present of anthropological thought by following how ideas such as kinship, exchange, community, place, culture and identity have been understood by figures key to the development and current state of the discipline. By taking a theme and problem-based approach, we will be able to understand how the theoretical paradigms of the day influenced how anthropologists were seeing things, and how these paradigms have changed over time. We will also be able to observe how and why the persistent big questions in anthropology have stubbornly resisted simple answers.

ANTH2051 will take the form of a weekly two hour seminar. Students will work throughout the semester with the course convenor, and also enjoy a range of lectures from other anthropologists from ANU College of Asia and the Pacific and the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, who will present seminars on their own special areas of interest and expertise.

Indicative Assessment

Seminar attendance and participation - 20%
Individual presentation: “My anthropologist, her times and her approach” - 20%
Debate - 20%
Essay 2,000 words - 40%.

 

Health and Inequality in Latin America

There are no syllabus or indicative asesssment details for this topic.

The information published on the Study at ANU 2011 website applies to the 2011 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2010 website.