The course surveys the variety of approaches to the description and analysis of human social life in social/cultural anthropology through lectures and the close examination of selected texts. It does so by tracing the development of anthropological theory through the twentieth century, and with reference to its intellectual origins. The course begins by locating anthropology in its contemporary post-colonial context with an examination of critical perspectives on the history of the discipline, and explores the challenge of reading the past from the perspective of the present. It then moves from a consideration of the emergence of society as an object of study, outlines and assesses key aspects of functionalist, structural-functionalist, and structuralist approaches, explores the influence of marxism and practice theory, examines key aspects of interpretive and symbolic anthropology, and ends with an examination of the implications of post-modernity and globalisation for the doing and writing of ethnography.

In-class presentation (10%), seminar attendance and participation (10%), 1500-2000 word essay (30%) and 7000-8000 word essay (50%).

One 2-hours seminar per week

*Kuper, A. Anthropologists and Anthropology: The British School 1922-72, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973
*Erickson, P. and Murphy, L. A History of Anthropological Theory, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2003

Incompatibility
ANTH8017 History of Anthropological Theory