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.

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

Indicative Assessment

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

Primate Cognition and Communication

Syllabus

One thing that sets the primate order apart from other mammals is our capacity for learning and retention of knowledge. This course will start with an overview of the order primates and what distinguishes primates from other mammals. We will then delve into an investigation of non-human cognition by investigating the prevailing theories behind large brain size in primates (ecological vs. social brain theories) and discussing controversies that surround the topic. Nonhuman cognition will also be examined within an evolutionary and comparative framework, comparing and contrasting non-human primate cognition with that of other animals, including one of particular interest - humans. We will also consider how studies of primate communication can shed light on cognitive abilities.

This course will consist of a 2 hr lecture and 1 hr tutorial each week.

 

Textbook:  Primate Cognition. 1997. Michael Tomasello and Josep Call. Oxford University Press.

Indicative Assessment

Assessments

Tutorial presentation, LO 4                     25%

Final Exam, LO 1-3                               25%

Essay proposal, LO 5                              5%

Essay (2500 words), LO 5                      30%

Tutorial discussion/participation, LO 6     15%

The information published on the Study at ANU 2012 website applies to the 2012 academic year only. All information provided on this website replaces the information contained in the Study at ANU 2011 website.