Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology (2025/2026: Semester 1 – Fall)

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Cursusdoel

After completing this course students are able to:
  1. demonstrate knowledge of the key concepts, approaches and theories in Anthropology;
  2. describe principal ethnographic research methods applied in Anthropology;
  3. describe anthropological perspectives on key social science concepts: culture, society, economy, politics, history and religion;
  4. demonstrate knowledge of ethnographic case material;
  5. undertake small-scale exercises in ethnographic observation and description;
  6. demonstrate scholarly skills in communication and argumentation, teamwork, and in classroom participation and discussions;
  7. demonstrate ability to write in an academically informed manner;
  8. reflect on their own cultural values, positionality, and prejudice;
  9. appreciate the value of anthropology in today’s world.
Relationship between assessment and learning goals:
  1. Exams (both 25 %): see learning objectives 1, 2, 3, 4
  2. Two written assignments about two excursions (both 10%): see learning objectives 5, 7, 8, 9
  3. Term essay (30 %): see learning objectives 3, 4, 7, 8, 9

Vakinhoudelijk

How can we explain the great cultural variation among human societies when humankind constitutes a biological unity? Why do these cultural differences continue to persist, despite people’s growing integration in the encompassing world system? This course provides an anthropological perspective on these central questions by examining the history, foundations, and some key cases of the discipline.
The course consists of two parts. Part I introduces the history and development of some of the basic concepts, approaches, and research methods of social and cultural anthropology. Selected readings from Nanda and Warms’ textbook, Cultural Anthropology, establish the principal areas of anthropological inquiry. Students gain insight into ethnographic methodology through a field visit involving preparation, observation description. Part II develops the conceptual and ethnographic insights acquired in Part I through the study of globalization and Brazilian urban culture. Donna Goldstein’s ethnography of a Rio de Janeiro shantytown demonstrates the continuing relevance of cultural anthropology for the study of contemporary post-industrial society. Goldstein portrays the lives of the poor in a Brazilian favela, conveying the most intimate and hidden details of their lives: from crime and sexual to responsibilities of kinship and friendship, to childhood dreams of riches and the search for dignity. This focus on problems of the inner city shows the consequences of polarized race, class and gender relations, the relationship between culture and the economy, and between individual responsibilities, agency structural constraints. Relevant chapters of Nanda and Warms’ textbook and a number of articles provide a conceptual framework for Goldstein's ethnography. Students gain further insight into ethnographic methodology and questions of representation through a field visit to an ethnographic museum.
Format
There are two lectures per week which are supplemented by documentaries, and class discussion organized on a group basis. There are four forms of written work: two written assignments based on empirical observation – one in Part I, and one in Part 2; a term paper initiated, with a proposal; a mid-term exam (on Part 1) and a final exam (on Part 2.)

Werkvormen

UCU SSC 1 course

Toetsing

Interview assignment

Verplicht | Weging 25% | ECTS 1,88

Museum assignment

Verplicht | Weging 15% | ECTS 1,13

*midterm FEEDBACK*

Niet verplicht

Take home exam

Verplicht | Weging 30% | ECTS 2,25

Mid-term exam

Verplicht | Weging 30% | ECTS 2,25

Ingangseisen en voorkennis

Ingangseisen

Er is geen informatie over verplichte ingangseisen bekend.

Voorkennis

Er is geen informatie over benodigde voorkennis bekend.

Voertalen

  • Engels

Competenties

  • Academisch schrijven
  • Debatteren / discoursanalyse
  • Internationale en interculturele oriëntatie
  • Interdisciplinariteit
  • Kritisch lezen
  • Onderzoeksvaardigheden
  • Presenteren
  • Samenwerken

Cursusmomenten

Gerelateerde studies

Tentamens

Er is geen tentamenrooster beschikbaar voor deze cursus

Verplicht materiaal

  • BOEK
    Goldstein, D., (2003), Laughter out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown. University of California Press
  • READER
    reader
  • BOEK
    Nanda, Serena & Richard L. Warms (2023), Cultural Anthropology (13th edition) Belmont: Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning
  • DIVERSE
    Train travel to Amsterdam

Aanbevolen materiaal

Er is geen informatie over de aanbevolen literatuur bekend

Opmerkingen

Spring 2025 group not on offer

Coördinator

dr. R. Woets r.woets@uu.nl

Docenten

P.J.H. Mepschen p.j.h.mepschen@uu.nl
dr. R. Woets r.woets@uu.nl

Inschrijving

Let op: deze cursus is niet toegankelijk voor studenten van andere faculteiten, bijvakkers mogen zich dus niet inschrijven.

Naar OSIRIS-inschrijvingen
Permanente link naar de cursuspagina
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