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Social Anthropology

Study Course Description

Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:7.00
Study Course Accepted:02.02.2024 12:25:58
Study Course Information
Course Code:KSK_061LQF level:Level 6
Credit Points:2.00ECTS:3.00
Branch of Science:Sociology; Social AnthropologyTarget Audience:Sociology; Communication Science
Study Course Supervisor
Course Supervisor:Klāvs Sedlenieks
Study Course Implementer
Structural Unit:Faculty of Social Sciences
The Head of Structural Unit:
Contacts:Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szfatrsu[pnkts]lv
Study Course Planning
Full-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)5Lecture Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Lectures10
Classes (count)5Class Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Classes10
Total Contact Hours20
Part-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)5Lecture Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Lectures10
Classes (count)5Class Length (academic hours)2Total Contact Hours of Classes10
Total Contact Hours20
Study course description
Preliminary Knowledge:
Basic background knowledge in social sciences.
Objective:
To provide a general and attractive introducton to Social Anthropology
Topic Layout (Full-Time)
No.TopicType of ImplementationNumberVenue
1IntroductionLectures1.00auditorium
2Main directions of social anthropology (gender, kinship, economics, politics, religion)Lectures4.00auditorium
3Discussion of the main topics in seminarsClasses5.00auditorium
Topic Layout (Part-Time)
No.TopicType of ImplementationNumberVenue
1IntroductionLectures1.00auditorium
2Main directions of social anthropology (gender, kinship, economics, politics, religion)Lectures4.00auditorium
3Discussion of the main topics in seminarsClasses5.00auditorium
Assessment
Unaided Work:
Compulsory readings and essays (1000 words) for each of the seminars. In order to evaluate the quality of the study course as a whole, the student must fill out the study course evaluation questionnaire on the Student Portal.
Assessment Criteria:
• students know the compulsory readings; • students understand the actual problems of the current topic; • students can formulate their opinion and provide argumets for it.
Final Examination (Full-Time):Exam (Written)
Final Examination (Part-Time):Exam (Written)
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge:Students know: • what is anthropology; • what are the main research methods used in anthropology; • what is the range of questions asked by anthropology; • understand the most important issues of political, economic, gender, kinship and religious aspects from the point of view of anthropology.
Skills:Improved skills in analysing academic literature. Improved skills in producing an argumentative text. Improved skills in analysing social processes, by use of anthropological knowledge.
Competencies:Analysis of texts, writing essays, state one's opinion, based on the anthropological knowledge.
Bibliography
No.Reference
Required Reading
1Ember, Carol R, and Ember, Melvin. 1999. Anthropology. Upper Saddle River, N.J. : Prentice Hall. Chapter 1 'What is Anthropology'
2Ēriksens, Tomass Hillans. 2010. Mazas vietas - lieli jautājumi. Ievads sociālantropoloģijā. Rīga: LU Akadēmiskais apgāds. 1. nodaļa 'Sociālantropoloģija: salīdzināšana un konteksts'
3Bohannan, Laura. 1966. 'Shakespeare in the Bush'. Natural History.
4Lee, Richard B. 1969. 'Eating Christmas in the Kalahari.' Natural History 78(10):14-22.
5Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1922. Argonauts of the western Pacific. London,: G. Routledge & sons, ltd. Chapter III 'The essentials of the Kula'
6Barnard, Alan. 2000. Social anthropology. Plymouth: GLMP Limited. Chapter 4 Economics: Interpreting production and distribution
7Laidlaw, James. 2000. 'Free Gift Makes no Friends.' The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 6:4, pp. 617-634.
8Graeber, David. 2011. Debt : the first 5,000 years. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Melville House. Chapter 5, pp. 89-126
9Strathern, Marilyn. 2012. 'Gifts money cannot buy.' Social Anthropology 20 (4): 397-410
10Barnard, Alan. 2000. Social anthropology. Plymouth: GLMP Limited. Chapter 7 'Sex and Gender'
11Ortner, Sherry B. 1974. 'Is female to male as nature is to culture?' In Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (eds). Woman, Culture, and Society, 67-87. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
12Martin, E. 1991. 'The egg and the sperm: How science has constructed a romance based on stereotypical male-female roles.' Signs 16:3, pp. 485-501.
13Murphy, Yolanda, and Robert R. F. Murphy. 1974. Women of the forest. New York,: Columbia University Press. Chapter Chapter 6 (women and married life), AND Chapter 8 (men and women)
14Cornwall, Andrea. 1994. 'Gendered identities and gender ambiguity among travestis in Salvador, Brazil.' In Dislocating Masculinity : Comparative Ethnographies edited by Nancy Lindisfarne and Andrea Cornwall. London; New York: Routledge: 111-132
15Sponsel, Leslie E. (1996) ‘Natural History of Peace: The Positive View of Human Nature and Its Potential.’ in Thomas Gregor (ed.) A Natural History of Peace. Vanderbilt University Press. http://www.peacefulsocieties.org/Archintr/spo96int.html
16Warneken, F. and Tomasello, M. The roots of human altruism// British Journal of Psychology (2009), 100, 455–471
17Overning, Joanna (1989) ‘Styles of Manhood: an Amazonian contrast in tranquility and violence’ in Signe Howell and Roy Willis Societies at Peace: Anthropological Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge. Pp 79-99
18de Waal, Frans B. 2000. 'Primates--a natural heritage of conflict resolution.' Science 289:5479, pp. 586-590.
19Ēriksens, Tomass Hillans. 2010. Mazas vietas - lieli jautājumi. Ievads sociālantropoloģijā. Rīga: LU Akadēmiskais apgāds. XIII nodaļa Reliģija un rituāli
20Sosis, R. 2006[2004]. "The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual. Rituals promote group cohesion by requiring members to engage in behavior that is too costly to fake," in Anthropology. Annual Editions, vol. March-April. Edited by E. Angeloni, pp. 153-158. Dubuque, IA: Contemporary Learning Series.
21Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. 1976. Witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Chapter II 'The notion of Witchcraft explains unfortunate events'
22Bloch, Maurice. 2013. In and out of each other's bodies: theory of mind, evolution, truth, and the nature of the social. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers. Chapter 2 "Why is religion nothing special but is central" pp 23-40