Regional Studies (ethnography) Caucasus

Study Course Description

Course Description Statuss:Approved

Course Description Version:4.00

Study Course Accepted:05.02.2024 12:56:06

Study Course Information
Course Code:		KSK_231		LQF level:		Level 7
Credit Points:		4.00		ECTS:		6.00
Branch of Science:		Sociology; Social Anthropology		Target Audience:		Social Anthropology
Study Course Supervisor
Course Supervisor:		Susanne Christiane Helma Fehlings
Study Course Implementer
Structural Unit:		Faculty of Social Sciences
The Head of Structural Unit:
Contacts:		Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szfrsu[pnkts]lv
Study Course Planning
Full-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)		6	Lecture Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Lectures		12
Classes (count)		18	Class Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Classes		36
Total Contact Hours								48
Study course description
Preliminary Knowledge:
General social science/humanities education at the Bachelor's level.
Objective:
To introduce students to the culture and history of the Caucasus region, paying attention to the common and distinct features in the numerous ethnic groups and communities of the region; as well as to introduce students to the most important directions in the anthropological study of the region.
Topic Layout (Full-Time)
No.	Topic			Type of Implementation		Number	Venue
1	Introduction			Lectures		1.00	E-Studies platform
2	What is the Caucasus?			Classes		1.00	E-Studies platform
3	Traditions and today			Lectures		1.00	E-Studies platform
				Classes		2.00	E-Studies platform
4	Past values			Classes		2.00	E-Studies platform
5	The gap between urban and rural			Lectures		1.00	E-Studies platform
				Classes		1.00	E-Studies platform
6	Countries and citizenship			Classes		2.00	E-Studies platform
7	Ethnic conflicts			Lectures		1.00	E-Studies platform
				Classes		1.00	E-Studies platform
8	Work and the economy			Lectures		1.00	E-Studies platform
				Classes		1.00	E-Studies platform
9	Trade and markets			Classes		2.00	E-Studies platform
10	Informality			Classes		1.00	E-Studies platform
11	Society, kinship and family			Lectures		1.00	E-Studies platform
				Classes		3.00	E-Studies platform
12	Religion			Classes		1.00	E-Studies platform
13	Migration			Classes		1.00	E-Studies platform
Assessment
Unaided Work:
Reading the mandatory literature, preparing written assignments and oral presentations. 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:
Seminar participation (50%), final essay (50%)
Final Examination (Full-Time):		Exam (Written)
Final Examination (Part-Time):
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge:		Knowledge about the most important aspects of the socio-anthropological study of the Caucasus region; knowledge about significant historical, social and political process in the Caucasus.
Skills:		As a result of learning the study course, students acquire the ability to use anthropological theories for conducting regional research, and the ability to argue their point of view in essays and seminars.
Competencies:		Ability to assess the studied material critically, apply the knowledge gained in the class to the interpretation and analysis of other materials, apply to the knowledge gained in the class in own research.
Bibliography
No.	Reference
Required Reading
1	Anthropologies, Histories and the Making of a World Area. Berlin: LIT VERLAG
2	Mühlfried, Florian. 2014. Being a state and states of being in highland Georgia. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books.
3	Parkes, Peter. 2007. "Milk kinship in Southeast Europe. Alternative social structures and foster relations in the Caucasus and the Balkans*". Social Anthropology 12 (3) (19. janvārī): 341–358. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8676.2004.tb00112.x.
4	Yalçın-Heckmann, Lale. 2010. The Return of Private Property. Rural Life after Agrarian Reform in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Münster: LIT
5	Dragadze, T. 1988. Rural Families in Soviet Georgia: A Case Study in Ratcha Province. London & New York: Routledge.
6	Bruce G. & Yalçin-Heckmann, L. (eds.). 2007. Caucasus Paradigms: Anthropologies, Histories and the Making of a World Area. Halle Studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia
7	Darieva, T. & Kaschuba, W. (eds.). 2007. Representations on the Margins of Europe: Politics and Identities in the Baltic and South Caucasus States. Frankfurt a. M. & New York: Campus Verlag.
8	Shnirelman, V. A. 2001. The Value of the Past: Myths, Identity and Politics in Transcaucasia. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
9	Platz, S. 2000. ‘The Shape of National Time: Daily Life, Historym and Identity during Armenia’s Transition to Independence, 1991’. In Altering States: Ethnographies of Transition in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, edited by D. Berdahl, M.
10	Antonyan, Y. 2012. ‘The Armenian Intelligentsia Today: Discourses of Self-Identification and Self-Perception’. Laboratorium 4, 1: 76-100.
11	Abrahamian, Levon. 2007. Troubles and Hopes – Armenian Family, Home and Nation. In: Darieva, Tsypylma & Kaschuba, Wolfgang (Hrsg.). 2007. Representations on the Margins of Europe: Politics and Identities in the Baltic and South Caucasus States. Frankfurt a. M. & New York: Campus Verlag: 267-281.
12	Mühlfried, F. 2014. Being a State and States of Being. New York & Oxford. Berghahn: 51-63.
13	Stefes, Christoph H. 2008. ‘Governance, the State, and Systemic Corruption: Armenia and Georgia in Comparison’. Caucasian Review of International Affaires 2, 2: 73-83.
14	Voell, S. 2015. Moral Breakdown among the Georgian Svans: A Car Accident Mediated between Traditional and State Law. In S. Voell & I. Kaliszewska (Eds.), State and Legal Practice in the Caucasus: Anthropological Perspectives on Law and Politics. Farnham: Ashgate
15	Grant, B. 2010. Cosmopolitan Baku. Ethnos 75, 2: 123-147.
16	Yalcin-Heckmann, Lale. 2014. Informal Economy Writ Large and Small: From Azerbaijani Herb Traders to Moscow Shop Owners. In: Morris, Jeremy &Polese, Abel.The Informal Post-Socialist Economy: Embedded Practices and Liveliyhoods. London & New York: Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group: 165-186.