Bachelor
2024/2025
Social and Economic Anthropology
Type:
Elective course (Sociology and Social Informatics)
Area of studies:
Sociology
Delivered by:
Department of Sociology
When:
2 year, 3 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of all HSE University campuses
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
3
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This is an introductory course in anthropology for students in humanities and social sciences. Contemporary social and cultural anthropology is positioned on the boundary between humanities, such as literature and history, and social sciences. As a result, anthropologists practice a more self-reflexive, personalized approach to their tasks, while also striving for a particular kind of objectivity. The main product of anthropology is a specific genre of literature called ethnography – a detailed and contextual account of a particular locality, activity or situation, based on long-term personal presence and observation by an anthropologist or a team of anthropologists, who possibly also take part in the activities described. Born out of the colonial encounter between so-called “civilized” and “primitive” people, the discipline of anthropology has been particularly, and at times bitterly, aware of theembeddedness of any knowledge in violence and power. The discipline’s principles and agendasare under constant revision. The very broad comparative and global scope of study, however, remains unchanged. Anthropologists arecommitted to exploring, voicing, and finding fair generalizable languages for the very differentopinions of what it is to be human and how humans should live on this planet. The course is subdivided into two parts. The first part is a brief introduction to the epistemological, methodological and ethical foundations of anthropology to studying human social and symbolic worlds.We will learn key anthropological concepts, the basics of long-term participant observation and ethnographic writing. The larger second part of the courseis a series of introductions to some classical themes and topics thatcontinue to be productive for anthropologists working in every part of the world. By reading and discussing both classical and contemporary texts on these topics, we shall explore the ways in which the insights and debates originating in localizedor specific contexts contribute to our understanding of humanity as a whole, and vice versa.
Learning Objectives
- To understand how to apply anthropological analysis for studying any aspect of social life, discerning the advantages and disadvantages of anthropological optic
Expected Learning Outcomes
- To understand the general importance of cultural and historical contexts, and the ability to identify which contexts are especially necessary to understand the local situation
- To understand advantages and disadvantages of a general comparativist approach
- To be familiar with the general historical development of the field of anthropology as a part of the development of Western critical and social theory
- To have skills of conference-style discussion
- To have skills of reflexive assessment of the scholar’s position in the field, among her informants, as well as in social studies, among her colleagues; knowing how to adjust these relationship accordingly
Course Contents
- Session 1. Anthropology. Origins and key concepts.
- Session 2. Theory and Methods
- Session 3. Identity. Construction of cultural and social boundaries
- Session 4. Economics from the Anthropological Point of View
- Session 5. Reciprocity. Value
- Session 6. Kinship and family. Social and political organization
- Session 7. Ritual action
- Session 9. Nature and culture
- Session 10. Globalization. Imitation and power
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 3rd module0.4 * Final exam + 0.3 * Responce Paper + 0.3 * Seminar discussions
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Eriksen, T. H. (2010). Small Places, Large Issues : An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology (Vol. 3rd ed). London: Pluto Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=367908
- Что такое антропология? - 978-5-7598-1096-4 - Эриксен Т.Х. - 2014 - Москва: ВШЭ - https://ibooks.ru/bookshelf/340647 - 340647 - iBOOKS
- Что такое антропология?, Эриксен, Т. Х., 2014
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Author(s) Carol Delaney, & Carol Delaney. (n.d.). The Meaning of Paternity and the Virgin Birth Debate. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.1CE24297
- Bourgois, P. I., & Schonberg, J. (2009). Righteous Dopefiend. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=407430
- Karina Urbach. (2008). Royal Kinship. Anglo-German Family Networks 1815-1918. De Gruyter Saur.
- Patico, J. (2009). For Love, Money, or Normalcy: Meanings of Strategy and Sentiment in the Russian-American Matchmaking Industry. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, 74(3), 307–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141840903053097
- Tim Ingold. (2011). Being Alive : Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description. Routledge.
- VARENNE, H. (1982). Deadly Words: Witchcraft in the Bocage. JEANNE FAVRET-SAADA. American Ethnologist ; Volume 9, Issue 3, Page 597-598 ; ISSN 0094-0496. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1982.9.3.02a00230
- Watson, J. B. (1969). Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People . Roy A. Rappaport. American Anthropologist ; Volume 71, Issue 3, Page 527-529 ; ISSN 0002-7294 1548-1433. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1969.71.3.02a00310