ANTH 490: History of Anthropological Theory

ANTH 490-001: Theories, Methds and Issues II
(Spring 2019)

01:30 PM to 02:45 PM TR

Krug Hall 19

Section Information for Spring 2019

Commonly in anthropology a “theory” is a set of concepts that drawn together act as a lens through which cultural phenomena can be drawn together in ways that are argued as a means to explain, understand or make sense of them. The degree to which theories as lens’ blur, or make sharp, elements of culture in specific or general terms, depends both on the argument made by theorists (or theories) and on which glasses (to continue the analogy) readers (including you) are wearing. In anthropology, more than in other social sciences, the long tradition of an ethnographic work as a defining feature of the field, as a method, has also been the subject of theoretical argument. This course is primarily designed to provide a grasp of theory in anthropology since the late 1970s in part through a focus on particular theorists as well as schools of thought as relevant to both culture and the ways in which culture is presented in ethnographic form. The course begins with an element of theoretical “redux” as a means to situate contemporary theory in relation to major theorists (and briefly, philosophers) of the past.

Course Information from the University Catalog