Theory and History of Anthropology I

Recommended Prerequisites

     Epistemology, working knowledge of the English language (reading skills)

Teaching Methods

     This course is organized around theoretical classes and seminar sessions devoted to the presentation and discussion of essays relevant to the field of studies. The assessment is obtained by frequecy in the theoretical and practical lessons and the presence in the final exam in accordance with the Pedagogical Procedure of the UC. The «periodical evaluation» in the form of a research essay stands for 50% of the final grade. The final exam, about topics not pondered in the periodical evaluation, stands for another 50% of the final grade.

Learning Outcomes

     With this curricular unit, the students must:

1. To acquire basic skills about the development of the history of social and cultural anthropology.

2. To think critically about the main contributions of that history.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

     The course aims to give students an introdutory solid formation about the way the anthropological theories were constructed along the development of the history of the discipline. For this, five main topics were chosen: 1) precursors of the anthropological tradition; 2) evolutionist currents; 3) diffusionist currents; 4) functionalism and structural-functionalism; 5) culturalism.

Head Lecturer(s)

Luís Fernando Gomes da Silva Quintais

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Research work: 50.0%
Exam: 50.0%

Bibliography

     Barnard, A. (2000), History and theory in anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P.

Kuper, A. (1983 [1973]), Anthropology and anthropologists: the Bristish school 1922-1972. Londres & Nova Iorque, Routledge.

Kuper, A. (1988), The Invention of Primitive Society: transformations of an illusion. Londres & Nova Iorque: Routledge.

Kuper, A. (2000), Culture: the anthropologists account. Cambridge, Massachusetts & Londres: Harvard University Press.

Stocking, G. W. (1999), After Tylor: British social anthropology, 1888-1951. Madison: University of Wiscosin Press.