Theory and History of Anthropology II

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) Symbolic anthropology; 2) cultural ecology; 3) structuralism; 4) marxist tendencies; 5) theory of practice.  

Head Lecturer(s)

Gonçalo João Duro dos Santos

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam: 50.0%
Research work: 50.0%

Bibliography

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

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

Ortner, Sherry B. (1984), «Theory in anthropology since the sixties», in Comparative studies in society and history, vol. 26, nº. 1, pp. 126-166.