ANTH 35200 - Contemporary Anthropological Theory

Course Credit: 1
(ARCH, SOAN, SOCI)
CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY This course introduces students to important theoretical perspectives in sociocultural anthropology over the past half century. We begin with the broad paradigms that dominated anthropology till the 1980s, such as functionalism, cultural materialism, and cognitive and symbolic anthropology, and then move on to critical theory and to postmodern and feminist critiques, as well as theoretical work in selected subfields, such as medical anthropology. For each theoretical tradition covered, we focus on understanding its main ideas and underlying assumptions, situating its emergence in historical perspective, comparing and contrasting it with other theoretical approaches, and assessing its implications for understanding contemporary social issues. The course should prove useful to students who are searching for a research problem and theoretical framework for their senior independent study project. The final project for the course will involve developing a research prospectus that provides a springboard for senior I.S. Prerequisite(s): ANTH-11000 or permission of instructor Annually. [HSS]