Mandatory:
ERICSON, P. A. - MURPHY, L. D.: A History of Anthropological Theory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2017. ERICSON, P. A. - MURPHY, L. D.: Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2017.
ERIKSEN, T. H.: “Introduction: Comparison and Context”. In Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. 2nd. ed. London: Pluto Press, 2001.
ERIKSEN, T. H.: “A Brief History of Anthropology”. In Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology. 2nd. ed. London: Pluto Press, 2001.
HARRIS, M.: Cultural Materialism is Alive and Well and Won’t Go Away Until Something Better Comes Along. In: WELSCH, R. - ENDICOTT, K. (eds.): Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Anthropology. 5. ed. Dushkin/McGraw-Hill, 2003. pp. 4-13.
TURNER, V. W.: Liminality and Communitas. In: The Ritual Process. Structure and Anti- Structure. New York: Cornell University Press, 1977. pp 94-130.
GEERTZ, C.: Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In: WELSCH, R. - ENDICOTT, K. (eds.): Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Anthropology. 5. ed. Dushkin/McGraw- Hill, 2003. pp 14-23.
ASAD, T.: Introduction. In: Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. In: Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory, 5th ed., 1973. pp 383 - 390
MARCUS, G. E.: Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography. In: Annual Review of Anthropology. Vol. 24, 1995. pp 95-117.
* Recommended:
BARNARD, A.: Interpretive and postmodern approaches. In: History and theory in anthropology. Cambridge, U.K. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. pp 158-177.
RAPPORT, N. - OVERING, J.: Culture. In: Social and cultural anthropology: the key concepts. London: Routledge, 2002, pp 92-102.
HANNERZ, U.: Field Worries: Studying Down, Up, Sideways, Through, Backward, Forward, Early or Later, Away and at Home. In: Anthropology ’s world: life in a twenty-first century. London a New York: Pluto Press a Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. pp 59-86.
Anthropology might be said to be characterized by a ‘toss and turn’ dynamic - it has taken a number of intellectual turns. This course builds a foundation in mostly classical anthropological theories but also provides a brief view into some of the later theoretical approaches. Topics:
1) Introduction. The Early History of Anthropological Theory (Forerunners, Tylor’s Definition of Culture, Classical Cultural Evolutionism vs. Diffusionism)
2) Cultural Relativism I. (American Cultural Anthropology in the Earlier Twentieth Century: Boasian Historical Particularism and the Patterns of Culture by R. Benedict)
3) Cultural Relativism II. (Culture and Personality approach by M. Mead; Mead vs. Freeman controversy)
4) Methodological Turn: Malinowski‘s Method and Scope of Anthropological Fieldwork
5) French Structural Anthropology
6) British Structural Functionalism and the “Manchester School”
7) Cultural Materialism and Cultural Ecology
8) Symbolic Anthropology
9) Interpretive Turn: Culture as Text
10) Postcolonial Critique, Political Economy
11) Postmodernity: Power, Agency, Practice
12) Crisis of Representation and the Reflexive Turn
13) Anthropology and/of Globalization and the Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography