Theories and Methods in Anthropology
Code
722170077
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Antropologia
Credits
10
Teacher in charge
João de Freitas Leal
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
The seminar has the following objectives: a) the presentation and discussion of some major aspects of contemporary anthropology, both in theoretical and methodological terms; b) the discussion of relevant topics and concepts in contemporary anthropology; c) the presentation and discussion of ethnographical methodologies and of the main challenges
they must confront today. Besides these three main objectives, the seminar also aims at develop among the students: a) the capacity for the critical interpretation of contemporary anthropological literature; b) the capacity for intervening in contemporary debates on culture and society; c) the capacity for the adequate conception of topics and tools of
anthropological research.
Prerequisites
Subject matter
1. Contemporary anthropology: continuity and changes.
Where we were and where we are. Continuity and change in international anthropology and in Portuguese anthropology
2. Main features of contemporary anthropology.
Between global flows and the new figures of the local: a situated anthropology. The multiplication of topics of research: a diversified anthropology. New interdisciplinary dialogues: an open anthropology. New dimensions of anthropology as cultural critique: a critical anthropology. Diversity and convergences in contemporary anthropology.
3. Theory and methods in anthropology.
The classical paradigm of fieldwork: one observer/ one local/ one time. New paths and challenges in contemporary ethnography. Designing a research.
4. Resuming the dialogue with classical anthropology.
The return of grand theory and the dialogues with the classics. The second life of animism. Hybridization or the return of syncretism?
Bibliography
APPADURAI, A., 1996, The Production of Locality, Modernity at Large. University of Minnesota Press
BASCH, L., N. GLICK SCHILLER & C.Szanton BLANC, 1994, Nations Unbound. Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments and Deterritorialised Nation-States, Gordon & Breach
BAUMAN, Z., 2007, Liquid Times. Living in an Age of Uncertainty, Polity Press
DESCOLA, Ph., 2005, Par-Delà Nature et Culture, Gallimard
MALINOWSKI, B., 1983, The Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Routlege
MARCUS, G., 1998, Ethnography in/ of the World System. The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography, Ethnography Through Thick & Thin.Princeton UP
SHERIFF, R., 2001, Dreaming Equality. Colour, Race, and Racism in Urban Brazil, Rutgers University Press
STOCKING, G., 1992, Paradigmatic Traditions in the History of Anthropology, The Ethnographers Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology, The University of Wisconsin Press
TSING, A., 2005, Friction. An Ethnography of Global Connection, Princeton UP
Teaching method
Each session of the seminar comprises two parts. In the first part, one or more students must present the reading references for each session, which are obligatory readings for all students. The presentations are based on the choice and commentary of three relevant quotations from each reading reference. Each presentation is followed by discussion. The
second part of the session consists of a lecture that seeks to bring together the different reading references and provide an overall view of the topics addressed.
Evaluation method
Grading is based on the evaluation of: a) the presentation of the reading references (20%); b) two written assignments (10%); c) assiduity and participation in the discussions (10%). At the end of the semester each student must present a ten pages essay (60%).