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2020/2021

Social Anthropology

Code: 101136 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500262 Sociology OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Laia Narciso Pedro
Email:
Laia.Narciso@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Other comments on languages

This course include text and audiovisual material in English, in addition to Spanish and Catalan

Teachers

Laia Narciso Pedro

Prerequisites

There is no prerequisites.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The main goal of this course is to focus on the questions raised by the apparent paradox of a shared yet diverse humanity. After considering some of the historical foundations of the discipline, we will explore cultural diversity by reading ethnographic monographs and viewing documentaries about a variety of peoples and their ways of life in different areas around the world. We will critically analyse the existant relations between the local, regional and global context in some of the most important challenges facing human societies today.

The course will develop a comparative approach that will include the anthropological analysis of our own sociocultural context, specifically addressing the issue of the construction of otherness, its contents, reasons and impacts. It will allows to develop a capacity to recognize preconceptions and assumptions of our own social and cultural environments and how anthropology contributes to unpacking, understanding and questioning these processes in the world and in our multicultural experience.

 

 

Competences

  • Applying the concepts and approaches of the sociological theory, specially the explanations of social inequalities between classes, between genders and between ethnic groups, to the implementation of public policies and to the resolution of conflict situations.
  • Demonstrating a comprehension of the approaches of the sociological theory in its different aspects, interpretations and historical context.
  • Describing social phenomena in a theoretically relevant way, bearing in mind the complexity of the involved factors, its causes and its effects.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Defining the sociological concepts that interpret the cultural phenomena.
  2. Developing self-learning strategies.
  3. Distinguishing the underlying cultural phenomena of specific policies or conflicts.
  4. Explaining the social interpretations of culture according to these approaches.
  5. Relating the debates regarding these approaches, that refer to culture, with the historical context in which they emerged.
  6. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.

Content

Part 1:

Unit 1: Brief history and principal characteristics.

Unit 2: Culture.

Unit 3: Methods and main techniques.

Unit 4: The construction of an Other.

Unit 5: Identity.

Part 2:

Unit 6: Sex/Gender systems

Unit 7:Kinship systems and reproduction

Unit 8: The "typology feber" in anthropology. Impact of nationalism, colonialism and globalisation.

Unit 9: Applied anthropology and social intervention

 

Methodology

Based on the idea that in the teaching and learning process the student take the leading role, active participation in class will be expected. The class method will include:

- Lectures on the topics of the program with ICT support.

‐ Reading and discussing specific chapters and articles in each section of the program.

- Viewing and discussing specific audiovisual materials in each section of the program.

- Class exercises carried out in  small groups; discussion and presentation of group remarks, questions and conclusions; one group exercise in each section of the program.

‐ Reading seminar. Preparing and participating on a monograph seminar (each student must choose and read one monograph of different options provided in the virtual campus). Reading groups are encouraged to organize and meet apart from class sessions.

- Group project. Students will be expected to work in small and  cooperative working groups, focusing in one specific challenge in relation to issues studied in class. The project will be presented in class (groups and presentation calendar in the virtual campus)

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Discussion of written and audiovisual texts. 25 1
Lectures with ICT support 30 1.2 1
Type: Supervised      
Class exercises and discussions. Group project. 35 1.4
Type: Autonomous      
Reading and text reviews and group project 60 2.4 1

Assessment

- Participation in a reading seminar and delivery of an individual written essay of 500 words based on a monograph. Please find the monograph options, the guidelines and the calendar at virtual campus. 10%

- Presentation of the group project on a topic (challenge) suggested by the teacher. The students must communicate their group in the first two weeks of the couse. In virtual campus the students will find a work script and a rubric for the oral presentation.Two tutoring sessions (office) are compulsory and will guide the work approach and theanalysis expected. The project will be delivered (PPT) and presented in the classroom on the date indicated in the virtual campus. 30%

- Class exercises. Analysis and presentation of activities carried out in class based on different written, visual or audiovisual texts. 20%

- Two synthesis tests (written and individual). Two exams will be developed (mid term and final). The first part will include short questions based on all the course content, including the classroom activities and the monograph. A second part will include a reflection exercise (review of a written or audiovisual text). The exam date (at the end of the semester) will be announced through the Virtual Campus. 40%

The final grade will be the average of the grade obtained in all the sections previously detailed.

Those who do not achieve a grade of 5 will not pass the course and will be eligible for recovery, just if they have been evaluated in two thirds of the total activities of the course. The recovery will consist of a final synthesis test, of multiple answers (test).

From the second registration, the evaluation of the course may consist, at the request of the students, in a synthesis test that allows the evaluation of all the learning results provided in the teaching guide. In this case, the responsible teacher will be informed during the first two weeks of the course via e-mail,and the student will received the date and place of theexam. In this case, the qualification of the course corresponds to the qualification of the synthesis test.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Class exercises 20% 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Group project and presentation 30% 0 0 2, 3, 5
Individual exams 40% 0 0 1, 3, 4, 5
Reading seminar and review 10% 0 0 2, 5, 6

Bibliography

GENERAL

AADD (1993) Diccionari d’Antropologia. Barcelona, TERMCAT.

Banard, A. (2000)  History and Theory in Anthropology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

Ember, C.R.; Ember, M. y Peregrine, P. (2004) “¿Qué es la antropología?” en Antropología. Madrid: Pearson - Prentice Hall.

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, 2000. Small Places, Large Issues: an Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology (2nd ed) Pluto Press.

Hendry, J. (1999) An Introduction to Social Anthropology. Other’s People’s Worlds, London, Macmillan Press.

Kottak, C. (2007) Introducción a la antropología cultural: espejo para la humanidad Madrid, McGraw-Hill.

 

- Each unit readings will be specified via Virtual Campus.