Alternative Rationalities in Anthropology 3102-FARA
Is it possible for social or cultural meaning to be absent, or for thought to “end”? Are there phenomena that remain nameless in anthropology, in a permanent space of not-knowing, a beyond culture? What happens when people experience events that do not fit any logical format? Is it possible to design an analytic framework that can account for nonsense, or senselessness, unknowing or not-knowing, absurdity, or vacuity, and what would this framework do to an anthropology that has been used to meaning? This course aims to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the complexities surrounding the relationship between rationality and irrationality in Anthropology. The course explores the realm beyond rationality in domains such as economics, magic, emerging mythologies, climate change, and religion.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course, students will identify the main approaches to the study of alternative rationalities. They will also learn how to approach the study of this topic methodologically and analytically.
Assessment criteria
A final exam about one of the course topics, which is worth 90%. Participation in class and exposition of a relevant theme: 10%. Attendance is mandatory.
Practical placement
Not required
Bibliography
Baudrillard, Jean. 1988. Selected Writings. Edited and Introduced by Mark Poster. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Bloch, Maurice. 2012. Anthropology and the Cognitive Challenge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bonhomme, Julien. 2016. The Sex Thieves: The Anthropology of a Rumor. Chicago: HAU Books.
Espirito Santo, Diana. 2024. UFOs, the Absurd, and the Limit of Anthropological Knowledge: Imagining the Impossible in Chile. London: Routledge.
Favini, Johnathan. 2020. “Zombie Knowledge: Toward a Deeper Conversation between Black Studies and Multispecies Anthropology”, Platypus. The Castac Blog. https://blog.castac.org/2020/07/zombie-knowledge-toward-a-deeper-conversation-between-black-studies-and-multispecies-anthropology/
Ginsburg, Faye. 1993. “Saving America’s Soul: Operation Rescue’s Crusade Against Abortion”, in Martin E. Marty and Scott, Appleby. Pp. 557-588. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Graeber, David. 2018. Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. London. Penguin Random House.
Huttunen, Laura and Gerhild, Perl (eds.). 2023. An Anthropology of Disappearance. Politics, Intimacies and Alternative Ways of Knowing. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Kapferer, Bruce (ed.). 2006. Beyond Rationalism: Rethinking Magic, Witchcraft and Sorcery. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Kapferer, Bruce and Theodossopoulos, Dimitrios (eds.). 2016. Against Exoticism: Toward the Transcendence of Relativism and Universalism in Anthropology. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Kripal, Jeffrey. 2024. How to Think Impossibly: About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything Else. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Miller, Daniel. 2005. A Theory of Shopping. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Salazar, Juan Francisco and Gorman, Alice. 2023. The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space. London: Routledge.
Sperber, Dan. 1985. On Anthropological Knowledge. Three Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tec, Neghama. (2013). Resistance: Jews and Christians Who Defied the Nazi Terror. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: