Contemporary anthropological theories I 3402-10TALZ
In the second half of the 20th century, anthropology emerged from its "heroic" phase and evolved into a broad and diverse field of research. Anthropologists not only expanded on the lines of thought proposed by the discipline's classics but also proposed new approaches to cultural phenomena, often inspired by the achievements of other human sciences – linguistics, literary studies, psychology, sociology, and economics. However, the fundamental questions posed by anthropology remained unchanged – the relationships between culture and the individual psyche, social structure, economics, and history.
Scope of topics:
1. Introduction: Various Meanings of the Concept of Theory
2. Old and New Structuralism in 20th-Century Science; Sources and Inspirations of Claude Lévi-Strauss's Structuralism; Other Representatives of Structuralism
3. Basic Linguistic and Semiotic Concepts Used in Contemporary Anthropology
4. Basic Concepts of Lévi-Strauss's Structuralism: Binary Oppositions, Structure and Its Laws, Structural Analysis, Surface and Deep Structures, the Human Mind, and Culture.
5. Lévi-Strauss: Kinship, Family, and Social Structure.
6. Lévi-Strauss: Wild Thought and Bricolage
7-8. Edmund Leach: The British Version of Structuralism - Transformations and Reshapings of Signs
9-10. Tartu Semioticians: Culture as a Semiotic System and the World of Texts
11. Modifications of Yuri Lotman's Theory
12-13. Semiotics of the First, Second, and Third Generations and Umberto Eco's Cultural Theory
14-15. Other Concepts of Symbolism: Mary Douglas and Victor Turner
Type of course
general courses
obligatory courses
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
We assume that after completing this PT course, participants will be familiar with and able to utilize the following:
1) the most important contemporary anthropological theories and methods of analyzing cultural phenomena adopted by anthropologists;
2) critically analyze the theories learned in class and (optionally) develop the concepts and conceptual systems learned;
3) use the theoretical concepts learned to independently interpret contemporary cultural phenomena.
Assessment criteria
For PT Students of the "Contemporary Anthropology" Specialization:
an oral exam covering knowledge acquired during classes and the literature provided.
For Guests (OGUN, optional classes), the following options are available:
a) exam - as above;
b) the opportunity to write 5 short papers that apply the concepts discussed during the lecture (for example: from structuralism, it will be an analysis of a fairy tale using the myth-analysis method; from Leach's theory, it will be an analysis of a selected concept in a so-called communicative dyad, etc.)
Practical placement
We do not provide internships for this subject.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: