Students will engage with classic concerns in the anthropology of kinship, developing a chronological understanding of developments in the field since the mid-twentieth century. They will study the parallel development of the anthropology of women in the 1970s and 1980s, and the subsequent emergence of the anthropology of gender and sexuality. Topics covered will include: marriage and family forms, the reputed ‘crisis’ of masculinity, attitudes towards romantic love, and discourses of human, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. Emphasis will be placed on the theoretical contributions of feminist anthropologists as well as debates about the suitability of feminism as a framework for anthropological studies of non-Western societies. Students will be encouraged to engage with the work of African and Asian scholars alongside texts produced by European and North American anthropologists. Case studies will be taken from across the world in an effort to make ‘the familiar strange and the strange familiar’, encouraging students to examine their own assumptions about family forms, gender relations and human sexuality.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Identify and summarise key concerns for anthropologists of kinship, gender and sexuality.
Assess the relationship between feminism and anthropology.
Recognise the potential limitations of Euro-American narratives about gender relations.
Identify connections between the traditional field of kinship studies and more recent anthropological interest in gender and sexuality.
Assessment
29605-01 : 1500 word written assignment - Essay 1 : Coursework (40%)
29605-02 : 2000 word written assignment - Essay 2 : Coursework (60%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
Assessment: 1 x 1500 word written assignment (40%)