History of Anthropological Theory

Catalog description

This course provides a topically oriented and roughly chronological overview of the development of anthropological thought from the late 19th to the close of the 20th century. We will examine major themes that anthropology sought to address in its first century: the individual and the social; societal cohesion and conflict; value and exchange; human difference and cultural universals; materialist vs. mentalist explanations; and power and the production of knowledge. Throughout the course, we will be concerned with the development of anthropology as a discipline in relation to the historical background of colonialism, slavery, and systemic racism; war, nationalism, decolonization and nation-building; and the spread of capitalism. We will approach each theoretical perspective in terms of: (1) the context of the social and historical circumstances in which it emerged; (2) its analytical or explanatory power for understanding human behavior and the social world; (3) the kind of methodology it proposes; (4) its contribution to subsequent anthropological research and thought.