- History of Anthropological Thought

Catalog description

This course introduces students to a history of anthropological ideas, and also to a ‘genealogy’: a critical overview of concepts that have contributed to the shaping of the discipline of anthropology in its current formation. Beginning with antecedents in classical works describing people and cultures, we will then read and discuss modern ideas in the 19th and 20th centuries when the field of anthropology takes on more recognizable shape, and then consider some of the most recent theories including such things as multispecies ethnography. The ambition of this course is to immerse students in the long conversation (including debates and discontinuities) of anthropology, and to provide students with a foundation for engaging directly with the most current research and knowledge in the field.