Learning Outcomes:

- Basic knowledge of the discipline of social anthropology, familiarity with comparative analysis and its various cultural, sociological and political manifestations;- Familiarity with the relevant theoretical concepts, tools and field studies in social anthropology; basic knowledge of applied anthropology.- Ability to understand inter and cross-disciplinary perspectives.

Indicative Module Content:

History and theory

Week 1: Introduction (RM)


Week 2: British Anthropology (RM)


Week 3: American Anthropology (RM)

Week 4: French Anthropology: From the Durkheimians (Marcell Mauss and Maurice Halbwachs) to the structuralist anthropology of Claude Levi-Strauss (AH)

Week 5: Interpretative and evolutionary-ecological approaches to social anthropology: Clifford Geertz and Jared Diamond (AH)
In this session we will look at the interpretative approach of Clifford Geertz and at the modern evolutionary-ecological perspective of Jared Diamond. Although the two approaches are very different in their overall outlook and perspective, they share some common thematic ground.
Two cases and related field studies: Northern Ireland and the Basque Country

Week 6: Anthropology and Conflict - Northern Ireland (I)
This session will introduce the work of Rosemary Harris and her influential ethnographic study, Prejudice and Tolerance in Ulster. This provides a detailed account of a border community in pre-troubles Northern Ireland. The work is important as a stand alone ethnography and also because it paved the way for future generations of field research on identity, conflict studies and conflict theory.This session will also look at Frank Burton’s ‘Politics of Legitimacy’. Although a sociologist, Burton utilises an ethnographic approach to get an understanding of a Catholic community in Belfast at the height of the Northern Ireland conflict in the 1970s.

Week 7 (RM) Anthropology and Conflict - Northern Ireland (II)

Week 8: What does it mean to be Basque ? (I) Basque history in perspective (AH)
In this session we will look at what makes the Basque Country and its inhabitants so unique that they have become the subject of anthropological research and discussion. We will follow the development of the Basque Country from its historical foundations to the modern day, look at Basque identities and institutions and the role that the social sciences in general and social anthropology in particular have played in trying to find an answer to the question of what it means to be Basque.

Week 9: What does it mean to be Basque? (II): Cultural Peculiarities (AH)
In his acclaimed film Bertsolari (2012) director Asier Altuna investigates the art of cross-rhyme improvisational singing in Basque and the role and impact this performance art has on Basque culture and beyond .
Film: Bertsolari (Director: Asier Altuna; 85 min)

Week 10: What does it mean to be Basque? (III) Nationalism and political violence (AH)

Week 11: What does it mean to be Basque? (IV) The social and communal roots of Basque Nationalism (AH)

Week 12. The Limits of Anthropology? (RM)

Student Effort Type	Hours
Lectures	22
Seminar (or Webinar)	3
Autonomous Student Learning	88
Total	113

Not applicable to this module.

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy  

Description	Timing		Component Scale		% of Final Grade
Essay: End of term essay (3000 words) worth 80%.	Week 12	n/a	Graded	No	80
Continuous Assessment: Two film reviews each 500 words copied into one Word documents (worth 20% together)	Week 11	n/a	Graded	No	20

 

Resit In	Terminal Exam
Spring	No

• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

Feedback will be provided on assessed coursework as individual comments published in the VLE, in group sessions at lectures/seminars, and/or in person during office hours as appropriate.

Main textbooks:
BARNARD, A (2000) History and Theory in Anthropology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
BARTH, F et al. (2005) One discipline, Four Ways: British, German, French, and American Anthropology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
BARNARD, A (2000) History and Theory in Anthropology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
BARTH, F et al. (2005) One discipline, Four Ways: British, German, French, and American Anthropology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Film: The Brotherhood of Man - (United Auto Workers 1946, 12 min.; based on Ruth Benedict’s 1943 pamphlet “The Races of Mankind”)


EVANS-PRITCHARD, E (1940) The Nuer, Oxford: Clarendon.
EVANS-PRITCHARD, E (1937/ 1983) Witchcraft, Magic and Oracles among the Azande ed. Eva Gillies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
LEACH, E (1954) The Political System of Highland Burma: A study of the Kachin Social Organisation. London: Bell & Sons.
TURNBULL, C (1979) The Forest People, London: Picador
Film

HARRIS, M (1991) Cultural Anthropology 3rd ed., New York: Harper Collins.
Film:


HALBWACHS, M (1992) On Collective Memory, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
LEVI-STRAUSS, C (1955) Tristes Tropiques, Harmondsworth: Penguin
LEVI-STRAUSS, C (1963) Structural Anthropology, New York: Basic Books
LEVI-STRAUSS, C (1987) Introduction to the Work of Marcel Mauss, London: Routledge
MAUSS, M (1966) The Gift, London: Routledge


DIAMOND, J (1997) Guns, Germs and Steel, London: Jonathan Cape
DIAMOND, J (2005) Collapse, New York: Viking Penguin
GEERTZ, C (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books
GEERTZ, C (2000) Available Light, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press
GEERTZ, C (2010) Live among the Anthros, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press

HARRIS, R (1972) Prejudice and Tolerance in Ulster Manchester University Press.
Athens: University of Georgia Press.
BURTON, F (1978) The Politics of Legitimacy: Politics in a Belfast Community. London Routledge and Kegan Paul.


MOORE, R. G and SANDERS, A. D (1994) ‘The Limits of an anthropology of Conflict? Loyalist and Republican paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland’, in: WOLFE, A and YANG, H (1994) Anthropological Contributions to Conflict Resolution. Athens: P University of Georgia Press

CARO BAROJA, J (2009) The Basques, Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies
DOUGLASS, W. and ZULAIKA, J (2007) Basque Culture: Anthropological
Perspectives, Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies
GATTI, G et al. (2005) Basque Society: Structures, Institutions, and Contemporary
Life, Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies
HESS, A (2010) “From Philadelphia to Vitoria via Bonn? Why there is no
Constitutional Patriotism in the Basque Country”, in Samantha Ashenden and Chris
Thornhill (eds.): Legality and Legitimacy. Normative and Sociological Approaches,
Baden-Baden, Nomos, 291-306
WATSON, C (2005) Modern Basque History: Eighteens Century to the Present,
Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies


MEES, L (2003) Nationalism, Violence and Democracy: The Basque Clash of
Identities, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan
MEES, L. (2019) The Basque Contention: Ethnicity, Politics, Violence, Abingdon:
Routledge
ZULAIKA, J and DOUGLASS, W (1996) Terrorism and Taboo, London: Routledge,
Chapter 3
ZULAIKA, J (1992): Basque Violence: Metaphor and Sacrament, Reno, NV:
University of Nevada Press, Chapter 13


ARREGI GORDOA, X and HESS. A (eds.) (2017) The Basque Moment:
Egalitarianism and Traditional Basque Society. Reno. NV: Centre for Basque
Studies, chapters 3, 9 and 10
DOUGLASS, W (1970): Death in Murélaga, Seattle: University of Washington
Press, chapter 7
DOUGLASS, W (1975) Murélaga and Echalar, New York: St. Martin’s Press,
chapter II
GATTI, G et al. (2005) Basque Society: Structures, Institutions, and Contemporary
Life, Reno, NV: Center for Basque Studies, chapter 6
HEIBERG, M (1989/2007) The Making of the Basque Nation, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, Chapter 8
HESS, A (2009) Reluctant Modernization: Plebeian Culture and Moral Economy in
the Basque Country, Oxford: Peter Lang
HESS, A (2018) “Gastronomic Societies in the Basque Country”, in: J. Glueckler et
al. (eds.) Knowledge and Institutions (Knowledge and Space Vol. 13), Cham,
CH: Springer Open, 91-109
HESS, A (2010) “’Working the Waves’: The Plebeian Culture and Moral Economy of
Traditional Basque Fishing Brotherhoods”, in: Journal of Interdisciplinary History,
Vol. XL, No. 4, 551-578
MACCLANCY, J (2007) Expressing Identities in the Basque Arena, Oxford: James
Currey, chapter 3
OTT, S (1981/1993) The Circle of Mountains: A Basque Shepherding Community,
Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, chapter 8
PÉREZ-AGOTE, A (2006) The Social Roots of Basque Nationalism, Reno, NV:
University of Nevada Press, Chapter 6
ZULAIKA, J (1992): Basque Violence: Metaphor and Sacrament, Reno, NV: The
University of Nevada Press, chapter 13


GARDNER K and LEWIS, D (1996): Anthropology, Development and the Post-Modern Challenge, London: Pluto Press.

Name	Role
Professor Andreas Hess	Lecturer / Co-Lecturer
Dr Ruben Flores	Tutor

Autumn
Lecture	Offering 1	Week(s) - 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12	Wed 17:00 - 18:50
Lecture	Offering 1	Week(s) - 2	Wed 17:00 - 18:50
Autumn