ANS1400F Words, Deeds, Bones And Things

This course is an introduction to Anthropology. Anthropology is explored through four contingent entry points: "Words" focuses on intra- and cross-cultural meaning making; "Deeds" examines the individual's agency within social contexts; "Things" analyses interaction with objects and "Bones" introduces basic principles of archaeology. The course privileges hands-on immersion into anthropology and provides an overview of its complex history. As an introductory course, we use content that engages the diversity of students’ life worlds and is cognisant of our African location. We employ innovative teaching and delivery methods, including multilingual pedagogies and digital literacy, which allow more time for active engagement and the development of critical reading and writing skills in the Humanities.

ANS1401S Introduction To The Social Anthropology Of Development And Difference

Examining social phenomena comparatively allows us to understand that what we take for granted is the result of complex processes that produce different social forms in different places over time. An introduction to anthropology’s comparative perspective, the course explores anthropology’s
theoretical underpinnings and methodological approaches. It includes a small research project that will enable students to think about methodological and ethical issues in research.

ANS2401F Medical Anthropology

Comparative anthropological approaches to the social-cultural aspects of health, disease and health care; health-related beliefs and behaviour in a range of different social contexts and global health formations; 'traditional' healers and the transmission of health-related knowledge. The course is particularly concerned with comparative social-cultural understandings of HIV/AIDS and TB, and includes a small field research/exercise project that is likely to focus on that issue as it manifests in southern Africa.

ANS2402S Anthropology Of Power And Wealth

This course examines the symbiotic relationship between power and wealth. Part I explores power, how it is produced, the way it works and its relationship with inequality; Part II examines the production and circulation of wealth through the lens of economic anthropology; Part III focuses on neoliberalism through an anthropological critique of colonisation and development. The course includes a short ethnographic project.

ANS2400Z Anthropological Fieldwork

This course comprises participation in a short, supervised fieldwork trip resulting in a compulsory written report. A co- and/or pre-requisite for participation in this fieldwork is the successful completion of small fieldwork exercises, and reports on each, as required by the other courses taken towards the major in Anthropology. (Students who complete an independent supervised ethnographic study for the elective course ANS3402FS may be exempted from the requirement to complete ANS2400Z for purposes of the major in Anthropology.)

ANS2404S Anthropology Of Rural Environment (NOT OFFERED IN 2024)

ANS3400F The Challenge Of Culture

The course explores theories of culture and their historical development, examining how they have been applied in specific contexts and tracing epistemological limitations. Spanning a range of approaches and critical perspectives, the course interrogates how we understand human world-making practices and the relations, connections and schisms between people, environments and things. It uses a range of comparative ethnographic examples, drawn from around the world to demonstrate how theory has been applied. It includes at least one small field research project/exercise.

ANS3401S Anthropology Through Ethnography

The course analyses ethnographic praxis to teach practical research skills and engage critically with disciplinary knowledge practices and their legacies. Students develop and refine an ethnographic research project by drawing on critical traditions within anthropology. The course uses individual and collaborative approaches to enable students to understand knowledge-power relations and to develop an ethical critical epistemology

ANS3402F/S Special Topic