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This course is designed to help students understand the importance of kinship and family in human societies and appreciate the complexities and variation in how kinship and family are conceptualized and practised in different cultures. In this course, we will discuss classic and contemporary case studies of kinship and family in cultures and societies around the world, including Africa, China, Europe, the United States, and the Pacific area (including New Zealand), to list just a few. In examining these cases and case studies, we will probe the issues of biology and culture, personhood and subjectivity, and structure and human agency in varied ways of conceptualizing and practising kinship in different cultures. This course also covers comprehensive knowledge of historical and contemporary theories and methods in kinship and family studies to help students develop critical perspectives on how kinship and family are practised in contemporary life.
Family and kinship provide important ways for people to be related to each other in all societies throughout the world. An understanding of any human society is impossible without some understanding of kinship and family in that society. For this reason, topics of kinship and family have long attracted scholarly attention from various disciplines of social sciences, in particular anthropology and sociology. In this course, we will discuss classic and contemporary case studies of kinship and family in cultures and societies around the world, including African tribal societies, pre and post-communist China, Medieval Europe, the United States, and New Zealand, to list just a few. In examining these cases and case studies, we will probe the topics of biology and culture, personhood and subjectivity, gender, and global capitalism.
After taking this course, students are expected to:a. Understand the ways how anthropologists have understood kinship and family historically, and how these understandings have shifted in line with broader theoretical and methodological changes in the discipline.b. Appreciate the cross-cultural variation in how kinship and the family are conceptualized and practiced, and the role of these conceptualizations and practices in the structuring and conduct of social relations.c. Understand how conceptions and practice of family and kinship are shaped by the broader socio-cultural, economic and political contexts.d. Be able to apply the theories and methods learned to the analysis of kinship and family systems.e. To have a better appreciation of cultural variations in New Zealand and the world
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
ANTH312
Students must attend one activity from each section.
Zhifang Song
Domestic fee $948.00
International fee $4,263.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .