Kinship and Family in Comparative Perspective

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.

15 points

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

Ethnicity, Racism and Genocide

This course provides a critical introduction to the historical and anthropological study of ethnicity, racism, genocide and migration.

15 points

Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH, HIST, MAOR, or SOCI, or 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

HIST283, MAOR230, PACS204, SOCI223

The Place of Witches: An Anthropology of Witchcraft, Healing, and Magic in the Atlantic World

This course explores witchcraft, healing, and magic in the Atlantic World from an anthropological perspective. It covers a series of sub-topics such as witch-hunting, the regulation of witchcraft and sorcery beliefs and practices, divination, magical landscapes, and revitalization movements.

15 points

Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI; or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

ANTH366

Religion and Society: Why God Won't Die

This course is an introduction to the Sociology & Anthropology of religion focused on thinking and rethinking religion, culture & society. Central to the discussion is why god and religion has not disappeared as was predicted in much modern social theory. In considering this question, the course provides a critical discussion of the ways religion, god and religious practices have been thought, dismissed and applied over the past 150 years within the Sociology & Anthropology of Religion.

15 points

Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

SOCI278, SOCI292, SOCI392 in 2012