Anthropology: History, Theory, Practice

How have anthropological engagements with social and cultural diversity contributed to rethinking some of the most fundamental assumptions of the Western humanities and social sciences across the last 150 years? In this subject, we introduce a global genealogy of anthropological theory to consider some of the key questions raised by anthropologists and to explore their ongoing relevance for contemporary intellectual and political debates. In so doing, we dive into a range of texts from both the centre and the margins of the field, gaining a sharper understanding of different schools of anthropological thought, their relationships to each other, the historical contexts in which they were developed, and their respective strengths and weaknesses. To ground these theoretical critiques, we draw on ethnographic examples from across the world.