Faculty of Arts

 Anthropology

Table of Contents

Subject Lists
    Subject descriptions
        Fourth Year Honours

Cultural (or social) anthropology is the study of people in the diverse societies of the world. As a discipline it aims first at describing the full spectrum of what people do in all aspects of their lives and then at understanding why people do what they do, both as individuals and as members of social groups. Anthropology is concerned both with the details of particular societies and with the systematic comparison of different societies and cultures. Rather than confining questions or explanations within narrow disciplinary boundaries, most anthropological research is inter-disciplinary as well as cross-cultural, searching out and combining whatever information or methods are required to document and explain people's behaviours. Anthropologists might, for example, combine the approaches of economics, ecology, psychology, agronomy, demography, evolutionary biology, history, and symbolic analysis to document and then explain why people structure their society in a certain way. In order to understand the reasons people have for thinking and acting as they do in the circumstances in which they live, much of the necessary information and insights come from intensive and long-term fieldwork conducted while living among the people being studied, speaking with them in their own language, and participating in their daily activities.

 1. Prerequisites

Students from all faculties may enrol in Anthropology subjects with the approval of their Faculty. Most Anthropology subjects are available to students who have no previous backgrounds in this area of study.

Anthropology offers two single-semester subjects at first-year level. First-year Anthropology is not a prerequisite for entry into individual second and third-year subjects, however students intending to major in Anthropology should complete one, and preferably both, first-year subjects.

 2. Requirements for a major

A major in Anthropology requires the completion of a minimum of five second or third-year level semester subjects (a total of 83.3 points). Most Anthropology subjects are offered at both second and third-year levels. Students should note that no subject passed at second-year may be taken at third-year level. The Anthropology Handbook (available from the Anthropology Office, Room 243 Old Arts) provides further details about Anthropology subjects.

 3. Entry to Honours

All students wishing to enter the Pure or Combined degree course in Anthropology must seek the advice of the head of Anthropology in planning their major.

Students proceeding to fourth-year honours must have met all the requirements for a major in Anthropology with an average of H2B or better and have completed all the requirements for the BA pass degree. In the case of combined honours, students must have completed a major in each area of study and met the requirements for entry to honours in both areas of study.

 4. Honours requirements

Pure Honours: students are required to complete:

• four fourth-year single-semester subjects, each worth 16.7 points, and;
• 136-477 Anthropology Honours Thesis (33.3 points).

Combined Honours: students are required to complete:

• two fourth-year Anthropology single-semester subjects; Students who are undertaking their thesis in Anthropology also complete;
• 136-477 Anthropology Honours Thesis (33.3 points).

 5. For more information

For further Information please contact

Subject descriptions

136-171 Social Order and Social Change
136-172 Varieties of Human Experience
136-173 Culture and Human Nature
136-210 Applied Medical Anthropology: Modern and Traditional Health Care in Developing Areas
136-212 Keeping the Body in Mind: Culture, Curers and Biomedical Science
136-271 The Human Cosmos: Myth, Ritual and Society
136-272 Ethnic Nationalism and the Modern World
136-274 Sentiments and Structures: the Modalities of Kinship and Family
136-275 Exploring Culture Through Film
136-277 Power, Ideology and Inequality
136-278 Applied Anthropology: Solving Practical Problems At Home and Abroad
136-279 Sorcery, Witchcraft and the Anthropology of Evil
136-281 Culture Change and Protest Movements
136-287 Evolutionary Psychology and Cross-Cultural Explanations of Social Behaviour
136-292 Economics of Tribal, Peasant and Developing Societies
136-293 Sex, Gender and Reproduction. Anthropological Perspectives.
136-295 Evolutionary Ecology and Human Social Behaviour
136-296 Redefining Nature: Ethnological Perspectives on People in Environments
136-297 The Evolution of Consciousness, Mind, and Language

Fourth Year Honours

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