41 - 50 of 56 results for: ANTHRO

In this course, we will explore social network analysis, a set of methods and theories used in the analysis of social structure. The fundamental conceit underlying social network analysis is that social structure emerges from relationships between individuals. We will therefore concentrate in particular on the measurement of relationships, emphasizing especially practical methodology for anthropological fieldwork. This is a somewhat unusual course because of its focus on social network research coming out of anthropological and ethological traditions. While most current practitioners of social network analysis are (probably) sociologists, many of both the methodological antecedents and theoretical justifications for the field can be found in these two traditions. A major goal of this course is to understand how the methods and perspectives of social network analysis can be usefully incorporated into contemporary approaches to ethnography and other anthropological modes of investigation. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor

The course will discuss how social virtues are converted into methods of research (hope, friendship, sincerity, trust, utopia), and how they affect processes of knowledge building within the humanities and social sciences in terms of revival of futurity. The concepts will be critically examined in their positive as well as negative potential for practicing prefigurative politics the creation of desirable modes of social relationships of conviviality and co-existence in the world.

Why do people obey others in the absence of explicit coercion? Why do people accept some leaders but not others? What does it mean to say something or someone has authority? Is authority personal or institutional? Why do people believe in the Pope? Why do people believe some objects have power and others not? Is charisma only a perfume? Can institutions wield charismatic power? These are questions that from Max Weber onwards classical and contemporary anthropologists and sociologists continue to ask.nnIn returning to (Weberian) questions of authority and legitimacy this course takes a question posed by Bourdieu ¿ what is the mystery of ministry? We will apply the question of authority broadly, not just in the explicitly political realm but also to understand, for example, how (culturally specific) charismatic and sacral authority can be fashioned through persons and through objects (eg. relics). The course will thus move between interrelated religious, moral, and political notions to try to generate some critical questions for how a contemporary anthropology that explicitly (rather than implicitly) re-addresses authority might look.

Required of fifth-year Ph.D. students returning from dissertation field research and in the process of writing dissertations and preparing for professional employment. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

Required of second- and third-year Ph.D. students writing the qualifying paper or the qualifying written examination. May be repeat for credit.