University of Sydney Handbooks - 2019 Archive

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Anthropology Descriptions

Errata
Item Errata Date
1.

The following units is no longer available in 2019:

ANTH2654 Forms of Families
ANTH3607
The Social Production of Space

24/1/2019
2.

The prerequisite has been changed for the following unit. It now reads:

SPAN3615 Indigenous Movements in Latin America P 12 credit points at 2000 level in the Spanish and Latin American Studies or Anthropology or Sociology or American Studies or Indigenous Studies.

5/2/2019

Anthropology

Major

A major in Anthropology requires 48 credit points from this table including:
(i) 12 credit points of 1000-level units
(ii) 12 credit points of 2000-level units
(iii) 18 credit points of 3000-level units
(iv) 6 credit points of 3000-level Interdisciplinary Project units

Minor

A minor in Anthropology requires 36 credit points from this table including:
(i) 12 credit points of 1000-level units
(ii) 12 credit points of 2000-level units
(iii) 12 credit points of 3000-level units

1000 level units of study

ANTH1001 Cultural Difference: An Introduction

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive July,Semester 1,Summer Main Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prohibitions: ANTH1003 Assessment: 10x100wd weekly online exercises (20%), 1x1500wd essay (35%), 1x2hr exam (35%), participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Anthropology explores and explains cultural difference while affirming the unity of humankind. It provides accounts of cultural specificity that illuminate the world today. Lectures will address some examples of cultural difference from the present and the past. These examples will introduce modern Anthropology, the method of ethnography, and its related forms of social and cultural analysis.
ANTH1002 Anthropology and the Global

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prohibitions: ANTH1004 Assessment: 1x2500wd Essay (45%), 2hr exam (45%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Anthropology's long-term ethnographic method, within a specific cultural setting, allows for a particularly intimate understanding of people's experiences of the social worlds they inhabit. This unit shows the importance of this experiential intimacy for understanding some of the key issues associated with globalisation: the culturally diverse forms of global capitalism, the transnational communities emanating from global population movements, the transformations of colonial and post-colonial cultures, the rise of global movements and the corresponding transformation of Western nationalism.

2000 level units of study

ANTH2605 Aboriginal Australia: Cultural Journeys

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Anthropology or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Indigenous Studies Prohibitions: ANTH2010 or ANTH2025 Assessment: 1x500wd tutorial writing task (15%), 1x1500wd unit reading task (30%), 1x2500wd major essay (40%), tutorial participation (15%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit introduces students to the diversity of cultural practice and worldviews of Aboriginal societies across Australia. It will in particular explore critically how Aboriginal people and practices have been understood, debated and represented in the discipline of anthropology since colonisation.
ANTH2606 Culture and the Unconscious

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000-level in Anthropology Assessment: 1x2500wd Essay (70%), 1x2hr exam (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This is a unit on psychoanalytic anthropology. With the focus on the unconscious dimension of human cultural existence the unit critically examines the systematic topical, theoretical, ethnographic and historical aspects of this unique field of anthropological inquiry. All psychoanalytic conceptual frameworks are elucidated and assessed through ethno-psychoanalytic work done in different cultural life-worlds. Firmly grounded in detailed ethnographic evidence the unit provides a comprehensive phenomenological-existential validation of the discipline and its contribution to both anthropology and psychoanalysis.
ANTH2623 Gender: Anthropological Studies

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive July,Semester 2,Summer Main Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week or equivalent in intensive Summer session Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Anthropology or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Gender Studies Prohibitions: ANTH2020 or ANTH2023 Assessment: 1x2500wd Essay (55%), 1x1500wd Essay (35%), 1x500wd Tutorial paper and presentation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit explores the social and cultural dimensions of gender and sexuality in non-western societies. The main focus is the body in two interrelated senses. Firstly, how the body is culturally constructed by giving aspects of gender and sexuality meanings that do not simply reflect biology. Secondly, how bodies are socially constructed, for example through ritual. The relations of the dimensions of the body to the articulation of power and social change are also considered.
ANTH2625 Culture and Development

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Anthropology Assessment: 1x1500wd Essay (40%), 1x1400wd Take-home exercise (35%), 1x1-hr multiple-choice exam (15%), 12xweekly 50wd reading notes (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
The 1949 speech by US president, Harry Truman, declared his country's commitment to the 'development' of the Third World, and began what many consider to be development as an institutional approach to non-Western societies. Anthropology, well established in its study of non-Western societies, was able to offer a rich ethnographic insight into the developing world. Combining ethnographic detail with social science concepts, this unit covers topics such as food crisis, land, environment, cities, fair trade, migration, nation-state, NGOs, poverty and informal economy.
ANTH2626 Urban Anthropology

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorail/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Anthropology Assessment: 1x1500wd short essay (35%), 1x2500wd summative essay (45%), 5x100wd weekly responses (10%), participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
A majority of the world's population live in cities and anthropologists seek to understand urban life and culture. This unit focuses on ethnographic studies of urbanism around the world, including walled cities, slums, urban migrations, environmental transformations and other recent topics in anthropology. Lectures discuss ethnography as research method in urban environments.
Textbooks
readings will be available at the University Copy Centre
ANTH2627 Medical Anthropology

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Anthropology or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Gender Studies Prohibitions: ANTH2027 Assessment: 1x1000wd Essay (30%), 1x3000wd Take-home exercise (60%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Medical anthropology is a comparative and ethnographic response to the global influence of biomedicine within diverse cultural worlds. This unit will examine major theoretical approaches, their respective critiques, and the methods that underpin them. Concepts such as 'health/illness', 'disease', 'well-being', 'life-death', and 'body/mind' will be located in a variety of cultural contexts and their implications for different approaches to diagnosis and treatment considered. The unit will include culturally located case studies of major contemporary health concerns, such as AIDS.
ANTH2629 Race and Ethnic Relations

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Anthropology or 12 credit points at 1000 level in Diversity Studies Prohibitions: ANTH2117 Assessment: 1x1000wd short written assignment (30%), 1x1000wd equivalent group Oral Presentation (15%), 1x2500wd Essay (45%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
A comparative study of race and ethnic group relations. The unit will consider the history of ideas of 'race' and practices of racialising and their relationship to ethnicity. It will draw on studies from various areas including North America, the Caribbean, Japan and Australia.
ANTH2631 Anthropology Research Skills and Methods

This unit of study is not available in 2019

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x2hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Anthropology Assessment: 1x750wd project journal pt 1 (15%), 1x750wd project journal pt 2 (15%), 1x3000wd project report (60%), tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Anthropology's distinctive method, termed ethnography, requires the researcher's involvement as a 'participant observer' with the group of people being studied. This unit takes a practical approach to the study of ethnography, developing students' understanding of the foundational role of field research in the creation of new knowledge in the discipline. Topics covered include: history of the method; diversity of research topics and settings; research ethics, design, techniques, and analysis. Students will devise and report on their own project.
ANTH2632 Anthropology of the Body

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2x1hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level in Anthropology Assessment: 1x1000wd Take-home exercise (25%), 1x2500wd Major Essay (50%), 1x1000wd Tutorial notebook (20%), Tutorial participation (5%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
The body as a site of culture has been of interest to anthropologists from the inception of the discipline. This unit focuses on the theory and history of developments in anthropological approaches to the body through the study of key texts in a range of theoretical approaches, including Mauss, Marx, Bourdieu, phenomenology and post-structuralism. Each theoretical approach will be matched with classic and contemporary ethnographic readings.
ANTH2653 Economy and Culture

This unit of study is not available in 2019

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 2x1hr lectures/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week commencing week 2 Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Anthropology Assessment: 1x2500wd essay (60%) and 1x2hr exam (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Economic anthropology teaches that there are different kinds of economy, grounded in different forms of value (gift, commodity) and on different rationalities (kinship, chiefly, market). The nature of these differences is explored through ethnographic studies, as are the conflicts that arise from their articulation within a global system. Characterisations of economic practice are as corrupt, irrational, informal, black, profit as the work of the devil, money as bitter are treated as signs of such systemic conflict.
Textbooks
reading lists will be available at the beginning of semester
ANTH2654 Forms of Families

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000-level in Anthropology Assessment: 1x100wd terminology quiz (10%), 1x400wd discussion questions (10%) , 1x1500wd critical Essay (30%), 1x2500wd comparative Essay (40%), Tutorial participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Where does nature stop and culture begin? This is why anthropologists study kinship. In this unit we will survey the development of this field from its origins to its contemporary form as a critical investigation of how culture shapes the way we think about personhood, relationships, sex, gender and the body. We will compare various types of kinship systems and discuss controversies over kinship - same-sex marriage, single-parent households, cloning, in-vitro fertilization, and alternative forms of family - from a cross-cultural perspective.
ANTH2663 Discerning Tastes, Anthropology of Food

This unit of study is not available in 2019

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week commencing week 2 Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 1000 level from Anthropology Assessment: 1x2000wds research essay (40%), 1x2hr exam (40%) and 1x500wd tutorial presentation (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This Unit examines the dynamic relationship between humans and the plants and animals that they eat. All humans need to eat if they are to survive, but human tastes are noticeably varied across different cultural, political, historical, and ecological settings. Furthermore, the contemporary world witnesses states of plenty, sufficiency, and scarcity simultaneously. Why are such different outcomes observed in different locales, and sometimes within the one locale? This Unit investigates these issues across a variety of cultural contexts.
Textbooks
readings will be available at the University Copy Centre
ANTH2666 History of Anthropological Thought

This unit of study is not available in 2019

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Anthropology Prohibitions: ANTH2501 Assessment: 1x2000wd Essay (35%), 1x2500wd Essay (65%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit surveys the key thinkers, theories and ethnographic researches that have shaped the historical development of anthropological thought. The central focus is on the interrelationships and differences between the Continental, British and American thinkers and lineages set against the backdrop of general ideas that defined the Western world-views of the last two centuries. This historical trajectory is systematically referred to its much longer tradition of critical thought and coordinated with the topics and debates in contemporary anthropological discourses.
ANTH2667 The Anthropology of Religion

This unit of study is not available in 2019

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: (12 Junior credit points from Anthropology) or (12 Junior credit points from Religion Studies) Assessment: 10x100wd reflections (15%), 1x1500wd Essay (30%), 1x2000wd Research essay (45%), Tutorial participation (10%). Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This Unit will examine various ways anthropologists have theorised religious belief and practice, and we will challenge these ideas by looking at the vast diversity of religious forms. Starting with the major theories of Durkheim, Weber and others, the Unit will focus on what anthropologists have identified as the key elements of religious forms cross-culturally. It will also look at debates around these ideas. Special emphasis will be put on the continuing salience of religious ideas and identities in modernity.
ANTH2668 Comparative Cosmologies

This unit of study is not available in 2019

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr lecture/week, 1x1hr tutorial/week Prerequisites: 12 Junior credit points in Anthropology Assessment: 1x1500wd Short Essay (35%), 1x3000wd Long Essay (65%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit examines the articulation of the self and the world as a totality through the comparative study of selected individual cosmologies. A key theme will be the dialectics of the infinite in human existence. This will enable an appreciation of human engagement with specifically Western cosmological theories grounded in astronomy astrophysics and mathematics.

3000 level units of study

ANTH3601 Contemporary Theory and Anthropology

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: 12 Senior credit points in Anthropology Prohibitions: ANTH3921 or ANTH3922 Assessment: 9x175wd online exercises (25%), 1x2000wd essay 1 (35%), 1x2500wd essay 2 (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit consolidates students' understanding of anthropology as a discipline through: 1) exploring key concepts of anthropological analysis and critique; 2) enhancing knowledge of the ethnographic method and its contemporary challenges; 3) strengthening research skills and experience in formulating a research project.
ANTH3602 Reading Ethnography

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x1hr lecture/week, 1x1hr seminar/week Prerequisites: 12 Senior credit points in Anthropology Prohibitions: ANTH3611 or ANTH3612 or ANTH3613 or ANTH3614 Assessment: 500wd Research essay outline (10%) and 1500wd Essay (30%) and 4000wd Research essay (60%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Ethnography as method is grounded in the 'participant observation' of social practice and the self-understanding of social actors in particular cultural contexts. Ethnography as analysis raises issues of representation and comparison. This unit explores these relationships in regionally and thematically specific debates.
ANTH3607 The Social Production of Space

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Assessment: 1x1000wd seminar presentation (20%), 1x4000wd major essay (60%), 1x1000wd equivalent discussion (20%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
We will examine manifestations and concepts of place and space in diverse cultural and historical contexts: e. g. , embodied spatial perception, space-time compression, domestic space, sacred places, urban worlds, ecological crisis, environmental art.
ANTH3618 Indigenous Australians Today

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in the Anthropology major Prohibitions: ANTH2630 Assessment: 1x3000wd Research Project Proposal (45%), 1x1200wd Project outline w bibliography (15%), 3x600wd Reading Analyses (30%), Seminar participation (10%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
The unit uses an anthropological lens to examine how Indigenous Australians have long engaged with a diversity of non-Indigenous practices, ideas and values as they continue to articulate distinct Indigenous lives. It investigates ethnographically changing Indigenous lifeworlds since colonisation with a focus on state policy and rights politics.
ANTH3625 Filming Culture

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in the Anthropology major Prohibitions: ANTH2622 Assessment: 1x3500wd Research Essay (60%), 1x500wd Essay Draft (10%), 10x200wd Weekly Film Analysis (30%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
In this unit we explore how to view films as anthropologists. We examine changing strategies of ethnographic filming and the increasing role people play in filming and representing their own lives. Issues include the richness of the visual, the subjectivity of the filmmaker, ethnographic observation and fiction, and the politics of representation.
SPAN3615 Indigenous Movements in Latin America

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in the Spanish and Latin American Studies major Assessment: Active seminar participation (10%), 1x1500wd group presentation (20%), 1x2000wd literature review (30%), 1x2500wd essay (40%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This course approaches the study of Latin American societies through an interdisciplinary approach to studying indigenous movements. These movements have been pivotal actors in the shaping of contemporary conceptions of democracy, citizenship and statecraft in the continent, and have also drawn attention globally. Students will gain insight into cultural diversity of Latin American societies and acquire analytical tools for studying and understanding a wide variety of topics associated with political structure and agency in the continent.

Interdisciplinary project unit of study

ANTH3998 Industry and Community Project

Credit points: 6 Session: Intensive December,Intensive February,Intensive January,Intensive July,Semester 1,Semester 2 Prerequisites: Interdisciplinary Impact in any major Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
This unit is designed for third year students to undertake a project that allows them to work with one of the University's industry and community partners. Students will work in teams on a real-world problem provided by the partner. This experience will allow students to apply their academic skills and disciplinary knowledge to a real-world issue in an authentic and meaningful way.
ANTH3999 Interdisciplinary Impact

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Prerequisites: 12 credit points at 2000 level in Anthropology Prohibitions: Interdisciplinary Impact in another major Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life and work. This unit provides learning experiences that build students' skills, knowledge and understanding of the application of their disciplinary background to interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through problem-based learning projects responding to 'real world problems'.

Honours

Honours in Anthropology requires 48 credit points from this table including:
(i) 12 credit points of 4000-level Honours Seminar units
(ii) 36 credit points of 4000-level Honours Thesis units

Honours seminar units of study

ANTH4101 Theorising the State in Everyday Life

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Assessment: 2x 2000wd equivalent Seminar presentations (40%), 1x 4000wd Essay (60%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
The unit provides an advanced-level introduction to the classic and contemporary theoretical and ethnographic literature in political anthropology focusing on the study of power in research on nation-states. Some major themes explored include nationalism, racism, gender and sexuality, identity, work and exploitation, poverty and religion.
ANTH4102 Anthropology of Mind and Experience

Credit points: 6 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 1x2hr seminar/week Assessment: 1x 2000wd Minor Essay (35%), 1x 4000wd Major Essay (65%) Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) day Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
The unit provides students with a basis for the understanding of anthropology in the context of current Western philosophical and scientific thought. It particularly explores the work of Claude Levi-Strauss in the light of existential phenomenological and psychoanalytic critiques. The aim is to deepen the students' critical knowledge of anthropological theory and the importance of comparative understanding in relation to the practice of ethnography.

Honours thesis unit of study

ANTH4103 Anthropology Honours Thesis 1

Credit points: 12 Session: Semester 1 Classes: 7 x half-hour supervision meetings/semester (on average) and 1x2hr workshop/week Assessment: 1x Thesis Preparation (100%) Mode of delivery: Supervision Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
In this unit students conduct literature research and collect empirical material for their Honours thesis. They participate in a Thesis Writing workshop that introduces them to research and writing skills, time management, reading and note taking strategies, referencing, structuring various parts of a thesis, and editing and revising chapter text. Regular meetings with a supervisor approved by the Anthropology Honours Coordinator will guide student progress.
ANTH4104 Anthropology Honours Thesis 2 and 3

Credit points: 24 Session: Semester 2 Classes: 7 x half-hour supervision meetings/semester, on average. Assessment: 1x 18000-20000wd Thesis (100%) Mode of delivery: Supervision Faculty: Arts and Social Sciences
In this unit you complete and submit your substantial, independent research project in Anthropology. Regular meetings with a supervisor approved by the Anthropology Honours Coordinator will guide your progress. You will continue to submit drafts at agreed times, and develop your expertise in relevant research methods and analytical skills as well as in the subject matter of your specialist topic.

Advanced Coursework

The requirements for advanced coursework in Anthropology are described in the degree resolutions for the Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Advanced Studies.
24-36 credit points of advanced study will be included in the table for 2020.