Outline

Overview

Anthropology is a wide open conversation in which many people of different voices and perspectives come together to put forward different answers to the field’s important questions. Unlike other social sciences, anthropology wants to learn from the bottom up. This means that anthropologists never assume there’s one right way to learn about human lives, and the field is constantly looking for ways to reinvent itself to incorporate new voices and perspectives. This class will explore how anthropologists challenge themselves to overcome their own biases and blind spots through the study of several different contemporary topics as cases.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Anthropology
Credit points	6
Prerequisites ?	12 credit points at 1000 level in Anthropology
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Ryan Schram, ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s)	Ryan Schram, ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au

Assessment

The census date for this unit availability is 31 March 2025

Details
Criteria

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Online task	Concept quiz Answer 10 multiple choice questions as an early self-check. #earlyfeedbacktask	10%	Week 03 Due date: 14 Mar 2025 at 23:59 Closing date: 14 Mar 2025	250 words equiv.
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	First essay: Improving AI reference material Comment on and work with AI-generated reference material on topics from class.	25%	Week 06 Due date: 04 Apr 2025 at 23:59 Closing date: 04 Apr 2025	1000 words
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Possible sources for the second essay Find possible topics for your second essay.	10%	Week 09 Due date: 02 May 2025 at 23:59 Closing date: 02 May 2025	250 words
Outcomes assessed:
Presentation	What I learned about anthropology's future: An interactive presentation Share what you learned with your tutorial class.	10%	Week 12 Due date: 25 May 2025 at 23:59 Closing date: 25 May 2025	500 words equiv.
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Second essay: Who represents the future of anthropology and why? Make an argument for a scholar’s position in anthropology.	30%	Week 12 Due date: 23 May 2025 at 23:59 Closing date: 23 May 2025	1500 words
Outcomes assessed:
Online task	Weekly writing assignments Reflect on how your thinking is changing week to week.	15%	Weekly Closing date: 15 Jun 2025	10 x 100 words ea.
Outcomes assessed:
= hurdle task ? = AI allowed ? = early feedback task ?

Early feedback task

This unit includes an early feedback task, designed to give you feedback prior to the census date for this unit. Details are provided in the Canvas site and your result will be recorded in your Marks page. It is important that you actively engage with this task so that the University can support you to be successful in this unit.

Assessment summary

Please see the class Canvas site for complete instructions and guidance on each of the assignments.

Assessment criteria

Please the assessment instructions on the class Canvas site for the specific requirements and grading criteria for each assessment or assignment.

"Hurdle tasks" (the quiz, a preliminary writing assignment, and two essays) must be submitted in order to complete and pass the class.

For more information see guide to grades.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

Except for supervised exams or in-semester tests, you may use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessments unless expressly prohibited by your unit coordinator.

For exams and in-semester tests, the use of AI and automated writing tools is not allowed unless expressly permitted in the assessment instructions.

The icons in the assessment table above indicate whether AI is allowed – whether full AI, or only some AI (the latter is referred to as “AI restricted”). If no icon is shown, AI use is not permitted at all for the task. Refer to Canvas for full instructions on assessment tasks for this unit.

Your final submission must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of automated writing tools or generative AI, and any material generated that you include in your final submission must be properly referenced. You may be required to submit generative AI inputs and outputs that you used during your assessment process, or drafts of your original work. Inappropriate use of generative AI is considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

The Current Students website provides information on artificial intelligence in assessments. For help on how to correctly acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the  AI in Education Canvas site.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

Stay in touch with your instructor throughout the semester, especially if you get behind. You can always catch up and we want give students an opportunity to do their best work. Late penalties are per FASS policy, and discretion can be applied.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Support for students

The Support for Students Policy reflects the University’s commitment to supporting students in their academic journey and making the University safe for students. It is important that you read and understand this policy so that you are familiar with the range of support services available to you and understand how to engage with them.

The University uses email as its primary source of communication with students who need support under the Support for Students Policy. Make sure you check your University email regularly and respond to any communications received from the University.

Learning resources and detailed information about weekly assessment and learning activities can be accessed via Canvas. It is essential that you visit your unit of study Canvas site to ensure you are up to date with all of your tasks.

If you are having difficulties completing your studies, or are feeling unsure about your progress, we are here to help. You can access the support services offered by the University at any time:

Support and Services (including health and wellbeing services, financial support and learning support)
Course planning and administration
Meet with an Academic Adviser

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	Two minds	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 02	Society as mind / Main reading: Bashkow (2006) / Other reading: Hanks (1996)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 03	The myth of the “static, primitive isolate” and the need for historical ethnography / Main reading: J. L. Comaroff and Comaroff (2009); Gilberthorpe (2007) / Other reading: J. Comaroff and Comaroff (1989); J. L. Comaroff and Comaroff (1990); J. L. Comaroff (1987); Wolf (1984); Trouillot ([2003a] 2016); Trouillot ([2003b] 2016)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 04	Imperialism as close encounter / Main reading: Sahlins (1988) / Other reading: Sahlins (1992); Sahlins (1996); Bashkow (2004); Englund and Leach (2000)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 05	Doing being, embodying structure, and the practice of social norms / Main reading: Prentice (2015) / Other reading: Ortner (2006); Ortner (1984); Bourdieu (1990)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 06	Social subjects beyond norm and action / Main reading: Miller (2010) / Other reading: Hendriks (2023); Shange (2019)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 07	Anthropology, imperialism, and epistemic domination / Main reading: Simpson (2014) / Other reading: Shah (2007); Cohn (1987); Chatterjee (1998); Chatterjee (2011)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 08	Knowing is governing / Main reading: Gupta (2012a); Gupta (2012b) / Other reading: Foucault (1991); Foucault (1982); Li (1999); Li (2007)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 09	Making an ethical self / Main reading: Mahmood (2001); Mahmood (2003) / Other reading: Rudnyckyj (2011); Zigon (2013)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 10	Nature as the recursion of culture / Main reading: Lien and Law (2011) / Other reading: Strathern (1996); Carsten (2014); Latour (2005); Latour (2004)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 11	Seeing is doing, or how social forms know themselves / Main reading: Street (2014); Reed (1999) / Other reading: Rio (2005); Viveiros de Castro (1998); Viveiros de Castro (2004)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 12	Objects that have agency / Main reading: Schnitzler (2016b) / Other reading: Schnitzler (2016a)	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)
Week 13	No universals, no particulars: Anthropology after humanism	Lecture and tutorial (3 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

According to university policies, attendance in 90% of all lectures and tutorials is required (whether they are online or on campus), and absence may be a basis for a reduction in your grade. Missing more than 50% of classes may be grounds for failing the class.

More importantly, though, your instructors and tutors want to get to know you as an individual and to help you and every student develop his or her own individual perspective on the field of anthropology. For that reason, we want to see you in class on a regular basis and to have regular (weekly) contact with each student to see how your thinking is developing. If you do have to miss a class, please do contact the instructor in advance so that they are aware of what's happening.

Attendance may be taken in lecture and tutorial primarily as a way for the instructor to get to know all of the students, to keep track of each student's progress, and to get an early warning if a student may need support. Attendance is not in itself a basis for the grade in this class, and no special consideration is needed for absence (since there is no separate "participation" grade in this class).

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

This list includes required and recommended readings.

Please see the class Canvas site or the USYD Library catalogue to access these works.

Bashkow, Ira. 2004. “A Neo-Boasian Conception of Cultural Boundaries.” American Anthropologist 106 (3): 443–58. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2004.106.3.443.

———. 2006. “The Lightness of Whitemen.” In The Meaning of Whitemen: Race and Modernity in the Orokaiva Cultural World, 64–94+12pp (photographs). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. “Structures, Habitus, Practices.” In The Logic of Practice, 52–65. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

Carsten, Janet. 2014. “An Interview with Marilyn Strathern: Kinship and Career.” Theory, Culture & Society 31 (2-3): 263–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276413510052.

Chatterjee, Partha. 1998. “Community in the East.” Economic and Political Weekly 33 (6): 277–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4406377.

———. 2011. “Lineages of Political Society.” In Lineages of Political Society: Studies in Postcolonial Democracy, 1–26. New York: Columbia University Press.

Cohn, Bernard S. 1987. “The census, social structure, and objectification in South Asia.” In An anthropologist among the historians and other essays, 224–54. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Comaroff, Jean, and John L. Comaroff. 1989. “The Colonization of Consciousness in South Africa.” Economy and Society 18 (3): 267–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085148900000013.

Comaroff, John L. 1987. “Of Totemism and Ethnicity: Consciousness, Practice and the Signs of Inequality.” Ethnos 52 (3-4): 301–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.1987.9981348.

Comaroff, John L., and Jean Comaroff. 1990. “Goodly Beasts, Beastly Goods: Cattle and Commodities in a South African Context.” American Ethnologist 17 (2): 195–216. https://www.jstor.org/stable/645076.

———. 2009. “A Tale of Two Ethnicities.” In Ethnicity, Inc., 86–116. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Englund, Harri, and James Leach. 2000. “Ethnography and the Meta‐Narratives of Modernity.” Current Anthropology 41 (2): 225–48. https://doi.org/10.1086/ca.2000.41.issue-2.

Foucault, Michel. 1982. “The Subject and Power.” Critical Inquiry 8 (4): 777–95. https://doi.org/10.1086/448181.

———. 1991. “Governmentality.” In The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, edited by Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, 87–104. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gilberthorpe, Emma. 2007. “Fasu Solidarity: A Case Study of Kin Networks, Land Tenure, and Oil Extraction in Kutubu, Papua New Guinea.” American Anthropologist 109 (1): 101–12. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2007.109.1.101.

Gupta, Akhil. 2012a. “Introduction: Poverty as biopolitics.” In Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India. A John Hope Franklin Center book. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394709.

———. 2012b. “The state and the politics of poverty.” In Red Tape: Bureaucracy, Structural Violence, and Poverty in India, by Akhil Gupta. A John Hope Franklin Center book. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822394709.

Hanks, William F. 1996. “The Language of Saussure.” In Language and Communicative Practices, 21–38. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

Hendriks, Thomas. 2023. “On the Surprising Queerness of Norms: Anthropology with Canguilhem, Foucault, and Butler.” Anthropological Theory 23 (3): 235–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/14634996221117755.

Latour, Bruno. 2004. “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?: From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.” Critical Inquiry 30 (Winter): 225–48.

———. 2005. “On the Difficulty of Being an ANT: An Interlude in the Form of a Dialog.” In Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory, 141–56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Li, Tania Murray. 1999. “Compromising Power: Development, Culture, and Rule in Indonesia.” Cultural Anthropology 14 (3): 295–322. https://www.jstor.org/stable/656653.

———. 2007. “Governmentality.” Anthropologica 49 (2): 275–81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25605363.

Lien, Marianne Elisabeth, and John Law. 2011. “‘Emergent Aliens’: On Salmon, Nature, and Their Enactment.” Ethnos 76 (1): 65–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2010.549946.

Mahmood, Saba. 2001. “Rehearsed Spontaneity and the Conventionality of Ritual: Disciplines of Şalat.” American Ethnologist 28 (4): 827–53. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2001.28.4.827.

———. 2003. “Ethical Formation and Politics of Individual Autonomy in Contemporary Egypt.” Social Research: An International Quarterly 70 (3): 837–66. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/558592.

Miller, Daniel. 2010. “Anthropology in Blue Jeans.” American Ethnologist 37 (3): 415–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01263.x.

Ortner, Sherry B. 1984. “Theory in Anthropology Since the Sixties.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 26 (1): 126–66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/178524.

———. 2006. “Power and Projects: Reflections on Agency.” In Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388456.

Prentice, Rebecca. 2015. “‘Keeping Up with Style’: The Struggle for Skill.” In Thiefing a Chance, 111–42. Factory Work, Illicit Labor, and Neoliberal Subjectivities in Trinidad. Boulder: University Press of Colorado. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155jp7p.10.

Reed, Adam. 1999. “Anticipating Individuals: Modes of Vision and Their Social Consequence in a Papua New Guinean Prison.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5 (1): 43–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/2660962.

Rio, Knut M. 2005. “Discussions Around a Sand-Drawing: Creations of Agency and Society in Melanesia.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11 (3): 401–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2005.00243.x.

Rudnyckyj, Daromir. 2011. “Circulating Tears and Managing Hearts: Governing Through Affect in an Indonesian Steel Factory.” Anthropological Theory 11 (1): 63–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463499610395444.

Sahlins, Marshall. 1988. “Cosmologies of Capitalism: The Trans-Pacific Sector of ‘The World System’.” Proceeedings of the British Academy 74: 1–51. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/74p001.pdf.

———. 1992. “The Economics of Develop-Man in the Paciﬁc.” Res 21: 13–25.

———. 1996. “The Sadness of Sweetness: The Native Anthropology of Western Cosmology.” Current Anthropology 37 (3): 395–428. https://doi.org/10.1086/204503.

Schnitzler, Antina von. 2016a. “Measuring Life: Living Prepaid and the Politics of Numbers After Apartheid.” In Democracy’s Infrastructure: Techno-Politics and Protest After Apartheid, 132–67. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400882991-006.

———. 2016b. “The Making of a Techno-Political Device.” In Democracy’s Infrastructure: Techno-Politics and Protest After Apartheid, 105–31. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400882991-005.

Shah, Alpa. 2007. “The Dark Side of Indigeneity?: Indigenous People, Rights and Development in India.” History Compass 5 (6): 1806–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00471.x.

Shange, Savannah. 2019. “Black Girl Ordinary: Flesh, Carcerality, and the Refusal of Ethnography.” Transforming Anthropology 27 (1): 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/traa.12143.

Simpson, Audra. 2014. “Constructing Kahnawà:ke as an ‘Out-of-the-Way’ Place: Ely S. Parker, Lewis Henry Morgan, and the Writing of the Iroquois Confederacy.” In Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822376781.

Strathern, Marilyn. 1996. “Cutting the Network.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2 (3): 517–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/3034901.

Street, Alice. 2014. “The Waiting Place.” In Biomedicine in an Unstable Place: Infrastructure and Personhood in a Papua New Guinean Hospital. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/269/chapter/111426/The-Waiting-Place.

Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. (2003a) 2016. “Adieu, Culture: A New Duty Arises.” In Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World, 97–116. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-137-04144-9.

———. (2003b) 2016. “Anthropology and the Savage Slot: The Poetics and Politics of Otherness.” In Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World, 7–28. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-137-04144-9.

Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. 1998. “Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4 (3): 469–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/3034157.

———. 2004. “Exchanging Perspectives: The Transformation of Objects into Subjects in Amerindian Ontologies.” Common Knowledge 10 (3): 463–84. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-10-3-463.

Wolf, Eric R. 1984. “Culture: Panacea or Problem?” American Antiquity 49 (2): 393–400. http://www.jstor.org/stable/280026.

Zigon, Jarrett. 2013. “Human Rights as Moral Progress?: A Critique.” Cultural Anthropology 28 (4): 716–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/cuan.12034.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. understand how anthropological arguments are constructed through analysis of relevant evidence and theory.
LO2. identify differing methodologies used in ethnographic research and understand how they can enable analytical insight and theoretical innovation.
LO3. demonstrate proficiency in the use of anthropological databases and scholarly literature relevant to research in the discipline.
LO4. use anthropological knowledge to inform and critique social theories
LO5. understand the potential of anthropological knowledge to generate societal impact

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This class has been developed as a requirement for anthropology majors to give them a firm foundation in the field, and is being updated this year based on conversations among staff in ANTH, feedback from students in 1000-level units, and in student forums.

Additional information

Please see the class Canvas site for a comprehensive guide to the class, including a guide to each week’s topic, required readings, and full instructions for each assignment.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Early feedback task

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Support for students

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

ANTH2700: Key Debates in Anthropology

Semester 1, 2025 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Early feedback task

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Support for students

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links