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3601:2020:about_this_seminar [2020/02/12 14:37] Ryan Schram (admin)3601:2020:about_this_seminar [2020/02/12 14:38] (current) Ryan Schram (admin)
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 Welcome to //Contemporary theory and anthropology//, a senior seminar that surveys the present state of cultural anthropology. This class was developed to serve as a required capstone to an anthropology major, and is a requirement for honours. It is now an in-depth exploration of several current debates within the field about the nature of anthropology, and its main goal is to help you discover what you believe is valuable in anthropology, and what defines it as a discipline. As anthropology majors, you are all becoming acquainted with anthropology as a discipline and a way of thinking. In this class, we talk explicitly about what that means and where each of us stands as thinkers within the discipline of anthropology. Welcome to //Contemporary theory and anthropology//, a senior seminar that surveys the present state of cultural anthropology. This class was developed to serve as a required capstone to an anthropology major, and is a requirement for honours. It is now an in-depth exploration of several current debates within the field about the nature of anthropology, and its main goal is to help you discover what you believe is valuable in anthropology, and what defines it as a discipline. As anthropology majors, you are all becoming acquainted with anthropology as a discipline and a way of thinking. In this class, we talk explicitly about what that means and where each of us stands as thinkers within the discipline of anthropology.
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 +## What does it mean to say anthropology is a discipline?
  
 The organization of scholarly inquiry into disciplines is more than simple specialization. What people in one discipline study—in anthropology, for example, human societies, social behavior, ways of life, and ways of thinking—might also be studied by many other disciplines. Scholars working within one discipline, however, speak in a common language and participate in a conversation among themselves about a shared set of questions. They approach their object of study with a particular perspective which is informed by the history of debates within the field on these shared questions. Their disciplinary perspective is moreover linked to a particular methodology which leads them to collect certain kinds of empirical information. In anthropology in particular, disciplinary knowledge is also strongly linked to the practice of writing ethnography as a distinctive genre of description, analysis, and intepretation. But in the end disciplines are all branches of the same single body of knowledge, and disciplines each make distinct yet also complementary contributions to larger debates across many fields. The organization of scholarly inquiry into disciplines is more than simple specialization. What people in one discipline study—in anthropology, for example, human societies, social behavior, ways of life, and ways of thinking—might also be studied by many other disciplines. Scholars working within one discipline, however, speak in a common language and participate in a conversation among themselves about a shared set of questions. They approach their object of study with a particular perspective which is informed by the history of debates within the field on these shared questions. Their disciplinary perspective is moreover linked to a particular methodology which leads them to collect certain kinds of empirical information. In anthropology in particular, disciplinary knowledge is also strongly linked to the practice of writing ethnography as a distinctive genre of description, analysis, and intepretation. But in the end disciplines are all branches of the same single body of knowledge, and disciplines each make distinct yet also complementary contributions to larger debates across many fields.
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-----+## What will we do in a seminar on anthropology? 
  
 What this means for us, though, is that we have a lot to discuss, and each of you, as students of anthropology can each make your own contribution to everyone’s understanding of what is valuable about anthropology as a discipline. There are no right answers in this class. Each one of you has as your job to develop your own relationship to anthropology and its history, and to say why you adopt your stance on anthropology. For that reason, this class is organized as a seminar in which each person takes a turn leading the discussion. Every week, we will know if we have done a good job if: What this means for us, though, is that we have a lot to discuss, and each of you, as students of anthropology can each make your own contribution to everyone’s understanding of what is valuable about anthropology as a discipline. There are no right answers in this class. Each one of you has as your job to develop your own relationship to anthropology and its history, and to say why you adopt your stance on anthropology. For that reason, this class is organized as a seminar in which each person takes a turn leading the discussion. Every week, we will know if we have done a good job if:
3601/2020/about_this_seminar.1581547037.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/02/12 14:37 by Ryan Schram (admin)