Anthropology: Studying Human Diversity

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2015:

170 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Anthropology explores the different ways people live their lives. In this subject, an introduction to foundational knowledge in the discipline, students will be exposed to a variety of social and cultural forms around the world and the methods and theories developed to understand them as diverse expressions of a shared human condition. Topical issues that will be encountered include how different peoples around the world experience and react to pleasure, suffering and death, use ritual, religion and magic to understand and change their worlds, organise their sexual and family lives and their friendship networks, create and maintain their identities (individual, gendered, ethnic and youth sub-cultural) and maintain and resist the relations of power in which they are all enmeshed. On completion, students will have developed a foundational knowledge of the discipline of anthropology. They will also have developed an appreciation of both anthropology's distinctiveness and its complementarity with other social science disciplines such as sociology, criminology, geography, political science, history, philosophy and gender studies. Finally, and most importantly, they will, through cross cultural comparison, understand the peculiarity of their own taken-for-granted ways of being.

On completion of this subject students should:

• Develop a foundational understanding of key theoretical debates and ethnographic case studies in social and cultural anthropology;

• Develop a basic understanding of how anthropology has developed as a discipline since the turn of the 20th century and the social, historical and intellectual contexts that have contributed to this development;

• Develop skills in conducting research, and speaking, writing and reading carefully and critically;

• Work with reflexivity and sensitivity to understand and appreciate cultural diversity within a community of scholars as well as in the wider community.

An ethnographic observation exercise of 1000 words (25%) due week 5, a one hour (1000 word) in class test (25%) scheduled in week 12, and a 2000 word essay (50%) due during the examination period.

Hurdle Requirement: This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 75% tutorial attendance. Regular participation in tutorials is required.

Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per working day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

Readings will be provided online through the subject's LMS site prior to the commencement of semester.

Additional Readings will be available through LMS

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.