Module overview
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- identify and explore problems
- evaluate a project proposal
- pose interesting and innovative questions
- present a coherent argument and use appropriate evidence as necessary
- communicate effectively with others
- interrogate your data
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- key concepts as used by social anthropologists in roles and relationships
- important ideas central to social anthropology such as: the social nature of apparent individualism
- key concepts as used by social anthropologists in rituals and symbolic meanings
- important ideas central to social anthropology such as: the cultural construction of beliefs, attitudes, actions
- important ideas central to social anthropology such as: the social construction of perceived reality
- key concepts as used by social anthropologists in power and language
- important ideas central to social anthropology such as: the patterns and regularities under the surface of life
- key concepts as used by social anthropologists in family and gender relations
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- respond in an informed way to questions of cultural difference;
- reflect on the links between language learning cultural learning;
- realise own role as a reflexive cultural learner
Subject Specific Practical Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- to conduct some field observations and take notes in a field diary.
- to carry out ethnographic conversations and (if appropriate) interviews
- to index the data collected for your projects to evaluate evidence
- to apply anthropological concepts in order to interpret the data you collected for your projects
- to collect data required for your assignments
- to verify your interpretations of your project data through comparison with other evidence.
- to record interviews (if appropriate) and transcribe them
Syllabus
The course will introduce you to anthropological concepts, e.g. what is meant by cultural knowledge, values and beliefs, the way these are expressed through language, and how cultural knowledge relates to behaviour and social structures.
The course will also introduce you to ethnographic methods, i.e. ways of observing and understanding one's own and other cultural practices from an insider's point of view. As a result, the course should help you to make the most of your present and future experience of living and working in multicultural environments in terms of understanding the people around you, their cultural practices, including their beliefs and values and your own response to them and the social world which they inhabit.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- one lecture and one seminar (in workshop format) per week
Learning activities include
- pair- and group-work
- preparing and delivering individual presentations
- devising a project and conducting fieldwork
Innovative or special features of this unit
- doing fieldwork in a local context as a way of practical cultural learning
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Teaching | 24 |
Independent Study | 126 |
Total study time | 150 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Ethnography. Journal http://eth.sagepub.com/ An academic journal that has interdisciplinary interest
Internet Resources
Textbooks
Karen O'Reilly (2012). Ethnographic Methods. London: Routledge.
Martyn Hammersley & Paul Atkinson (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice. London: Routledge.
Assessment
Assessment strategy
The ethnographic project is worth 70% and breaks down into a presentation and an ethnography paper (weighted at 30%/70%). The book review is worth 30%.
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Empirical Project | 70% |
Book review | 30% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Empirical Project | 70% |
Book review | 30% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Empirical Project | 70% |
Book review | 30% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal