Core Themes in Anthropology

General Information

Course Code	S_CTA
Credits	6 EC
Period	P1
Course Level	100
Language of Tuition	English
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Coordinator	prof. dr. F. Colombijn
Examiner	prof. dr. F. Colombijn
Teaching Staff	prof. dr. F. Colombijn
Part of programme(s) Bachelor Communication Science Communication Science Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology Political Science Political Science Public Administration and Organization Science Sociology Use the arrow keys to navigate the list, Enter to select, and Escape to close.

Practical Information

You need to register for this course yourself. The (de)registration deadlines can be found on VU.nl

Teaching Methods	Written partial exam, Lecture

Check the schedule for this course.

Target audiences

This course is also available as:

Extra curricular course for VU students

Secondary subject for non-VU students

Open course

Part of an Exchange Programme

Course Objective

Knowledge and understanding.
The student has acquired knowledge and understanding of:
(1) the core subjects of anthropology;
(2) the basic concepts in anthropology;
(3) the main methodological approaches in anthropology;
(4) the basic theoretical perspectives, through a tour across six
fundamental themes in anthropology.

Application.
The student has acquired the competence to:
(5) observe her or his own life-world from an anthropological
perspective;
(6) realize the contingencies and relativity of one’s own cultural
routines.
(7) take part in anthropological debates.

Course Content

Anthropology is the comparative study of human societies and cultures
all over the world!
The goal of anthropology is to describe, analyse and explain different
cultures, to show how groups have adapted to and modified their
environment, and to understand how people try to make sense of their
world and give meaning to their lives. Core themes in anthropology is an
introduction to the discipline.

The course is built around six central core themes, or recurrent
fundamental questions: 1) questions about the nature of “culture”; 2)
questions about the individual and society; 3) questions about “ties
that bind” or a sense of “belonging”; 4) questions about structure and
agency; 5) questions about the body and materiality; and 6) questions
revolving around language, symbols, convictions and emic/etic
categorizations, including one's own perspective and biases.

Additional Information Teaching Methods

Lectures; guest lectures; documentaries.

Method of Assessment

Mid-term and final exam with open questions.

Literature

Literature will be announced on CANVAS.

Additional Information Target Audience

BSc 1 Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology;
Pre-Master students Social and Cultural Anthropology;
BSc 2 Religiewetenschappen (Traject Comparatief);
Minor Anthropology or Minor Religiestudies;
Other (exchange) students are welcome to take this course as an
elective.

Additional Information

For the first-year bachelor students in Cultural Anthropology and
Development Studies, this course is part of a cluster, called
“Anthropological Base”. The cluster consists of three courses: Core
Themes in Anthropology; History and Theory of Anthropology; and
Challenges of the 21st Century. For BSc1 students of Cultural
Anthropology and Development Sociology, the course will be accompanied
with tutorials, in the “Academic skills lab” (English programme) or
“Bachelorwerkgroep” (Dutch programme).

For other students, please check how this programme fits in your PMC
curriculum, minor programme, or trajectory (Religiewetenschappen).