Anthropology

Anthropology explores the different ways people live their lives. In this subject, an introduction to foundational knowledge in the discipline, you 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; and maintain and resist the relations of power in which they are all enmeshed. Comparative ethnographic examples will illustrate a range of disciplinary concerns in anthropological research ethics and practice, the dynamic interaction between processes of order and change in social life, and its effects on how people experience the different worlds they inhabit.

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This introduction to anthropology will examine everyday experiences that we often give little or no thought to, showing that what we take to be common sense is anything but common. Centered on the getting, cooking, sharing and eating of food, this subject will introduce social and cultural anthropology as a discipline that celebrates human diversity, allows us to consider our place and potential in the world through critical self-reflection, and invites a deeper understanding of people’s practices and beliefs. Drawing on written studies, anthropological film, and popular media from around the globe, students will be guided through key theories and methods in social and cultural anthropology, and they will be introduced to important debates within the discipline.

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What makes a city cool? Is Melbourne really one of the most liveable cities in the world—and for whom? How do different populations (artists, students, migrants from elsewhere in Australia, young and old, people of different genders) experience the city? And who has the capacity to shape the future of our cities? To explore these key questions, this subject gives students the opportunity to undertake ethnographic research in Melbourne. It aims to familiarize students with key issues in urban anthropology that reflect the dynamics of cities across the world. Students will explore processes of place-making, urban migration, spatial segregation, and urban governance and conflict.

Working together with peers and teachers, they will conduct research by observing and participating in urban events, mapping spatial and social relationships, conducting unstructured and semi-structured interviews, digital ethnography, and more. Each year, classes will focus on a shared set of themes, sometimes in collaboration with research partners. Overall, this subject will help students to develop important job-relevant skills, prepare for more advanced study in social sciences, and get to know fellow classmates through collaborative research.

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How have anthropological engagements with social and cultural diversity contributed to rethinking some of the most fundamental assumptions of the Western humanities and social sciences across the last 150 years? In this subject, we introduce a global genealogy of anthropological theory to consider some of the key questions raised by anthropologists and to explore their ongoing relevance for contemporary intellectual and political debates. In so doing, we dive into a range of texts from both the centre and the margins of the field, gaining a sharper understanding of different schools of anthropological thought, their relationships to each other, the historical contexts in which they were developed, and their respective strengths and weaknesses. To ground these theoretical critiques, we draw on ethnographic examples from across the world.

In exploring these examples, students not only learn the history of anthropological thought, but gain exposure to critical questions in social theory that are of enduring interest across the social sciences.

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This subject introduces a wide range of anthropological interests in the human body from a comparative ethnographic perspective. It explores topics such as body image and eating disorders, trans/gendered bodies, sporting/dancing bodies, body modifications, consciousness and the body/mind continuum, commodified bodies, disabled bodies and body healing. We will investigate how the human body is individually and culturally constructed and socially experienced through a critical examination of a range of ethnographic and theoretical literature, as well as through the student's own bodily experiences and their exploratory field research.

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Ethnicity and nationalism are of special concern to anthropologists, especially in instances where anthropology becomes part of nationalist discourse. This subject considers ethnicity and nationalism through the in-depth analysis of a case study from the developing world, but draws on comparative material from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Pacific.

Students will examine different theoretical approaches to ethnicity, nationalism and ethnic nationalism, in particular the relationships between the formation of nation states and processes of 'development', 'transition' and 'underdevelopment'; the roles of actors, from political actors to ordinary people, in the construction of national projects; the relationships between historic and contemporary processes in the construction of national projects; how national projects are constructed, enforced and culturally maintained and the relationships between globalisation, migration, transnationalism and ethnic nationalism in the modern world.

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How is our sense of who we are shaped by society and culture? In what ways do such understandings of personhood vary cross-culturally? This subject addresses these concerns from an anthropological perspective, applying theories of personhood, identity and relatedness to broader topics such as nationalism, globalisation, migration, travel and tourism and the life course.

We will investigate comparative and ethnographic case studies of the person and their relevance to a range of political, ethical, economic and cultural concerns about embryo rights, global meanings of childhood, nationalism as everyday practice and the role of biomedicine, new genetics and digital technologies in shaping understandings of personhood across the world today.

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In contemporary societies, few of our activities are anonymous. From paying with credit cards to browsing the internet, an increasing amount of information is stored and processed in the interest of public safety. But who is monitoring these data, and why? Looking at ethnographic and historical analyses of new and old methods of surveillance, this subject explores the “Deep State” and its transformations over time.

Throughout the semester, we will examine the networks of economic, political, and military interests that covertly enable different forms of state surveillance. Looking ethnographically at how the experiences of diplomats, spies, and soldiers changed over time, we will understand how states adapt to the digital era—and how common citizens navigate a world without privacy. Students will be required to engage with interactive activities in order to finish this assessment.

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The first decades of the 21st century have been characterised by intensifying economic, social, political, and environmental crises. From the collapse of national economies struggling under insurmountable debt to the ravages of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, communities all over the world are responding to these challenges in ways that are both radical and quotidian.

In this subject, we draw on interdisciplinary scholarship on social movements to consider both contemporary and historical responses to a range of differently experienced crises. Why have these movements organised in the ways that they have and at the times that they have? What social norms, assumptions, and practices have they sought to challenge? What cultural resources have they built upon and/or reconfigured? And how have they sought to prevent the co-optation and commodification of cultural symbols by powerful interests?

Through close readings of ethnographic work on a range of social movements (including anti-colonial, anti-racist, labour, environmental, Indigenous, and anti-corporate), we explore how subaltern struggles have been represented, articulated, and operationalised in recent years. In particular, we consider the figure of the 'activist anthropologist,' asking questions about the forms of critique and participation in which ethnographers of social movements are increasingly engaged.

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This subject introduces students to the evolution of multiple paradigms of development, considers the strategies used to pursue development in practice, and identifies the key trends and issues of development in the 21 st century. We examine the theories promulgated about the developing world - of modernization and 'catch-up', of structuralism and dependency, of human development, alternative and post-development. Students will be encouraged to understand the diverse trajectories of development by close analysis of specific case studies across the world. We will explore the development path of countries in Asia, the Pacific, and other parts of the developing world. We also review key issues of relevance to the developing world such as poverty and inequality, health, accountability, religion, and sustainability.

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This subject offers an in-depth look at feminist and queer theories of power. Exploring gender, sex, and sexuality as key sites for the cultural production of difference and inequality, we will consider how a range of thinkers in Gender Studies have theorised gender relations as power relations. Drawing on recent histories of feminist, queer, affect, and critical race theory, this course considers how understandings of power have changed, from structural understandings of inequality to poststructuralist theories that see power as diffuse. We will interrogate gender as context-specific and shaped in relation with race, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and location. Through a range of case studies from popular culture, social media, film, and recent social movements and political debates, we will evaluate how gender, sex, and sexuality are important sites of identity formation, inequality, and resistance. Key themes include: intersectional feminism, heteronormativity, bodies, labour, queer kinship, gendered violence, and abolition.

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How do gender and feminism operate in the world today, and what are their possible futures? Indeed, do these concepts have a future? This subject examines feminist theory and activism and presents perspectives on sex and gender that focus on inequalities across key sites, such as the family, work, religion, cultural representation and rights. It traces two competing traditions in feminist visions of the future of sex and gender – reform and revolution. From anarchist activism and sex and gender ‘wars’, to Islamic feminism, ‘girl boss’ and lean-in feminisms, we highlight the range of feminist theories and tactics alongside important ongoing tensions between universalism and difference in gendered experience. Covering the first to fourth feminist ‘waves’ as well as key debates between liberal, radical, queer, Indigenous and decolonial feminisms, this subject explores feminist efforts to organise and to develop visions of an equal future across everyday practices of genders and of sexualities.

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This is the Capstone subject for students majoring in Anthropology. Focusing on contemporary issues (such as relatedness, identity, personhood, value, modernity and embodiment) that have been encountered through the course of the Anthropology major, the subject is designed to enable students to reflect on and demonstrate what they have learned about anthropology as a discipline. Its format thus differs from other subjects, being built around a series of seminars that explore actual research projects of staff in the anthropology program and how, in each case, theory and ethnography inform the research process.

Students will also work together in small groups to critically analyse and contextualise a particular ethnography, developing research and teamwork skills in doing so. The aims of the subject thus are simultaneously theoretical and practical; it will provide students with experience in recognising how theory shapes the ways questions are both asked and answered, and with the ways that 'doing' anthropology in turn shapes theory.

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What is religion? What purpose does it serve? How does it vary across cultures? Can you have religion without god(s)? Why is it growing rapidly in many parts of the world despite predictions of its inevitable decline? Are new forms of faith emerging to replace the old forms? In this subject, we explore the symbolic systems and ritual practices that help us all make sense of our place in the social world, the political order, the environment, and the cosmos. Drawing on classic and contemporary anthropological approaches to religion, we ask new questions about the ancient and novel religious traditions that seem to be flourishing in the uncertain world of the early twenty-first century.

The subject involves interactive lectures and small group discussions. Assessments offer students the chance to learn from and with peers; to practice the art of writing concise, engaging, research-based analysis aimed at a broad readership; and to undertake hands-on ethnographic observation of religious practice.

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What sorts of inequalities are intensifying in the contemporary world? What dynamics are producing those intensifications? And how have anthropologists historically conceptualised the inequalities with which they gain firsthand experience through long-term fieldwork? Growing numbers of political and economic anthropologists are committed to exploring the ideological and material means by which systems of inequality are created, sustained, misrecognised, and challenged.

Drawing principally on Marxist anthropology, post-structuralism and post-colonialism, this subject looks cross-culturally to explore the interrelationships between diverse forms and sources of power, the roles of colonialism and corporate globalization in configuring and sustaining local relations of inequality, and the rise of resistance movements that explicitly challenge exclusions based on class, gender, and ethnicity. Special attention will be paid to the effects of multinational corporations on local power relations and patterns of inequality throughout the world via brand marketing, legal reform, and corporate social responsibility. Case studies will be drawn from Latin America, North America, Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

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This subject draws on ethnographic examples to explore the diverse ways that humans come to know and think about the natural world, understand their place in relation to that world, and interpret their roles and responsibilities in relation to other beings in the world. Engaging with a range of ethnographic and theoretical literature, it questions what people might mean when they talk of Nature, including human nature.

Through considering topics such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge, patterns of land tenure and management, the power of anthropomorphism and the naturalising of social differences and inequalities, students will develop an understanding of recent approaches to a key issue in anthropology – the relationship between Nature and Culture. How we imagine that relationship is deeply implicated in some of the questions we are all now having to confront. Do we work with Nature, or against it? Did we invent ‘Nature’ (another of those pesky dualities)? And have we now brought about ‘the end of nature’? Are we now living in the Anthropocene, or in a post-human/more-than-human world?

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What makes innovation successful? How are innovative products or processes able to capture our imagination and desires? Can technology offer sustainable solutions for a world on the brink of ecological and social catastrophes? What are the social costs of innovation? This subject allows students to explore first-hand the social dynamics that make innovation possible. In partnership with startups, companies, or public sector innovators, students will conduct hands-on research to understand how new technologies, including robots or apps, can help solve social or business challenges. Students who take this subject will be introduced to design-thinking and asked to transform their observations and critiques into advice for building new solutions. Through its participatory approach, this subject allows students to become active contributors in the design process and build their creativity and research skills in the job market.

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Why do we work? Who decides how we should be compensated for our efforts? And why, for many of us, money does not seem to last long enough? By exploring the relationship between labour and money, this course aims at offering insights into the social processes that compose “the economy.” The course will explore the hierarchies, practices, and cultural formations that turn efforts into value(s). We will use a comparative, ethnographic, and historical approach, exploring topics such as: the making of the working class; capitalism(s) and its alternatives; debt and power; barter and multiple currencies; bitcoin and crypto worlds.

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Since the turn of the last century, Latin America in general and the Andean region in particular have witnessed a pronounced escalation of investment in extractive industries. Driven in large part by historically high commodity prices and rising Chinese demand, national governments have sought to use oil and mineral rents to finance novel programs of economic redistribution. While generating significant socio-economic benefits, these projects have also contributed to the intensification of environmental conflicts, particularly around water. In recent years, Chile has been home to more than 35 mining-related conflicts, most of them on indigenous territories over water resources.

This subject takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding these conflicts, with a particular focus on the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. It asks comparative questions about the relationships between large-scale mining and indigenous displacement, conflicts over culturally distinct understandings of territory, relationality, and well-being, the legacies of water privatization, the increasingly asymmetrical relations between corporations headquartered in the Global North and extractive frontiers in the Global South, and the effects of climate change on water-related struggles throughout the region. Throughout, we explore similarities and differences with both past and present mining struggles in Australia.

The Atacama Desert offers a particularly privileged location in which to investigate these dynamics on the ground. One of Chile’s main tourist attractions, its rich deposits of copper, lithium and other minerals, its water scarcity, and its long history of indigenous settlements in tension with colonial enclaves, have made it a fascinating microcosm of the regional, national, and global dynamics explored throughout the subject. As a University of Melbourne Overseas subject (UMOS) this subject will take place on site in collaboration with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Whilst based in Chile, the subject will involve field trips to relevant sites.

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What is wellness? How do people identify when a person is in a state of dis-ease? And how do answers to these questions and many others around health and wellbeing in different parts of the world reveal not only remarkable diversity but also globalising tendencies, for example around the phenomena of self-care and the commodification of wellness? This subject will help students develop an interdisciplinary and comparative understanding of the critical relationship between health, well-being, disease and culture. The readings and lectures will explore how medical anthropologists have theorised healthcare practices and disease around the world. They will emphasise how local experiences of wellbeing are linked with larger global economic and political processes as well as changing environmental conditions. A range of media representations will be examined to delve into cultural worlds of health, near and far. Readings and tutorial discussions will enrich and complicate our thinking about the connections between individual meaning and collective experience, the structuring of larger historical, political, economic, social and cultural forces impacting wellness, and critical health challenges that face us all in the world today.

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This subject offers an anthropological perspective to understandings of gender and sexuality, providing an empirical, cross-cultural framework with which to examine various theoretical frameworks. It embraces a historical perspective to disciplinary knowledge and evaluates the central role of anthropology’s distinct research method in shaping representations of gender, sexuality, and cultural diversity in the world today.

Through this disciplinary framing, the subject explores a comparative range of ethnographic case studies and applies them to themes and concerns of kinship and social relatedness, masculinities, third gender, heterosexualities, sex tourism, bodily surfaces, poly-relations, and new reproductive technologies.

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The subject examines the governance arrangements that have shaped the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since settlement. Prior to, at the time of, and since Federation, Indigenous Australians have been uniquely affected by a range of public policy settings, approaches and frameworks. Part One of the subject introduces students to foundational concepts in public policy making and then critically examines different ‘epochs’ in Australian Indigenous Public Policy: elimination, assimilation, self-determination and intervention. Part Two will explore various policies across these periods that have shaped Indigenous Australians’ experiences of land, family, health, education, employment and justice in different ways. Across both parts, students will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge about historical and contemporary political controversies, including: the Don Dale controversy, the refusal of The Uluru Statement from the Heart, the Closing the Gap framework and others. Students will be expected to use knowledge of particular cases to examine the social, political and institutional challenges that shape the landscape of contemporary Australian Indigenous Public Policy.

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