Social Anthropology: An Introduction (Online)



Overview

This course provides an exciting and dynamic introduction to the world of social anthropology. In brief, social anthropology is the study of how humans give meaning to the world through different social norms, values, practices and means of organisation. As such, the role of the social anthropologist is to explore and understand other cultures and societies, and in so doing, to better understand their own worldview as well. Through critical, sensitive debate and analysis, students will develop the analytical skills necessary to see the world in an anthropological way to make the strange familiar, and the familiar strange.

Listen to Dr Patrick Alexander, who designed this course when he was working at St Hugh's College at the University of Oxford:

Over the duration of the course students will explore a wide range of topics spanning many of the key themes of research in social anthropology. Units will include an introduction to thinking anthropologically, kinship, gift excehange, witchcraft, rituals and rites of passage, gender and identity, personhood, the anthropology of landscape, political organisation and the impact of globalisation on ethnicity.

Programme details

The course is broken down into 10 units over 10 weeks, each requiring approximately 10 hours of study time. The following topics are covered:

1. An introduction to social anthropology: key concepts

2. Kinship: given, or made?

3. Witchcraft, religion and science: making sense of the world

4. Gift exchange: is there such a thing as a free gift?

5. Ritual and rites of passage: defining social status

6. Political anthropology: power, authority and patterns of social organisation

7. Humans and the environment: the anthropology of landscape

8. Personhood: what defines the category 'person'?

9. Sex and gender: biology, identity and society

10. Ethnicity and globalisation: understanding hyperdiversity

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.

Textbooks

To participate in this course, you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need access to a textbook. The course textbook is:

Eriksen, T. H., 2023 (5 th edn) Small Places, Large Issues, London, Pluto.

Please ensure you are able to access copies of any required textbooks prior to enrolling on a course but please keep in mind that courses with insufficient students enrolled will be cancelled. The Department accepts no responsibility for books bought in anticipation of a course running.

Certification

Credit Application Transfer Scheme (CATS) points 

To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £30 fee for each course you enrol on. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. If you do not register when you enrol, you have up until the course start date to register and pay the £30 fee. 

See more information on CATS point

Coursework is an integral part of all online courses and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework, but only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education, you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee. 

Digital credentials

All students who pass their final assignment, whether registered for credit or not, will be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Upon successful completion, you will receive a link to download a University of Oxford digital certificate. Information on how to access this digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course you attended. You will be able to download your certificate or share it on social media if you choose to do so. 

Please note that assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail. 

Fees

Description Costs
Course Fee £385.00
Take this course for CATS points £30.00

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutors

Dr Seamus Montgomery

Seamus is a Research Affiliate at the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society and the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford. Here he teaches courses on cultural representations, beliefs and practices and ethnographic methods. His research has been primarily with and about EU civil servants in Brussels, focusing on the intersections of European identity and bureaucracy in the European Commission. Spanning the frontiers between political identity, supranational belonging and the politics of representation, he is interested in how democratic institutions fail and succeed to maintain public trust. He currently conducts research on political affect and emotion, tracing how emotional practices engender narratives of identity politics and how identity narratives, in turn, reproduce and make sense of new embodied experiences. He received his MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and his BA in English, Anthropology and Comparative History of Ideas from the University of Washington. Broader areas of interest include: identity and modernity; anthropological engagements with the future; Europeanization and elite bureaucratic cultures; emotional labour and moral agency; the history and consumption of modern popular culture.

 

Dr Alejandro Reig

Alejandro Reig (DPhil, MPhil in Social Anthropology: Oxford 2014, 2006; Philosophy BA Universidad Central de Venezuela 1989) is a researcher, teacher, consultant and applied researcher focused on Society-Environment interactions, from the perspectives of Social and Environmental Anthropology. He is currently a Research Affiliate at the School of Anthropology of the University of Oxford, where he has taught anthropological methods courses; and a Research Associate at CAICET, a tropical medicine institution of the Venezuelan Amazon.

His research interests include Spatial Anthropology, the Anthropology of Health, Development and Environmental Humanities, Human mobility, and the Anthropology of Lowland South America. He has recently co-authored with Roger Norum Migrantes, (Ediciones Ekaré, Barcelona, 2019) a book on global migrations for a wide audience.

https://www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-alejandro-reig

 

Course aims

This course aims to introduce students to the discipline of social anthropology, presenting key themes, theoretical debates, the historical development of the discipline, and ongoing questions of anthropological inquiry that remain crucial to our understanding of contemporary culture and society.

Teaching methods

  • Guided reading of texts
  • Group discussions of particular issues
  • Questions to be answered and notes made in personal folders
  • Students will be directed to websites relevant to each session (occasionally as a requirement, usually as optional additional reading)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you will be able understand:

  • An overview of the key fields of research in social anthropology
  • An overview of the historical development of social anthropology, and an awareness of how anthropology relates to contemporary society
  • An overview of key theoretical trajectories in social anthropology
  • An overview of the primary methods of anthropological research (ethnography)
  • The strengths and limitations of anthropological research

And you will have developed the following skills:

  • Develop the ability to think 'anthropologically': making the strange familiar, and the familiar strange
  • Develop critical thinking skills
  • Develop the ability to discuss and debate issues of anthropological significance in a critical but sensitive manner

Assessment methods

You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.

English Language Requirements

We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information regarding English language requirements please follow this link: https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/english-language-requirements

Application

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment form for short courses | Oxford University Department for Continuing Education

Level and demands

FHEQ level 4, 10 weeks, approx 10 hours per week, therefore a total of about 100 study hours.

IT requirements

This course is delivered online; to participate you must to be familiar with using a computer for purposes such as sending email and searching the Internet. You will also need regular access to the Internet and a computer meeting our recommended minimum computer specification.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support