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Unit outline_

ANTH4102: Anthropology of Mind and Experience

Semester 1, 2023 [Normal day] - Remote

The unit provides students with a basis for the understanding of anthropology in the context of current Western philosophical and scientific thought. It particularly explores the work of Claude Levi-Strauss in the light of existential phenomenological and psychoanalytic critiques. The aim is to deepen the students' critical knowledge of anthropological theory and the importance of comparative understanding in relation to the practice of ethnography.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit Anthropology
Credit points 6
Prerequisites
? 
None
Corequisites
? 
None
Prohibitions
? 
None
Assumed knowledge
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None

Available to study abroad and exchange students

No

Teaching staff

Coordinator Ryan Schram, ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
Type Description Weight Due Length
Assignment First essay: Compare two theories of culture
Argue for an important contrast between two major theories from class.
30% Week 06
Due date: 31 Mar 2023 at 17:00
1500 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Assignment Second essay: Your thesis and anthropology
Explain the larger importance of your thesis topic for theories of culture.
40% Week 13
Due date: 26 May 2023 at 17:00
2000 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Small continuous assessment Seminar leadership roles
Make different contributions to class, including leading discussions.
20% Weekly n/a
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO4 LO3 LO2
Online task Weekly writing assignments
Weekly reflections on current thinking, progress, and goals for class.
10% Weekly 10x 250 words ea.
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO4 LO3 LO2

Assessment summary

The assignments in this class are required for completion of the honours degree. They, like this class as a whole, are meant to help you develop a firm foundation in cultural anthropology and an awareness of your own relationship to the field as a whole.

The assignments may not contribute directly to your progress on your thesis project, but don’t think of them as distractions from your main goal for this year, which is to produce an excellent orginal thesis. Everything in this class should be seen as a step toward that goal.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name

Mark range

Description

High distinction

85 - 100

 

Distinction

75 - 84

 

Credit

65 - 74

 

Pass

50 - 64

 

Fail

0 - 49

When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

  • Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
  • After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

Students have to submit all of the assignments in order to pass the class. Any missing assignments will result in an AF. The university policy for accepting late work, including late penalties, will be applied to students’ work. It is very important for students to keep in regular contact with the instructor about their progress in the class.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

WK Topic Learning activity Learning outcomes
Week 01 What do you see?: Main reading: Du Bois (2015); Sahlins (2009). Seminar (2 hr) LO1
Week 02 Levi-Strauss, the linguistic turn, and structuralism: Main reading: Hanks (1996); Lévi-Strauss ([1949] 1969), chaps. 1–6; Morgan (1871), preface and chap. 1 is recommended. Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO4
Week 03 Elementary structures: Main reading: Continue reading Lévi-Strauss ([1949] 1969). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 04 A machine for making gender: Main reading: Rubin (1975). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 05 Structures of values: Main reading: Dumont ([1970b] 1980), pp. 1–91 (intro. and chaps. 1–3), pp. 239–245 (postface). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 06 Holism and hierarchy: Main reading: Continue reading Dumont ([1970b] 1980). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 07 Caste and race as regimes of hierarchical classification (Special make-up session tba): Main reading: Berg (2015); Dumont ([1970a] 1980); Visweswaran (2010). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 08 The flow of analogies: Main reading: Wagner (1977); Wagner (1974). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 09 Who gets to be one of us?: Main reading: Williams (1995); Williams ([1995] 2013). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 10 Questioning structuralist anthropology’s ontological dualism: Main reading: Strathern (1996); Strathern ([1998] 2013). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 11 An ontological anthropology. Viveiros de Castro (1998); Viveiros de Castro (2004); Kohn (2015). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 12 Responses to the ontological turn. Bessire and Bond (2014); Hornborg (2017). Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4
Week 13 What’s next? Seminar (2 hr) LO1 LO2 LO3 LO4

Attendance and class requirements

According to university policies, attendance is required in all class sessions and seminar leadership is a part of your grade.

More importantly, though, I want to get to know you as an individual and to help you and every student develop his or her own individual perspective on the field of anthropology. For that reason, I want to see you in class on a regular basis and to have regular (weekly) contact with each student to see how their thinking is developing.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

Berg, Dag-Erik. 2015. “Caste, Hierarchy and Race in a World-Historical Perspective: Louis Dumont and His Critique of Max Weber.” Journal of Intercultural Studies 36 (4): 413–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2015.1049982.
Bessire, Lucas, and David Bond. 2014. “Ontological Anthropology and the Deferral of Critique.” American Ethnologist 41 (3): 440–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.12083.
Du Bois, W. E. B. 2015. “The Princess Steel.” PMLA 130 (3): 819–29. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2015.130.3.819.
Dumont, Louis. (1970a) 1980. “Appendix A: Caste, Racism, and ‘Stratification’: Reflections of a Social Anthropologist.” In Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications, 2nd ed, 247–66. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
———. (1970b) 1980. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hanks, William F. 1996. “The Language of Saussure.” In Language and Communicative Practices, 21–38. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cdocument%7C1677290?account_id=14757&usage_group_id=95408.
Hornborg, Alf. 2017. “Artifacts Have Consequences, Not Agency: Toward a Critical Theory of Global Environmental History.” European Journal of Social Theory 20 (1): 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431016640536.
Kohn, Eduardo. 2015. “Anthropology of Ontologies.” Annual Review of Anthropology 44 (1): 311–27. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-014127.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. (1949) 1969. The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Edited by Rodney Needham. Translated by James Harle Bell and John Richard von Sturmer. Boston: Beacon Press.
Morgan, Lewis H. 1871. Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity in the Human Family. Vol. 17. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution.
Rubin, Gayle. 1975. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex.” In Toward an Anthropology of Women, 157–210. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Sahlins, Marshall. 2009. “On the Anthropology of Levi-Strauss.” AAA Blog (blog). July 7, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20091108130858/http://blog.aaanet.org/2009/07/07/on-the-anthropology-of-levi-strauss/.
Strathern, Marilyn. 1996. “Cutting the Network.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2 (3): 517–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/3034901.
———. (1998) 2013. “Social Relations and the Idea of Externality.” In Learning to See in Melanesia, 179–205. Manchester: HAU Society for Ethnographic Theory. https://haubooks.org/viewbook/learning-to-see-in-melanesia/front_matter.
Visweswaran, Kamala. 2010. “Is There A Structural Analysis of Racism?: Louis Dumont and the Caste School of Race Relations.” In Un/Common Cultures: Racism and the Rearticulation of Cultural Difference, 103–30. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822391630-005.
Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. 1998. “Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4 (3): 469–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/3034157.
———. 2004. “Exchanging Perspectives: The Transformation of Objects into Subjects in Amerindian Ontologies.” Common Knowledge 10 (3): 463–84. https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-10-3-463.
Wagner, Roy. 1974. “Are There Social Groups in the New Guinea Highlands?” In Frontiers of Anthropology: An Introduction to Anthropological Thinking, edited by Murray J. Leaf, 95–122. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co.
———. 1977. “Analogic Kinship: A Daribi Example.” American Ethnologist 4 (4): 623–42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/643623.
Williams, Brackette F. 1995. “Beaming Them up: First Blood and Some Views on the Pleasures and Dangers of Fresh Blood in the Making of U.S. Americans.” Identities 1 (4): 427–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.1995.9962521.
———. (1995) 2013. “Classification Systems Revisited: Kinship, Caste, Race, and Nationality as the Flow of Blood and the Spread of Rights.” In Naturalizing Power: Essays in Feminist Cultural Analysis, edited by Sylvia Yanagisako and Carol Delaney, 201–36. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315021676.

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. An ability to think critically about anthropological theory and use it constructively while working on their fourth year honours theses with a sense of the relation of that project to a broader understanding of anthropological thought;
  • LO2. An ability to read anthropological writings in terms of an understanding of their disciplinary and broader epistemological-historical context;
  • LO3. An ability to read anthropological writings in relation to the development of a specific research interest;
  • LO4. An ability to deal critically with and assimilate writings from other disciplines and non-academic sources to an anthropological project.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1 Depth of disciplinary expertise

Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.

GQ2 Critical thinking and problem solving

Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.

GQ3 Oral and written communication

Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.

GQ4 Information and digital literacy

Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.

GQ5 Inventiveness

Generating novel ideas and solutions.

GQ6 Cultural competence

Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.

GQ7 Interdisciplinary effectiveness

Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.

GQ8 Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity

An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.

GQ9 Influence

Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes Graduate qualities
GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 GQ4 GQ5 GQ6 GQ7 GQ8 GQ9

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

This is a alternate version of this class, previously offered in 2019 with some new topics.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.