Durham University
Programme and Module Handbook
This is an archived handbook for a previous year. The current undergraduate and postgraduate handbooks can be viewed using the links above.

Undergraduate Handbook 2010-2011 (archived)

Module HUSS2191: CULTURES AND CLASSIFICATIONS

Department: Anthropology (Human Sciences) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

HUSS2191: CULTURES AND CLASSIFICATIONS

TypeLevelCreditsAvailabilityModule CapLocation
Open 2 20 Available in 2010/2011 None. Queen's Campus Stockton

Pre-requisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations

  • None.

Aims

  • To provide ethnographic perspectives on classification, I.e., a cross-cultural overview of how humans perceive their worlds.
  • to look at various forms of classification, including spoken and written language, ritual systems, ideas of the self and kinship.
  • to focus on the relationship between classification systems and social organisation in order to build on modules that have been taken in the Level 1.

Content

  • Overview of the anthropology of classification, introducing key scholars, terms and concepts.
  • cross-cultural ideals of the self and person, including such themes as the body, gender, the presentation of self, the life-cycle and death.
  • concepts related to kinship, including such themes as achieved versus ascribed status, incest, kinship versus friendship, affinity and alliance.
  • the significance of language, including such themes as literacy and media of communication, myth, speech acts and narrative.
  • understanding and classifying the environment, including such themes as space and time, indigenous knowledges and environmentalism.
  • notions of ideology, incorporating ideas of culture as a system of symbols versus culture as embodied/performed.
  • varying anthropological notions and uses of the idea of classification, from ethnomethodology to culture as text.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge
  • By the end of the module students will: have gained and adequate grounding in the social and cultural anthropology of classification and culture theory.
  • be familiarised with the many uses to which language can be put.
Subject-specific Skills
  • To be able to analyse other communicative genres, such as ritual performance or visual systems.
Key Skills
  • Essay writing.
  • Library research.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Lectures
  • Tutorials
  • Essay and Class Write-Up
  • Essay.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotal HoursAttendance Monitored
Lectures 22 Weekly 1 hour 22
Tutorials 8 Monthly 1 hour 8 Yes
Preparation and Reading 170
Total 200

Summative Assessment

ComponentComponent WeightingElementLength/DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Essay and Class Write-Up 50% 2500 word maximum essay 60%
500 word maximum class write-up 40%
Essay 50% 3000 word maximum essay 100%

Formative Assessment

1000 word essay plan in Term 1; 1000 word draft essay plan in Term 2.

Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.