Module ANTH2111: Sex, Reproduction and Love

Department: Anthropology

ANTH2111: Sex, Reproduction and Love

Prerequisites

• ANTH1041 Health, Illness and Society.

Corequisites

• None

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None

Aims

• To provide ecological and evolutionary perspectives on sex, reproduction and love (sexual behaviour, conception, pregnancy, birth, romantic love, maternal love and infant attachment) together with the cultural concepts and social practices by which they are mediated and understood.

Content

• The module will familiarise students with topics such as: evolutionary explanations for the origins of sexual reproduction, the reproductive and non-reproductive functions of sex in non-human primates, the evolutionary biology of human sexuality and the socio-cultural aspects of human sexuality, homosexual behaviour and cultural values; transsexualism, transvestism and gender dysphoria; biological and cultural theories of conception; ecological and social factors affecting fertility; medical intervention in conception and birth and the physiological and socio-cultural implications; strategies for birth and post-natal care; cultural views of post-partum women and lactation; the biological and social impact of fatherhood, evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives on romantic love, maternal love and infant attachment.

Learning Outcomes

• Awareness of the value of social/cultural anthropology and biological anthropology in advancing understanding of human sexuality and contemporary issues and problems associated with human sexuality.
• Appreciate the value of an integrated anthropological approach via the study of sex and reproduction, and the ability to differentiate between approaches that are specific to biological and social anthropology.

• Demonstrate links and difference between the ideas and approaches adopted by different anthropological approaches in the study of human sexuality and reproductive issues.
• Critically evaluate evidence, concepts, arguments and assumptions featuring in the anthropological and ethnographic material relating to human sexuality and reproduction.
• Understand the ways in which hormonal analysis can be used to address anthropological questions about reproductive variation across populations
• Demonstrate ability to gathering and evaluate qualitative anthropological data in the form of an original case study.

• How to undertake and complete an academic literature review.
• Show initiative and adaptability through independent research and sustain a project based on a individual research.
• Plan, organise and manage time and work to predetermined deadlines.

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

• Lectures, seminars and lab work: Subject knowledge will be delivered via lectures, discussion seminars and lab practicals that provide students with an understanding of both socio-cultural and biological anthropological perspectives on human sexuality, and the value of an integrated anthropological approach.
• Lectures and lab practical sessions will be used to develop student understanding of how hormone analyses can be used to address anthropological questions about reproductive variation across populations.
• The formative and summative essay assignments will require students to demonstrate the links and differences between the ideas and approaches adopted by different anthropological perspectives in the study of human sexuality and reproductive issues, and to critically evaluate the evidence, concepts, arguments and assumptions therein.
• The formative literature review and summative case study, together with seminars on these topics will demonstrate students' skills in gathering and evaluating qualitative anthropological case study data.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Essay plans and abstracts; literature review of 1500 words.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University