Module ANTH2111: Sex, Reproduction and Love

Department: Anthropology

ANTH2111: Sex, Reproduction and Love

Prerequisites

• Health, Illness and Society (ANTH1041) OR Being Human (ANTH1111)

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To provide ecological, evolutionary and social anthropological perspectives on sex, reproduction and love. Topics may include sexual behaviour, conception, infertility, new reproductive technologies, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, birth, post-natal period, romantic love, maternal love and infant attachment.

Content

• The module will familiarise students with topics such as: evolutionary explanations for the origins of sexual reproduction, the evolutionary biology and the socio-cultural aspects of human sexuality; biological and cultural theories of conception; ecological and social factors affecting fertility; social perspectives on infertility and the new reproductive technologies, medical intervention in conception, pregnancy, birth and the physiological and socio-cultural implications; evolutionary and social approaches to pregnancy, birth and post-natal maternal and infant care, including lactation and infant sleep; 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 reproduction and human sexuality and contemporary themes with these issues.
• 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 reproduction and sexuality.
• Critically evaluate evidence, concepts, arguments and assumptions featuring in the anthropological, biological and ethnographic material relating to reproduction and sexuality.
• 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 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 and seminars: Subject knowledge will be delivered via lectures and discussion seminars 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.
• The formative and summative written 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 reproduction and sexuality, 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