Module ANTH2207: Biology, Culture and Society

Department: Anthropology

ANTH2207: Biology, Culture and Society

Prerequisites

• Being Human (ANTH1111).

Corequisites

• Research Project Design (ANTH2187)

Excluded Combination of Modules

• Reading Ethnography (ANTH2197)

Aims

• To introduce students to problems of interest to both biological and social scientists, and engage with debates and controversies occurring across disciplinary boundaries.
• To develop skills in identifying the theoretical orientation of anthropological texts.
• To give students the tools to think critically about the possibilities, limitations and the challenges of integrating different approaches.

Content

• Historical and intellectual contexts in which different subfields of anthropology developed
• Key debates, controversies and examples of collaboration involving different subfields of anthropology
• Theories and case studies on the interrelationships between biology and culture, their coevolution, and the multifaceted, biosocial character of the human condition.

Learning Outcomes

• Critical awareness of possibilities, limitations and challenges of working across the different sub-disciplines within anthropology.
• Students will learn about the perspectives from which social and biological scientists approach disputed issues of key ideas in theory and of the presuppositions underlying those perspectives.
• Understanding how sources of evidence have been used to support these perspectives, which may include evolutionary theory, ethnography, social theory, animal behaviour, genetics, and psychology.
• Awareness of theoretically and empirically based criticisms of particular perspectives.
• Familiarity with the technical vocabularies of social science and biological science as these apply to the study of anthropology.

• Understanding the boundaries, overlaps and intersections of human biology and culture.
• Awareness of the usefulness and limitations of the different types of evidence and modes of reasoning employed in social and biological anthropology.
• Construct a critical argument about the possibilities and limitations of integrating natural and social sciences.

• Intellectual agility, and the ability to think critically and coherently across different paradigms and perspectives
• Ability to integrate and evaluate a range of information and data from different sources, discern and establish connections, extract material points and present a coherent theoretical and practical understanding of them.
• Condensing and communicating complex ideas succinctly through blog posts and a piece of reflective writing (or podcast).

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

• The module will consist of weekly lectures lectures, study group exercises, and seminar/workshops.
• Lectures will map out the general intellectual context of the topics to frame and prompt independent learning and study group exercises.
• Study group exercises will provide interactive and collaborative learning experiences to support the lectures and readings, and will be carried out asynchronously during the course of each teaching week.
• A 1 hour study group seminar will be held at the mid-point of the module to review learning outcomes and on-going assessments, and provide a two-way feedback channel for students and the module tutor.
• Study groups will take part in a 2 hour Course Workshop at the end of term, which will review the module and provide students with an opportunity to workshop ideas for their final summative assessment.
• Formative assessment will involve practice blog posts, study group exercises and a workshop to test and explore ideas for their final summative assignment .
• Summative assessment has two components: a) individual contribution to a blog based on topics covered in the module, b) a 1,200 reflective writing piece focusing on the major theoretical/conceptual insights gained from the module or a 5 minute podcast episode.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Weekly exercises and practice blog post. Students will also workshop ideas for their reflective writing pieces at a 2 hour workshop at the end of term.

■ 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