Rhodes University Undergraduate Anthropology Course 1

Rhodes University Undergraduate Anthropology Course 1

Anthropology 1

This course provides an introduction to the wide scope and contemporary relevance of anthropology. Ethnographic examples are drawn from Africa, as well as from the rest of the world.

Introduction to Anthropology

Defining anthropology and its key concepts: culture and society.

Bio-Socio-Cultural Dimensions

Human origins; race and ethnicity; sex and gender; youth and aging.

We explore the bio-physical features that humans share as a species and how distinctions are used to construct identities and regulate social difference.

Socio-Cultural Institutions

Economics; politics; religion; kinship and marriage.

These basic institutions of any society are studied in relation to each other and with reference to wide-ranging studies of (mainly) pre-industrial peoples.

Case Studies

Regional case studies in which the working and interrelatedness of socio-cultural institutions are studied in greater detail.