WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY IN AFRICA

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & GENDER DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2: SS121

Course Outline Intake 22

Lecturer: Mr. T. Chabata

E-mail address:takundachabata@gmail.com

Course Description:

This course is a continuation of issues taught in cultural anthropology 1. It however, goes deeper in terms
of analysis of the structuring of different societies and cultures. Having dealt with basic concepts in
cultural anthropology 1, in cultural anthropology 2 we shall focus on the systematic and comparative
study of human institutions and behavior in an endeavor to understand cultural diversity. As
anthropologists, we seek to understand and appreciate the wide array of cultural differences that have
developed throughout the world and to gain new insights into the patterns and dynamics of different
traditions.

Student Assessment:

Grades are determined on the following: Course work 30% and exam mark 70%. All essays must be
properly written with regard to grammar and sentence construction. Students are encouraged to type all
their assignments unless the student has some genuine challenges. All assignments must be handed in not
later than the due date given. If the student has some challenges that may downplay his/her efforts to
submit the assignment on time, s/he must alert me in time. Electronic versions are not welcome unless
accompanied by a hard copy. Plagiarism or and duplication of someone’s assignment is prohibited and
must be avoided at all cost lest a stern penalty is levied against the assailant.

COURSE CONTENT

IDEOLOGY Defining ideology

 Ideology as false consciousness

 Ideology and practice
 Ideology as collective representations
 Ideology as ideal realities
 Ideology and the State

POLITICS

 What is Politics?
 The basis of Political Power
 Authority
 Ideas
 Political Symbols
 Political Organisation

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  Kinds of Political Systems
 Uncentralised Political Systems
 Centralised Political Systems
 Case studies of Political Organisation in Africa

PRODUCTION AND ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

 Production
 Foraging
 Pastoralists
 Horticulture
 Intensive Agriculture
 Land tenure and land rights
 Feudal Systems
 Lineage based tenurial system
 Village based systems
 Land reform and redistribution
 Consumption
 Distribution and Exchange
 Types of reciprocity
 Redistributive exchanges
 Commerce between small scale societies

LAW AND ORDER

 Defining law and order

 Law enforcement and dispute mediation
 Handling disputes in foraging societies
 Formal law enforcement in states
 Witchcraft and Symbolism

LEADERSHIP

 Leadership Defined
 Key tenets of transactional theory
 Bailey on leadership and followers
 Bailey on bureaucracy
 Leadership as an enterprise
 Leaders task
 Judicial task
 Mediation
 Arbitration
 Normative rules
 Pragmatic rules

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY

 What is applied anthropology?

 Types of Applied Anthropology
 What is the role of Applied Anthropology?

Coursework

2
1st assignment (Individual Assignment – an average of 1500 words)

With the aid of case material, examine the characteristics of an acephalous society. (Due on the 17th of
March 2018)

2nd assignment (Could be either an in-class test or group work)

Using case studies, assess the link between a people’s beliefs and their preferred mode of production.
(Due on the 13th of April 2017)

Prescribed texts

Kuper, A. Anthropology and Anthropologists

Cheater, A. P. Social Anthropology: An Alternative Introduction

Kottak, Conrad Phillip. 1996. A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. New York: McGraw Hill

Cheater, A P ,1986 Social Anthropology. An Alternative Introduction. Gweru,

Mambo Press

Lewis I M ,1976 ,Social Anthropology in Perspective. Harmondsworth Penguin

Reading list

Bordly J H 1994. Cultural Anthropology Tribes States and the Glo- systems

Bourdillion MFC 1996. Where are the ancestors, Harare, UZ Publications

Bourdilion MFC Christianity and Wealth in the Rural Communities in Zimbabwe.

Zambezia 1983. II, 1 pp 37-5.

Cheater, A. P. Idioms of Accumulation.

Brokensha D and Glazier J. Land Reform among the Mbeere of Central Africa – Africa 1973

Malinowski, Bronislaw.1984, Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Waveland Press

Shostak, Marjorie. 1981. Nisa: The Life and Words of a! Kung Woman. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Gordon, Robert. The Bushman Myth…. Boulder, CO: Westview

Benedict, Ruth. 1989. “The Individual and the Pattern of Culture.” Boston: Houghton Mifflin,

Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Thick Description.” Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books,

Williams, Raymond. 1983. “Culture” and “Society.” In Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York:
Oxford University Press.

Radcliffe – Brown et al (Ed) 1987 African Systems of Kinship and Marriage

Stack, Carol. 1997. All Our Kin. New York: Basic Books (Chps Introduction - 4)

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Lewis, Oscar. “Culture of Poverty”

Stack, Carol. 1997. All Our Kin. New York: Basic Books (Chps 4 &5)

Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 2001. Saints, Scholars and Schizophrenics. Chps: Intro – 3,4&5

Petryna, Adriana. 2002. Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Kleinman, Arthur, Veena Das and Margaret Lock. 1997. “Introduction.” Social Suffering. Berkeley: University of
California Press.

Academia requires nothing less than determination (Chabata, 2013)