Postgraduate Course: Anthropology of Violence (PGSP11374)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course examines a variety of anthropological approaches to the study of violence, ranging from evolutionary explanations for male aggression to studies of changing American attitudes toward terrorism in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. It looks critically at the theoretical, methodological and ethical questions raised in studies of violence through ethnographic case studies from around the world. The course considers attempts to define violence as a concept in the social sciences and explores the possible causes, meanings, and uses of violent practices from a variety of different cultural contexts and perspectives. It gives particular attention to the political and economic conditions that promote war and other violent behaviour as well as specific cultural expressions within violent practices. It also discusses ethnographic descriptions of "peaceful societies" and examines the challenges of reconciliation in the aftermath of conflict. |
| Course description |
Week Topic
1 What is Violence and how do we Study it?
2 Violence and Human Nature
3 Historical Perspective: Conflicts in Colonialism
4 Remembering Violence
5 The Violence of Everyday Life
6 Gender and Violence
7 The Body
8 Cosmology and the Poetics of Violence
9 Interventions of the State: The War on Terror
10 Peace and Reconciliation
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course students will be able to:
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding how and why violence has become a major area of anthropological research in recent decades.
- Distinguish between and critically analyse a wide variety of theoretical approaches to violence in the social sciences and beyond.
- Relate specific historical and ethnographic case studies of violence to current debates in anthropology in conceptually sophisticated ways.
- Draw on the course readings, contemporary events and class discussions to engage in key debates about contemporary violence.
- Critically examine the political and ethical dimensions of research on violence.
- Recognise the ways in which the study of violence draws on multiple disciplinary approaches from the natural and social sciences.
- Write critically and creatively about violence from an anthropological perspective.
- Demonstrate an advanced ability to critically evaluate evidence from specific case studies, and use such material in building coherent arguments in essay writing and seminar presentations.
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Reading List
Scheper-Hughes, N. and P. Bourgois (eds.) (2004) Violence in War and Peace: an anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Bourgois, P. (1995) In Search of Respect: selling crack in El Barrio. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, C. (1999) Sacrifice as Terror: the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Oxford: Berg. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Casey High
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Fraser Maxwell
Tel: (0131 6)51 5066
Email: |
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