Anthropology

This course investigates contemporary globalization and its linkage with some crucial social and cultural processes. Catalysts of globalization and sociocultural complexity are critically assessed, especially the 'new' media. Furthermore, the effects of global interconnectedness are explored by dissecting phenomena like migration, the upsurge of religious movements, and the rise of transnationalism. Interrelated issues addressed in the series of lectures involve community formation, identity construction, cultural innovation versus cultural survival, and the shifting relationship between agency and structure. As such, 'Globalization and sociocultural complexity' should be regarded an introduction to current anthropology that logically follows 'Culturele Antropologie 2' in its aim to deepen students' understanding of theoretical approaches to, and the ethnography of, present-day's highly intricate social realities.

Waste and recycling seem like every-day, if important, issues with which we are all familiar. But do we actually know what waste is? This course introduces students to the anthropological study of waste, an area that straddles politics, economy, and the environment. Early anthropological studies focused on issues such as the symbolic pollution beliefs associated with persons and substances within a coherent cultural framework. A more recent and clearly defined "anthropology of waste" has taken discards and the regimes of production, labor, and value that generates them, as its central areas of study. This course introduces key theoretical understandings of waste alongside compelling ethnographic accounts of waste work that involves both dignity and discrimination, citizenship, and segregation. 

The course provides an overview of the development of Icelandic culture from early to modern times, with emphasis on contemporary culture and art. Focus is placed on the rapid development of the country from a rural to an urban society during the past decades and the way in which the development has influenced Icelandic music, visual arts, films, theatre, and literature. 

 What is culture? What is technology? How are the two related? What is our relationship with each or both? How do we live in a culture surrounded by technological objects, artifacts, structures, and institutions? How does technology change culture, and vice versa?

This course is designed to provide students with the theoretical tools to begin asking questions for themselves and seeking better answers. The course examines key themes in technology studies that involve the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts in which technological artifacts, services, and platforms are produced, distributed, networked, and used. 

This course introduces students to the key concepts that social anthropologists use in social analysis. It provides introductions to the principal areas of anthropological enquiry, placing kinship, economics, religion, and political life in a cross-cultural comparative context. Bringing these perspectives together, students consider how anthropology shines light on the interconnected nature of life in contemporary global societies.

The course introduces students to literature and debates in the fields of the anthropology of geopolitics and the anthropology of diplomacy. It explores historical expressions of geopolitical projects and processes, focusing on the spatial, cultural, political, and social characteristics of these, the experiences of societies living in contexts shaped by geopolitical processes across the world, and the forms of informal diplomacy that are also an important aspect of the contemporary world (dis)order.

This course discusses the place of philosophical anthropology in the whole of philosophy. It analyzes the differences and relations between philosophical anthropology and positive anthropologies. This course examines different ways of conceiving philosophical anthropology, both historically and systematically, and its basic themes. It also explores theoretical and practical dimensions of philosophical anthropology and connections between this field and the philosophy of action and culture.

This course addresses the following questions: What is the history of Human Rights discourse, and what is the place of Anthropology therein? Should Human Rights be universal or should they be listed or applied with reference to particular cultural worldviews? What critiques of the international human rights regime have been put forth by anthropologists thus far? How can international organizations that promote Human Rights, and state governments that sign on to international human rights legal instruments, benefit from the historical emphasis by the anthropological community on the notion of cultural relativism and respect for diversity? What is the role of NGOs in parallel to Anthropology in these processes? 

The first section of the course includes a revision of the history of International Human Rights Law. The second part addresses the anthropological critique of that body of law and its applications. 

What does anthropology have to say about some of the most important issues facing us today? Anthropologists don't just engage with small-scale exotic societies but have always contributed to public debates about global issues that affect us all. In this course, students examine how concepts and ideas that have driven anthropology help us shed new light on debates that are at the heart of contemporary questions about how our societies work. The issues explored vary from year-to-year, examples include climate change, hunger, well-being, body modification, and human rights.