Course for international guest/part time students

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences

Organization

TÁTK Department of Cultural Anthropology

Code

EKAN103.1

Title

Anthropological Theories and Methods 1.

Usual semester

Autumn

Published semester

2026/27/1

ECTS

3

Language

en

Learning outcomes

This course examines anthropological theories and methods by major figures in British, American, French, and German anthropological traditions. We will trace the history of ideas, schools of thought, and national traditions. To achieve this we will explore the history of anthropological theory to better understand how knowledge is practiced. Our aim is to identify the major problems each school addressed and what fueled its primary contributors’ investigations and the relationship of these central problems to the concepts and terms they developed. This course is designed to give you a macro view of anthropology’s major theoretical tenants and the core methods that are employed by anthropologists today.

Course content

Important and foundational anthropological theories, their siginificance, examples of real-workld application and how to use theory in analysis;

Assessment method

- Weekly written annotations of all assigned readings - Class participation - Group work - Final Presentation and/or essay

Bibliography

Bernard, H. R. (1998). Handbook of Methods in Culture. Altamiro Press, London Durkheim, E. (1982). What is a social Fact? Edited by Lukes, S. in The Rules of the Sociological Method. New York, p. 50-59 Erickson, P. A. & Murphy, L. D. (2013). Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory. Univrsity of Toronto Press Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1940) The Nuer of Southern Sudan. African Political Systems. Oxford Univrsity Press Sacks, K. B. (1988). Toward a Unified Thory of Class, Race, and Gender. American Ethnologist Stacey, J. (1988). Can there be a Feminist Ethnography? Women's Studis Int. Forum (11-1), pp. 21-27 Sutton, M. Q. & Andrson, E. N. (2010). Introduction to Cultural Ecology. Altamira Press, Lanham, New York, Totonto, Plymouth

Programmes of the course