SAN107 Material Culture

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2019
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Zuzana Sekeráková Búriková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Mgr. Zuzana Sekeráková Búriková, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
Thu 12:00–13:40 U35
Prerequisites
SAN103 and SAN105 ability to read anthropological literature in English - completion of the course requires reading about 25pages (one study or a monograph chapter a week)
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 44 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/44, only registered: 0/44, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/44
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
At the end fo the course student should be able to: understand main themes and approaches in the study of material culture in sucial anthropology ;
will be introduced to various genres of material culture and various forms of relationships people create to them in specific social and cultural environments. ;
to relate study of material culture to other areas of social anthropology ;
Syllabus
  • Introduction (material culture, things, materiality, theoretical approaches)
  • Commodities and gifts
  • Material culture and social differenciation (things as status symbol, things as constituting class)
  • Art and its social agency (Agency – ability to act)
  • Body and its materiality, body as an object
  • Gender of things , Materiality of gender and sex
  • Clothes, fashion, design
  • Space and land – case study of home, house and household
  • Case study: Au pair a material culture
  • Power, stat and everyday material culture
  • Memory, commemoration, forgetting
Literature
  • The social life of things :commodities in cultural perspective. Edited by Arjun Appadurai. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, xiv, 329 s. ISBN 0-521-35726-8. info
  • The material culture reader. Edited by Victor Buchli. New York: Berg, 2002, xi, 274. ISBN 1859735592. URL info
  • GELL, Alfred. Art and agency : an anthropological theory. 1st pub. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998, xxiii, 271. ISBN 0198280149. info
  • Home possessions :material culture behind closed doors. Edited by Daniel Miller. 1st pub. Oxford: Berg, 2001, xi, 234 s. ISBN 1-85973-580-0. info
Teaching methods
lectures, class discussions, seminars, workshops, reading, text analyses
Assessment methods
Evaluation during the term: Students are expected to read compulsory text for each lesson in advance and prepre a write the assessment (The assessment consists of answers for the questions got week in advance). Students will deliver their assessments three days before seminar into IS in the form surname_name_X (X stands for the number of week). For every day of delay students lose three points. Evaluation looks at understanding of the reading and its main thesis and author's argumentation. Maximum 50% (5% (10 points)for each text) Final examination: Written examination consisting of two parts- 1. Book review (Evaluation looks at understanding of the reading and its main thesis and author's argumentation) 20% 2. Project 30% A: 100-95% B: 94-87% C: 86-79% D: 78-71% E: 70-60%
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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