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ANTH40P15: Markets and Exchange (Advanced)

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Type Open
Level 4
Credits 15
Availability Available in 2024/2025
Module Cap
Location Durham
Department Anthropology

Prerequisites

  • None.

Corequisites

  • None.

Excluded Combinations of Modules

  • None.

Aims

  • To develop students knowledge and ability to think critically about themes in the anthropology of economic life.
  • To explore the role of anthropology in theorising the diverse forms of markets and exchange across cultures and societies.
  • To equip students with competencies to apply and extend their knowledge of economic anthropology to other fields of anthropological inquiry.

Content

  • Topics may vary but will include, inter alia: exchange and reciprocity; capitalist and non-capitalist markets, money, and value; production and commodities; globalisation; the social lives of the gift, including religious giving, charity, philanthropy, and corporate social responsibility.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

  • Understand the nature and role of economic activity in human social and cultural life.
  • Understand the diverse forms of market activity and exchange and how they manifest in social and cultural practice.
  • Understand the interconnections between economic anthropology and other fields of social anthropological inquiry

Subject-specific Skills:

  • Familiarity with the concepts and methods of socio-cultural anthropological analysis as applied to economic life.
  • Familiarity with, and ability to access, sources of anthropological knowledge on economic life.
  • Ability to analyse critically and evaluate literature and arguments in economic anthropology.
  • Discern and establish connections between ethnographic data and theoretical arguments in economic anthropology.

Key Skills:

  • Library research
  • Debating skills
  • Note taking
  • Essay writing
  • Critical reading and analysis

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • Lectures and seminars introduce students to the material and enable discussion of it, informed by wider reading.
  • Seminars allow students to explore and discuss material from the lectures and readings in depth with their tutors and peers.
  • Formative assessment is by one 500 word essay outline.
  • Summative assessment is by one 3000 word essay.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lecture10Weekly1 hour10 
Seminars3Spread across term1 hour3 
Preparation and Reading137 
Total150 

Summative Assessment

Component: CourseworkComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Essay3000 words100 

Formative Assessment

500-word outline.

More information

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Current Students: Please contact your department.