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ANTH2287: Markets and Exchange

Please ensure you check the module availability box for each module outline, as not all modules will run in each academic year. Each module description relates to the year indicated in the module availability box, and this may change from year to year, due to, for example: changing staff expertise, disciplinary developments, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback. Current modules are subject to change in light of the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19.

Type Open
Level 2
Credits 10
Availability Available in 2024/2025
Module Cap None.
Location Durham
Department Anthropology

Prerequisites

  • People and Cultures (ANTH1061) OR Being Human (ANTH1111)

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 written assignment.
  • Summative assessment is by one 2000 word essay.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

ActivityNumberFrequencyDurationTotalMonitored
Lectures10Weekly1 hour10 
Tutorials3Distributed through term1 hour3Yes
Preparation and Reading87 
Total100 

Summative Assessment

Component: CourseworkComponent Weighting: 100%
ElementLength / DurationElement WeightingResit Opportunity
Essay2000 words100yes

Formative Assessment

500-word written assignment

More information

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