Culture, Meaning and Communication

Language of Instruction

English

Pre-requirements

None

Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course the student should be able to:

• Provide an overview of the history of key debates in anthropological studies of culture, meaning and communication.
• Provide an overview of key thinkers and ethnographies that have developed anthropological approaches in the anthropological study of symbol, ritual, and religion.
• Discuss how meanings relate to social relationships and is expressed through various cultural mediums.
• Apply key concepts and perspectives in the anthropological study of culture, meaning and communication.
• Discuss the ways in which meanings produce social life and the worlds that human beings inhabit.

Contact Information

Department of Social Anthropology

Fosswinckelsgate 6

5007 Bergen

Homepage: http://www.uib.no/antro

E-mail: advice@sosantr.uib.no

Phone: +47 55 58 92 50

Fax: +47 55 58 92 60

Course offered (semester)

Fall

Exam offered (semester)

Fall/Spring

Language of Instruction

English

Course Unit Level

Bachelor level

Access to the Course Unit

This subject is open to students at UiB

Aim and Content

Central to social anthropology is the understanding of social actions and events in light of the specific meanings people attach to them. Culture is a central concept in the discipline, and the course accounts for different social anthropological perspectives on cultural meaning, both on a personal level and as a collective, social dimension. The course contains a number of thematic areas where the dimensions of meaning are especially visible, such as the cultural arrangements of reality (classification), fundamental worldly perceptions (cosmology), symbols and communication, knowledge management, representations of faith (religion) and constructions of time and history (social memory). Emphasis is given to the understanding of meaning as social practice, in other words how orientations of reality are generated, maintained and shaped through social life, and how the production of meaning is well established in social relations, economic transactions and displays of power. Practices weighed with meaning, such as rituals, ceremonies, carnivals, witchcraft, magic, sorcery and millennial movements, therefore stand central in the course.

Learning Outcomes

Upon the completion of the course the student should be able to:

• Provide an overview of the history of key debates in anthropological studies of culture, meaning and communication.
• Provide an overview of key thinkers and ethnographies that have developed anthropological approaches in the anthropological study of symbol, ritual, and religion.
• Discuss how meanings relate to social relationships and is expressed through various cultural mediums.
• Apply key concepts and perspectives in the anthropological study of culture, meaning and communication.
• Discuss the ways in which meanings produce social life and the worlds that human beings inhabit.

Pre-requirements

None

Recommended previous knowledge

SANT100

Teaching Methods

Lectures, ethnographic films

3-4 hours per week

7-8 weeks

26 hours in total

Compulsory Requirements

Submission of one essay (obligatory but not included in exam, valid for two semesters)

Assessment methods

8 hours written exam

Grading Scale

Grading A-F

Course Unit Evaluation

A third of the courses offered each semester will be evaluated through My Space

Contact Information

Department of Social Anthropology

Fosswinckelsgate 6

5007 Bergen

Homepage: http://www.uib.no/antro

E-mail: advice@sosantr.uib.no

Phone: +47 55 58 92 50

Fax: +47 55 58 92 60