ANTH3927: The Anthropology of Ethics and Morality

• ANTH2051 Politics and Economics OR ANTH2161 Kinship and Religion

• None

• None

• To introduce students to the advanced study of cross-cultural ethics and morality
• To explore the theoretical concepts with which anthropologists have engaged with the study of ethics and morality, from Durkheim to the present day
• To demonstrate the ways in which anthropologists can learn from moral philosophy and moral philosophers can learn from ethnography
• To showcase the new anthropology of ethics and the ways in which it obliges us to rethink some cherished disciplinary assumptions

• The module will examine anthropological approaches to ethics and morality, beginning with Durkheim and proceeding more recently influential approaches such as those based on work in virtue ethical moral philosophy, the late work of Michel Foucault, and phenomenology.
• Topics covered will include: conceptual resources in thinking about ethics; ethics in the spheres of kinship, politics, economics, and religion, and problems in thinking about the place of ethics, the subject of ethics, and ethical freedom.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• At the end of the module, students will be able to:
• Demonstrate advanced levels of current knowledge and intensive understanding in of cross-cultural approaches to ethics and morality.
• Deploy analytical skills specific to social anthropological studies of ethics and morality.
• Be competent in accessing and assimilating specialised research literature of an advanced nature.

Subject-specific Skills:

• In depth knowledge of the anthropology of ethics and morality, with emphasis on interpretation and comprehensive understanding of primary or secondary data.

Key Skills:

• Preparation and effective communication of research methods, data, interpretation and arguments in written form.

• Classes will integrate lecture and tutorial components.
• Lecture elements will provide students with an outline of key knowledge and debates in the topic area, discuss the literature that students should explore, and provide relevant examples and cases studies.
• Tutorial elements will develop topics introduced in lectures and required reading to analyse aspects or case studies in greater depth and to prepare students for their summative assignment.
• Student preparation and reading time will allow engagement with specific references in advance of tutorials and general and particular reading related to the assessment, which will be a written assignment (such as an essay or report).
• Summative Assessment: One 2500 word essay based on a question selected from a list drawn up by the lecturer and drawing on ethnographic and theoretical material from across the module.

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