Ethnography of a Selected Region - East Africa
- Course Code:
- 151802043
- Unit value:
- 1
- Year of study:
- Year 2 or Year 3
- Taught in:
- Full Year
This one-term course provides an introduction to the richness and complexity of East African society. The course focuses on a number of contemporary issues from the impact of social change on ‘traditional’ social groups to various aspects of social identity seen through the prism of illness/spirit possession, ethnicity, nationalism and race.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
This course looks in depth at issues of anthropological representation of the peoples/cultures of the region, and in particular at current socio-cultural issues which challenge conventional understandings about identity and culture.
The course aims to:
- provide students with an in-depth understanding of ethnographic writing on the region;
- assist students to critically engage with anthropological concepts and concerns about social, ethnic, national and racial identity as these are experienced in the region.
Scope and syllabus
A focus on tradition and change at the level of community and a region that has been subject to rapid transformation from colony to post-colony. Regional societies have been shaped by the state, regional and global processes and the course will examine issues of:
- ethnicity, nationalism and identity;
- witchcraft and healing;
- pastoralists, hunter-gatherers and cultivators;
- issues of ethnographic representation;
- problems of development, urbanisation, and of social conflict.
