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Semester 1

Generation and Inheritance: Anthropological Concepts (SCAN10094)

Subject

Social Anthropology

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed at least 3 Social Anthropology courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses.

Course Summary

Talk about 'generation' and 'inheritance' seem to be everywhere these days. In this course, we will examine anthropological work on these related concepts. We will reflect on how anthropologists have thought about and mobilised these concepts to understand pressing and enduring issues that cut across seemingly distinct areas of life, including kinship, politics, economics, health, and the environment. We will reflect, too, on the usefulness of 'generation' and 'inheritance' in understanding - and realising - social change.

Course Description

Generation and inheritance loom large in contemporary public culture. A new generation - one with a distinct sensibility and outlook when it comes to politics, work, gender and sexuality, romance, family, the environment, and so on - has supposedly emerged. If these accounts are to be believed, older and younger generations are engaged in a relentless struggle over the world and ways of living and dying past, present, and future. At the same time, inheritance is on the radar, particularly how it structures opportunities and possibilities in a world marked by loss and deepening inequalities. How might these aspects of contemporary life be understood anthropologically? This course examines the place of 'generation' and 'inheritance' in anthropological thought. It queries how anthropologists have understood these two concepts and their interrelationship. It traces, too, how anthropologists have mobilised these concepts to shed light on pressing issues and intervene in public culture. In pursuing this focus, this course reflects on how 'generation' and 'inheritance' are fundamental to understanding and effecting change, including in ways that cut across seemingly distinct areas of social life and anthropological enquiry. This course addresses a broad range of questions that may include: How and why do generation and inheritance structure and transform societies? What is the relationship, if any, between generation and inheritance - and how has this relationship been subject to change across various historical and social milieus? In what ways are generation and inheritance inflected by, and inflect, axes of social difference, including gender and sexuality, class, race and ethnicity, and citizenship? How have anthropological approaches to generation and inheritance changed over time and with what consequences? Topics to be covered by this course may vary each year, but these may include: generation and inheritance as social organization; generational consciousness, identity, and belonging; tradition and heritage; politics, activism, and their legacies; generational gaps and conflicts; material and immaterial transmissions; inequalities and social reproduction; bodies and health across generations; ageing and intergenerational care; future generations and uncertain inheritances. At the heart of this course are weekly two-hour seminars that will centre on selected readings. Through these seminars, students will engage with accounts of generation and inheritance in social and cultural anthropology, as well as adjacent disciplines, such as history, sociology, economics, and literature. These accounts will explore inheritance and generation in different cultural and historical milieus. Students will also have the opportunity to engage with films, music, and other genres that complement assigned readings. In working with these materials, students will hone their analytical skills and their understanding of what it means to develop anthropological concepts and arguments.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 90%, Practical Exam 10%

view the timetable and further details for this course