Power and Politics

Description

This course lays the foundation for students interested in political anthropology. Political anthropology examines how power and politics shape everyday lives and inequalities. This course explores key theoretical approaches to power and politics in anthropology, and how they have been used to understand lived inequalities in a great variety of settings and situations across the world. The course first explores the influence of Marx and Foucault in anthropological thinking about power. It asks how anthropologists have used the legacy of these thinkers to understand the way power shapes everyday lives. It, then, turns to key concepts in political anthropology: the state and citizenship, actors and forces beyond the state, and lived inequalities related to class, gender, and race, among other forms of hierarchy and identity. In the last week, students can prepare for the exam. Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course students will: Know key debates in political anthropology. Understand anthropological approaches to power, and, more specifically, relations between everyday inequalities and larger political configurations. Be able to apply these approaches and theoretical concepts to current cases, including their own experiences and life world.