LFU:online

Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft

Dr. Samuel Williams Dr. Samuel Williams

603716

Grundlagen der Erziehungswissenschaft: Vertiefung I: Sex, culture, and society

SE 2

7,5

Block

jährlich

Englisch

By the end of the course, students will be able to:-

• discuss a number of key concepts anthropologists have developed to compare the cultural and social significance of sex among peoples they study
• analyse how these concepts have emerged out of formative debates in the anthropological study of sex, and assess the significance of classical psychoanalytic thought in these debates
• evaluate how anthropologists’ use of these concepts to make comparisons across societies involves different assumptions about ways a person’s particular sexual lifeway can articulate with varieties of sexual culture

 

This course introduces students to the study of sex in comparative cultural and social perspective, exploring intersections and tensions between classical psychoanalytic thought and major approaches in British, French, and US anthropology.

It takes as its gambit the anthropological legacy of Freud’s Totem and Taboo, which since its publication in 1913 has galvanised academic work on relations between sex, culture, and society. Deeply informed by debates in fin-de-siècle anthropology about “primitive sexuality”, Freud proposed that sex lay at the heart of cultural and social life, and in his evolving conception of an Oedipus complex developed a comparative analytic that promised to make sense of the significance of sex across diverse cultures and societies.

In this course, we shall investigate how anthropologists over the last century have responded to Freud’s “somewhat improbable conclusions” (Freud 1919 [1913]: vii), as they have sought to compare the significance of sex in the lives of the people they have studied around the world.

The course focuses on formative debates and controversies in the anthropological study of sex. Each seminar involves paired readings, and through close reading of the texts and critical analysis of their underlying assumptions, students will be encouraged to become more attentive to their own presuppositions about the significance of culture for understanding sex and the significance of sex for understanding culture.

 

Participation in seminar discussions – 30%

Final oral exam – 30%

Short written reflection on a theme or issue from the course (5 pages)  – 40%

Klausurarbeit

Lehrveranstaltung mit immanentem Prüfungscharakter, bei der die Beurteilung aufgrund von regelmäßigen schriftlichen und mündlichen Beiträgen der TeilnehmerInnen erfolgt.

Full Course Outline 

Required readings

Optional recommended readings

(1)     Students are encouraged to read a number of optional recommended readings, either to contribute to discussions or to prepare their final written reflections.

(2)     In addition to this document, students should consult the full course outline, which contains a seminar-by-seminar breakdown.

(3)     All required readings should be read thoroughly before the course commences. Texts should be read in the order listed in the full course outline.

 

mailto: samuel.williams@quaibranly.fr

 

ACHTUNG: Es kann noch zu Änderungen bei den Räumen kommen. Bitte schauen Sie regelmäßig in das Vorlesungsverzeichnis!

 

siehe Termine