ANTHR 6430 - Concepts and Categories in Theory and Practice

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

P. Nadasdy.

Concepts and categories form the basis of much human thought and action, and anthropologists have long been fascinated by the human penchant forcategorization. Yet concepts and categories shape social scientific thought every bit as much as (if not more than) the thoughts and actions of those weproport to study. How we categorize the world and the conceptual tools we bring to bear in the study of socio-cultural phenomena profoundly shape ourunderstandings of them. Despite this, however, many of the concepts and categories that anthropologists and other social scientists use are implicit intheir work rather than consciously theorized. The goal of this course is to make students aware of the role that concepts and categories play in thepractice of social science – and anthropology in particular – and to provide them with the theoretical tools they need to adequately conceptualize theirown work and to assess conceptual frames in anthropological and other social scientific writing.