This course examines why theory matters and how and why anthropological theories have influenced and been influenced by empirical studies of human communities and on-going debates about culture. We will discover why theory in anthropology has often been contentious, controversial, and marked by many productive disagreements and varieties of approach. The goals are to foster critical understanding of the aims and scope of any theory by examining, in historical context, the ideas of some of the discipline’s most influential thinkers and evaluating their continued relevance to contemporary research.

CILO-1: Assess explanatory and interpretive contents of classical anthropological themes. CILO-2: Examine anthropological writings and the production of knowledge under the influence of colonialism and racialized lens. CILO-3: Apply anthropological theories to empirical studies in global and local interactions.