100-level

ANTH105
Human Evolution
Description
This course is an introduction to the biological, behavioural, and cultural evolution of hominids from the earliest evidence to the emergence of the Neolithic revolution. Students will be introduced to the fundamentals of evolutionary theory, paleoanthropology, archaeology and physical anthropology. Up-to-date knowledge about how we have become what we are today, and how such knowledge has been produced in academic research will be presented. By examining the human past, students will develop an understanding human universals and sociocultural variation, which enables us to develop a deeper bicultural understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand today.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Semester Two 2024 (Distance)
Points
15 points
ANTH108
Witchcraft, Magic and The Dead
Description
This course aims to challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about witchcraft, magic and the dead, as well as introducing students to key anthropological concerns such as ritual, symbolism and religion.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Semester One 2024 (Distance)
Points
15 points

200-level

ANTH212
Kinship and Family in Comparative Perspective
Description
This course is designed to help students understand the importance of kinship and family in human societies and appreciate the complexities and variation in how kinship and family are conceptualized and practised in different cultures. In this course, we will discuss classic and contemporary case studies of kinship and family in cultures and societies around the world, including Africa, China, Europe, the United States, and the Pacific area (including New Zealand), to list just a few. In examining these cases and case studies, we will probe the issues of biology and culture, personhood and subjectivity, and structure and human agency in varied ways of conceptualizing and practising kinship in different cultures. This course also covers comprehensive knowledge of historical and contemporary theories and methods in kinship and family studies to help students develop critical perspectives on how kinship and family are practised in contemporary life.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH312
ANTH213
Environment, Development and Sustainability: Anthropological Perspectives
Description
This course is concerned with the social and ecological impacts of human activity in the context of a global fossil fuel civilization. Investigating problems of climate change, declining biodiversity, and environmental degradation, it provides an anthropologically informed perspective on crucial issues at the intersection of ecology, sustainable development, and social activism.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH, GEOG, or SOCI, or 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH313
ANTH223
Ethnicity, Racism and Genocide
Description
This course provides a critical introduction to the historical and anthropological study of ethnicity, racism, genocide and migration.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH, HIST, MAOR, or SOCI, or 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
HIST283, MAOR230, PACS204, SOCI223
MAOR230
Ethnicity, Racism and Genocide
Description
This course provides a critical introduction to the historical and anthropological study of ethnicity, racism, genocide and migration.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH, HIST, MAOR, SOCI, or TREO, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH223, HIST283, PACS204, SOCI223, SOCI323
HIST283
Ethnicity, Racism and Genocide
Description
This course provides a critical introduction to the historical and anthropological study of ethnicity, racism, genocide and migration.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level in HIST, ANTH, MAOR, PACS, or SOCI, or CLAS120, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH223, MAOR230, PACS204, SOCI223
ANTH298
Religion and Society: Why God Won't Die
Description
This course is an introduction to the Sociology & Anthropology of religion focused on thinking and rethinking religion, culture & society. Central to the discussion is why god and religion has not disappeared as was predicted in much modern social theory. In considering this question, the course provides a critical discussion of the ways religion, god and religious practices have been thought, dismissed and applied over the past 150 years within the Sociology & Anthropology of Religion.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI278, SOCI292, SOCI392 in 2012

300-level

ANTH301
Doing Ethnography: Concepts and Practices
Description
Ethnography is a research procedure central to the discipline of anthropology. It has also become an essential research method for many other fields in social sciences and humanities. This course aims at helping students understand the basic principles and praxis of ethnography. For this purpose, this course is designed as a combination of both theory and practice. Through lectures and assigned readings, this course addresses theoretical reflections by scholars on the epistemological, political and ethical implications of ethnography. This course also has a mock ethnographic project in which students work through major steps of doing ethnography.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
ANTH312
Kinship and Family in Comparative Perspective
Description
This course is designed to help students understand the importance of kinship and family in human societies and appreciate the complexities and variation in how kinship and family are conceptualized and practised in different cultures. In this course, we will discuss classic and contemporary case studies of kinship and family in cultures and societies around the world, including Africa, China, Europe, the United States, and the Pacific area (including New Zealand), to list just a few. In examining these cases and case studies, we will probe the issues of biology and culture, personhood and subjectivity, and structure and human agency in varied ways of conceptualizing and practising kinship in different cultures. This course also covers comprehensive knowledge of historical and contemporary theories and methods in kinship and family studies to help students develop critical perspectives on how kinship and family are practised in contemporary life.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH212, GEND218, GEND318, SOCI212, SOCI312
ANTH313
Environment, Development and Sustainability: Anthropological Perspectives
Description
This course is concerned with the social and ecological impacts of human activity in the context of a global fossil fuel civilization. Investigating problems of climate change, declining biodiversity, and environmental degradation, it provides an anthropologically informed perspective on crucial issues at the intersection of ecology, sustainable development, and social activism.
Occurrences
Semester One 2024
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH, GEOG, or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH213
HIST372
Contested Heritage: Politics, Power and Practice
Description
This course provides students with a hands-on introduction to the study of heritage. We explore ways we might understand and interpret contemporary heritage practices in a range of contexts, including post-earthquake Christchurch.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024 (The Arts Centre Christchurch)
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from HIST, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI388, ANTH388
ANTH388
Contested Heritage: Politics, Power and Practice
Description
This course provides students with a hands-on introduction to the study of heritage. We explore ways we might understand and interpret contemporary heritage practices in a range of contexts, including post-earthquake Christchurch.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2024 (The Arts Centre Christchurch)
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
SOCI388, HIST372

Not Offered Courses in 2024

100-level

ANTH102
Cultural Diversity and The Making of The Modern World
Description
Global in its scope and comparative in its analysis, social and cultural anthropology is ideally equipped to explore the diversity of human social life and the variety of cultural understandings that emerge from it. This course introduces the discipline of socio-cultural anthropology, the peoples and places with whom anthropologists work, and key themes in the study of society and culture. Crucially, it also explores fundamental questions about cultural diversity, and provides the intellectual tools for making sense of the diverse, interconnected world in which we live.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2017 , 2018 , 2019 , 2020 , 2021
For further information see ANTH102 course details
Points
15 points
ANTH104
Indigenous peoples, development and anthropology
Description
This course provides a critical view of the contemporary and historical situation of indigenous people in New Zealand and elsewhere. The course pays attention especially to the wider socio-political and economic contexts that indigenous people have experienced and continue to live in. This includes questions relevant to colonial and post-colonial contexts, the relationship between indigenous people and the modern nation-state, and their position within a globalized world. The question of cultural survival is addressed through analyses of genocide and ethnocide, constructions of identity (including bi-cultural identity), and the nature and extent of appropriation and modification of culture by both indigenous peoples and those with whom they have political and economic relationships. The nature and effects of hegemonic rule, accommodation of new cultural elements, subaltern resistance and the development of new identities and movements, are also included. The course illustrates that indigenous people are not simply victims of oppression and marginalization, but self-conscious actors who in all periods of history and with different means have - more or less successfully - resisted structures of power and domination and fought for their rights.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see ANTH104 course details
Points
15 points
MAOR170
Indigenous Peoples, Development and Anthropology
Description
An introduction to a broad range of issues related to the social circumstances and survival of the world's indigenous peoples
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see MAOR170 course details
Points
15 points

200-level

ANTH202
Politics, Power and Capitalism
Description
This course poses fundamental questions about the domain of "the political" in relation to interest, influence, and power. It applies these concerns to the dominant social, political, and economic system of our times - capitalism. Concerned with its historical and geographical spread, its ideological manifestations, its crises, and its oppositional movements, it introduces students to critical ethnographies that explore issues of wealth and inequality, protest and control, and the role of military, technological, and economic power in contemporary societies.
Occurrences
ANTH202-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH202 course details
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH302
PACS202
The Pacific Islands: Early European and Polynesian Visions
Description
This course looks at how European and Polynesian visions of 'the other' have intersected over the course of the last five centuries within the Pacific region
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see PACS202 course details
Points
15 points
ANTH207
Visual Anthropology
Description
This course is about visual representations of culture and cultural difference. It looks at a wide variety of visual media, including art, photography, film, video, and digital technologies, to explore the ways in which these shape both the perception, and the experience, of cultural difference.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2015 , 2017
For further information see ANTH207 course details
Points
15 points
ANTH208
Food and Eating
Description
This course explores the food chain, from production, through consumption, to exchange and considers the ways in which food is implicated in the reproduction of and resistance to, inequalities of class, gender, ethnicity and nationalism.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2011 , 2013 , 2015 , 2016
For further information see ANTH208 course details
Points
15 points
ANTH212
Kinship and Family in Comparative Perspective
Description
This course is designed to help students understand the importance of kinship and family in human societies and appreciate the complexities and variation in how kinship and family are conceptualized and practised in different cultures. In this course, we will discuss classic and contemporary case studies of kinship and family in cultures and societies around the world, including Africa, China, Europe, the United States, and the Pacific area (including New Zealand), to list just a few. In examining these cases and case studies, we will probe the issues of biology and culture, personhood and subjectivity, and structure and human agency in varied ways of conceptualizing and practising kinship in different cultures. This course also covers comprehensive knowledge of historical and contemporary theories and methods in kinship and family studies to help students develop critical perspectives on how kinship and family are practised in contemporary life.
Occurrences
ANTH212-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH212 course details
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH312
ANTH219
Cultures on the Screen
Description
This course examines how cultures are represented via visual media both by anthropologists and non-Anthropologists. Using films and other visual media, accompanied by assigned readings, this course will help students understand problems and challenges associated with visual representation of cultures from anthropological perspectives.
Occurrences
ANTH219-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH219 course details
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH, HIST, MAOR, CINE, or SOCI, or 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH319
ANTH238
Exploring the Past: Museums, Memory and Material Culture
Description
This course is a 'hands on' introduction to public history and public anthropology, taught through a combination of workshops, tutorials and field trips.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2023
For further information see ANTH238 course details
Points
15 points
ANTH250
Travel, Tourism and Pilgrimage
Description
The course introduces students to Sociological and Anthropological approaches to travel and tourism. Through the study of topics such as travel literature, indigenous tourism, tourism and development, sex tourism and 'dark' tourism, it examines the way in which notions of the cultural 'self' and cultural 'others' have been both forged and sustained within various sorts of tourist encounter.
Occurrences
ANTH250-24S2 (C)
Semester Two 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH250 course details
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from ANTH or SOCI or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH350, SOCI275, SOCI375
SOCI262
Food and Eating
Description
This course explores the food chain, from production, through consumption, to exchange and considers the ways in which food is implicated in the reproduction of, and resistance to, inequalities of class, gender, ethnicity and nationalism.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see SOCI262 course details
Points
15 points
HIST288
Exploring the Past: Museums, Memory and Material Culture
Description
This course is a 'hands-on' introduction to public history and public anthropology taught through a combination of workshops, tutorials and field trips.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see HIST288 course details
Points
15 points

300-level

ANTH301
Doing Ethnography: Concepts and Practices
Description
Ethnography is a research procedure central to the discipline of anthropology. It has also become an essential research method for many other fields in social sciences and humanities. This course aims at helping students understand the basic principles and praxis of ethnography. For this purpose, this course is designed as a combination of both theory and practice. Through lectures and assigned readings, this course addresses theoretical reflections by scholars on the epistemological, political and ethical implications of ethnography. This course also has a mock ethnographic project in which students work through major steps of doing ethnography.
Occurrences
ANTH301-24S2 (C)
Semester Two 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH301 course details
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
ANTH302
Politics, Power and Capitalism
Description
This course poses fundamental questions about the domain of "the political" in relation to interest, influence, and power. It applies these concerns to the dominant social, political, and economic system of our times - capitalism. Concerned with its historical and geographical spread, its ideological manifestations, its crises, and its oppositional movements, it introduces students to critical ethnographies that explore issues of wealth and inequality, protest and control, and the role of military, technological, and economic power in contemporary societies.
Occurrences
ANTH302-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH302 course details
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH202
PACS302
The Pacific Islands: Early European and Polynesian Visions
Description
This course looks at how European and Polynesian visions of 'the other' have intersected over the course of the last five centuries within the Pacific region
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see PACS302 course details
Points
30 points
ANTH307
Visual Anthropology
Description
This course is about visual representations of culture and cultural difference. It looks at a wide variety of visual media, including art, photography, film, video, and digital technologies, to explore the ways in which these shape both the perception, and the experience, of cultural difference.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2012 , 2013 , 2014 , 2015 , 2017
For further information see ANTH307 course details
Points
30 points
ANTH308
Food and Eating
Description
This course explores the food chain, from production, through consumption, to exchange and considers the ways in which food is implicated in the reproduction of and resistance to, inequalities of class, gender, ethnicity and nationalism.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2011 , 2013 , 2015 , 2016
For further information see ANTH308 course details
Points
30 points
ANTH311
Mental Health and Society
Description
This course will engage with debates and issues associated with mental health, mental illness and addictions. It will consider: differing approaches to 'madness'; critiques of the war on drugs; debates around psychotropic medications; Maori and indigenous perspectives on mental health; policy debates relating to mental health and addictions; global differences in the expression of mental distress; mental health consumers movements; and social and cultural determinants of mental health.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024, offered in 2018 , 2019
For further information see ANTH311 course details
Points
30 points
SOCI311
Mental Health and Society
Description
This course will engage with debates and issues associated with mental health, mental illness and addictions. It will consider: differing approaches to 'madness'; critiques of the war on drugs; debates around psychotropic medications; Maori and indigenous perspectives on mental health; policy debates relating to mental health and addictions; global differences in the expression of mental distress; mental health consumers movements; and social and cultural determinants of mental health.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see SOCI311 course details
Points
30 points
ANTH312
Kinship and Family in Comparative Perspective
Description
This course is designed to help students understand the importance of kinship and family in human societies and appreciate the complexities and variation in how kinship and family are conceptualized and practised in different cultures. In this course, we will discuss classic and contemporary case studies of kinship and family in cultures and societies around the world, including Africa, China, Europe, the United States, and the Pacific area (including New Zealand), to list just a few. In examining these cases and case studies, we will probe the issues of biology and culture, personhood and subjectivity, and structure and human agency in varied ways of conceptualizing and practising kinship in different cultures. This course also covers comprehensive knowledge of historical and contemporary theories and methods in kinship and family studies to help students develop critical perspectives on how kinship and family are practised in contemporary life.
Occurrences
ANTH312-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH312 course details
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH212, GEND218, GEND318, SOCI212, SOCI312
ANTH319
Cultures on the Screen
Description
This course examines how cultures are represented via visual media both by anthropologists and non-anthropologists. Using films and other visual media, accompanied by assigned readings, this course will help students understand problems and challenges associated with visual representation of cultures from anthropological perspectives.
Occurrences
ANTH319-24S1 (C)
Semester One 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH319 course details
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH219
CLAS336
Greek Art: The Power of Images in Archaic and Classical Greece
Description
We focus on the brilliant achievements of the Greeks in architecture, figurative painting, sculpture and other media that have been influential for centuries. We see what these meant in their broader cultural context, including Greek myth and history, as well as Greek interaction with cultures of Egypt and the Middle East. Students in this course have a chance to work directly with the splendid artefacts from the James Logie Memorial Collection (including Greek vases) now housed in the Teece Museum.
Occurrences
Not offered 2024
For further information see CLAS336 course details
Points
30 points
ANTH350
Travel, Tourism and Pilgrimage
Description
The course introduces students to Sociological and Anthropological approaches to travel and tourism. Through the study of topics such as travel literature, indigenous tourism, tourism and development, sex tourism and 'dark' tourism, it examines the way in which notions of the cultural 'self' and cultural 'others' have been both forged and sustained within various sorts of tourist encounter.
Occurrences
ANTH350-24S2 (C)
Semester Two 2024 - Not offered
For further information see ANTH350 course details
Points
30 points
Prerequisites
Any 30 points at 200 level from ANTH or SOCI, or any 60 points at 200 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
ANTH250, SOCI275, SOCI375