Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE LAS2023

 
TITLE Human Unity and Diversities: The Body, Food, and Culture

 
UM LEVEL H - Higher Level

 
MQF LEVEL 6

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Centre for the Liberal Arts and Sciences

 
DESCRIPTION This unit will examine two important defining features of human beings that make them incredibly diverse, due to the crucial role of culture: (i) that humans prepare (“cook”) their food (in contrast to all other species), but at the same time the food we produce and consume is immensely culturally variable; and (ii) that the human body is not only the end product of a complex and very lengthy evolutionary process that have made us human, but also that the body decoration carries many messages about culture: gender, class, status, difference.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding
By the end of the unit the student will be able to:

1. understand that humans, whilst a species, are distinctive in that they are culturally diverse in two important areas: the body, whilst part of nature, is also culturally constructed and elaborated and therefore carries many symbolic messages; that food is far from simple substance, but is culturally distinctive and distinguishing;
2. link these two important areas of cultural variation (Body and Food,) to critical social functions.

2. Skills
By the end of the unit the student will be able to:

1. critically read ethnographic texts at an introductory level;
2. produce a written critique of at least 1 approach to the understanding of the Body and Food;
3. develop analytical skills in identifying how cultural variable phenomena have important social significances.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

- Bourdieu, P. 1994. “Structures, Habitus, Power: Basis for a Theory of Symbolic Power,” in Cultures, Power, History: A Reader in Contemporary Social Theory, by Nicolas Dirks, Geoff Eley, and Sherry Ortner (Eds.), Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 155-199
- Comaroff, John and Jean Comaroff. 1992 Medicine, Colonialism, and the Black Body. Ethnography and the Historical Imagination. Westview Press. pp. 215-234.
- Douglas, Mary. 1970. “The Two Bodies.” pp. 65-81 in Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology. New York: Pantheon.
- Foucault, Michel. 1984. “Docile Bodies,” “The Means of Correct Training,” and “Panopticism,” in The Foucault Reader. Edited by Paul Rabinow. New York: Pantheon, pp. 179-213.
- Mauss, Marcel. 1935, “Techniques of the Body,” In Lock, M.M. & Farquhar, J., eds., Beyond the Body Proper: Reading the Anthropology of Material Life, Duke University Press. (BBP) pp.50-68.
- Hogle, L. F. (2005). Enhancement Technologies and the Body; Annu. Rev. Anthropol, Vol. 34, pp. :695–716.
- Reischer, E. & Koo, K.S. (2004). The Body Beautiful: Symbolism and Agency in the Social World; Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 33, pp. 297-317.
- Sharp, L. A. (2000). The Commodification of the Body and Its Parts; Annu. Rev. Anthropol; Vol. 29, pp. 287–328.
- Scheper-Hughes, N. & Lock, M. M. (1987). The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology; Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 6-41.
- Wolf, N. (1991). The Beauty Myth. How images of Beauty are used against women; Vintage Books: London.

Further Readings will be provided by lecturers.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture, Practicum & Tutorial

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Reflective Diary Yes 5%
Presentation (15 Minutes) Yes 10%
Assignment Yes 85%

 
LECTURER/S Michael Pio Deguara
Rachel Radmilli

 

 
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It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

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