Social and Cultural Anthropology

What levels are on offer?

You can take Social and Cultural Anthropology at Higher Level or at Standard Level.

How do I decide which to choose?

Higher Level Social and Cultural Anthropology is aimed at students who are possibly interested in taking it at University.
The course also has close links with the social sciences and philosophy.

What will I need?

You do not need to have studied social and cultural anthropology before.

What will I study?

Standard Level

Part 1 - Underlying Principles

You will study the underlying principles that focus on the nature, strengths and problems of anthropology:

Approaches to the Analysis of Society and Culture
Key Concepts
Methods
Construction of Ethnographic Accounts
Relevance of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Part 2 - Themes

You will consider the themes that deal with aspects of human experience:

Social Organisation
Systems of Belief and Knowledge
Processes of Change and Transformation

Part 3 - Ethnographic Materials

Ethnographic Materials are the descriptions of the social life and culture of specific groups. You will need to develop detailed knowledge of three societies:

Ethnographies
Cultural Materials
Your Own Social and Cultural Knowledge.

The Higher Level Course adds Part 4 to the Standard Level course.

Part 4 - Fundamental Theoretical Issues

Materialism and Idealism
Agency-centred and Structure-centred Approaches
Particularistic and Universalistic Explanations
Synchronic Diachronic Perspectives
Cohesion and Conflict

How will I be assessed?

In each case there are two aspects to the assessment.

Internal Assessment

At Standard Level, you will conduct a one-hour observation with a short written report, followed by a critique of the initial report. This is worth 20% of the total marks.

At Higher Level you will conduct Field Research using two different data collection techniques and present your findings in a report. This is worth 30% of the total marks.

The External Assessment is an end of course exam taken in May of the second year consisting of two papers for Standard Level and 3 papers for Higher.