Anthropology and History
Objectives
The Anthropology and History course is a multidisciplinary seminar oriented towards the exploration of dialogues between anthropology and history. A historical perspective is given of how anthropology has related to ideas about history, archaeology and ethnohistory since the classical period of the discipline. The development of relations between anthropology and history is discussed, both at the conceptual and methodological level, and at the level of time periods and contexts addressed. Contemporary anthropological studies that give prominence to historical themes and perspectives of various kinds are discussed, and some areas of contemporary history where the contribution of anthropology is relevant is reviewed. Students are expected to become aware of the importance of the various archives and of inter- and transdisciplinary dialogues between anthropology and history, with a view to a science of humankind informed by a historical perspective.
General characterization
Code
01105776
Credits
6.0
Responsible teacher
Frederico Delgado Chaves Rosa
Hours
Weekly - 4
Total - 168
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
N/A
Bibliography
Axel, Brian Keith (ed.). 2002. From the Margins. Historical Anthropology and its Futures. Durham: Duke University Press.
Cohn, Bernard. 2003 [1987]. An Anthropologist among the Historians and Other Essays. Oxford: University Press.
Evans-Pritchard, Edward E. 1961. Anthropology and History. Manchester: University Press.
Hartog, F., 2003. Régimes d'historicité. Paris: Seuil.
Sahlins, Marshall. 1985. Islands of History. London: Tavistock Publications.
Silva, Maria Cardeira & Clara Saraiva (ed.). As Lições de Jill Dias. Lisboa: FCT.
Tagliacozzo, Eric & Andrew Wilford (ed.). 2009. Clio/Anthropos. Exploring the Boundaries Between History and Anthropology. Stanford: University Press.
Vansina, Jan. 1968. “The Use of Ethnographic Data as Sources for History”, T. O. Ranger (org.), Emerging Themes of African History. London: Heinemman Educational Books, pp. 97-124.
Wolf, Eric. 1982. Europe and the People without History. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Teaching method
Sessions follow a diversified theoretical-practical methodology, either through the lecturer's presentation of topics or through dialogues, debates and collective exercises. On the basis of case studies, students are invited to organise discussions on texts, in conjunction with the teacher's pedagogical guidance on all the readings and topics covered.
Evaluation method
Continuous Assessment
Exercises in class - 50.0%
Written test - 50.0%
Subject matter
1.Anthropology and History: an historical perspetive
Historical particularism and reconstituting the past "without documents"; The historicity of the "ethnographic present": the Schapera vs. Evans-Pritchard debate; Neo-evolutionism between anthropology and archaeology
2. Historical interfaces in Anthropology
Orality and chronology in Jan Vansina; Europe and the "peoples without history": Eric Wolf's sources; From Marshall Sahlins' "islands of history" to François Hartog's "regimes of historicity".
3. History and anthropology: contemporary challenges.
Contemporary trails in historical anthropology; Allochronism and homochronism: tensions and contradictions in the critique of anthropology; A historian among anthropologists: Jill Dias' "ethnography in the archive"; Indigenous historiographies and the historical imagination
4. Anthropology and History today: case studies
5. History and anthropology today: case studies