ITSF+4018+Anthropology+and+Development+in+Africa

Next Offered
Spring 2014

Professor
George Bond

[[file:ITSF4018 Spring 2011 Syllabus.pdf]]
Note: The syllabus is updated each semester.

Course Description
The purpose of this seminar is to explore the theoretical and empirical paradigms that anthropologists and other social scientists have used to represent and analyze African peoples. The seminar will “problematize” grand theories such as structural functionalism, structuralism, and Marxism; concepts such as “modernity” and “globalization”; and analytic distinctions such as “center and periphery” and “north and south.” It will examine indigenous institutions, customs, practices and beliefs and the range of social relationships and organizations that Africans have constructed to deal with changes in their economic conditions and their social and cultural environments.

During this post colonial period Africans have had to deal with a new set of challenges such as civil wars, HIV/AIDS and natural and human disasters such as droughts and famines. The seminar will focus on these conditions, explore their implications for indigenous social and cultural forms, and investigate the manner in which Africans and non-governmental organizations have attempted to deal with them. It will examine the political and social movements that Africans generate to express their views and the relation of education to social transformations.

Given the fact that Africa is a continent, only selected regions and peoples will be considered. The regions and peoples will be looked at from different perspectives including Africa’s recent colonial past, the structure of local societies, processes of labor migration and problems of governance, decentralization, education, diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, and the care of orphans. Students will be encouraged to use their critical powers in investigating this cluster of social problems.

Review
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Student Contact Information
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