Teacher(s)
Language
French
Main themes
In the light of work undertaken in the Laboratory for Prospective Anthropology, a basic issue will be examined such as systems of belief, death, relations between man , animals and the world at large, human identity, kinship, gender, territory, objects, virtual reality, violence, beauty, art, language, exchange, law and order. The fundamental options of anthropology together with ongoing debates will be woven around the theme chosen thus allowing for a contextualised presentation of disciplinary and interdisciplinary issues be they resolved or still at stake in such matters as natural sciences, ecology, ethol-ogy, ethnology, genetics, linguistics, paleoanthropology, archaeology, psychology and philosophy.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to : | |
| 1 | As a result of these lectures the student will have been enabled - to find his way through the debated fields of contemporary anthropology - personally treat a basic anthropological issue - critically examine anthropological discourse as resulting from diverse currents, thanks to an historical per-spective on the cultural causes and conditions underpinning it as well as on the trends making today for its unity in the light of overarching themes such as Nature, the Psyche, social Bonding |
Content
The course on anthropological foundations addresses several major theoretical themes that shape both the discipline of anthropology and the ways human societies exist on Earth.
The course explores eight themes—purity and impurity, kinship, sexuality and reproduction, violence, the visible and the invisible, the body, death, and the non-human—through a unifying thread: blood. This central theme serves less as the course's actual subject matter than as an entry point for opening up the questions and debates that lie at the heart of anthropology.
Using a comparative approach, the course examines how fundamental anthropology addresses the ways human groups—past and present—resolve issues of communal life, as well as fundamental questions every society has had to answer (such as where children come from, where the dead go, "who" animals are, how to define the boundaries between Self and Other, etc.).
The course explores eight themes—purity and impurity, kinship, sexuality and reproduction, violence, the visible and the invisible, the body, death, and the non-human—through a unifying thread: blood. This central theme serves less as the course's actual subject matter than as an entry point for opening up the questions and debates that lie at the heart of anthropology.
Using a comparative approach, the course examines how fundamental anthropology addresses the ways human groups—past and present—resolve issues of communal life, as well as fundamental questions every society has had to answer (such as where children come from, where the dead go, "who" animals are, how to define the boundaries between Self and Other, etc.).
Teaching methods
The pedagogical approach of this course revolves around a body of documents that students examine in groups before discussing them in class. Each session (with the exception of the introductory and concluding ones) focuses on a specific theme; for each, groups read a designated text (available on Moodle) to familiarize themselves with the material. During the session, each group presents the text they have studied—along with information about the author—and offers a critical commentary. A discussion follows, aimed at situating, connecting, and critically examining the points of convergence and friction among the various perspectives presented on each theme.
Evaluation methods
For each student, the course assessment is based on the sum of two grades:
- active participation in their reading group throughout the semester (shared grade);
- and a summary of a presentation by another group assigned to the student, which they prepare individually during the final session (individual grade).
Other information
Prerequisites: Undergraduate-level knowledge in the human and social sciences.
This course is taught in French.
This course is taught in French.
Bibliography
- Almeida Cabral, Mauro. 2024. (L)armes d’errance. Habiter la rue au féminin. Transitions sociales et résistances. Academia-L’Harmattan.
- Boltanski, L.. 2004, La condition foetale. Une sociologie de l’engendrement et de l’avortement, Paris, Gallimard.
- Buckley, Thomas, et Alma Gottlieb, éd. 1988. Blood Magic. The Anthropology of Menstruation. University of California Press.
- Burgat, François. 2005. « Le règlement des conflits tribaux au Yémen ». Égypte/Monde arabe 1: 101‑26. https://doi.org/10.4000/ema.1042.
- Carsten, J.. 2000. Cultures of Relatedness: New Approaches to the Study of Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Colleyn, Jean-Paul, “Le sacrifice selon Hubert et Mauss”, Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire, 2 | 1976, 23-42. https://doi.org/10.4000/span.274
- Davis, Wade. 1997. The Serpent and the Rainbow - Poche. 2nd éd. Simon & Schuster.
- Delaplace, Grégory. 2024. La voix des fantômes. Quand débordent les morts. Seuil.
- Douglas, Mary. (1967) 2001. De la souillure. Essai sur les notions de pollution et de tabou. La Découverte.
- Favret-Saada, Jeanne. 1985. Les mots, la mort, les sorts. Follio Essais. Gallimard.
- Graeber, David, et David Wengrow. (2021) 2022. The Dawn of Everything. A New History of Humanity. Penguin Books.
- Hell, Bertrand. 1994. Le sang noir. Chasse et mythe du Sauvage en Europe. Flammarion.
- Herskovits, M.. 1937. «A Note on "Woman Marriage" in Dahomey.» Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 10, n. 3, pp. 335-341.
- Jolly, S. 2013. Women, Sexuality and the Political Power of Pleasure, Zed Books, London.
- Kohn, Eduardo. 2013. How Forests Think. Toward an anthropology beyond the Human. University of California Press.
- Laugrand, Frédéric, Antoine Laugrand, Jazil Tamang, et Gliseria Magapin. 2020. « Exchanges with the Dead: Exhuming Human Remains among the Ibaloy of Upper Loacan (Philippines) ». Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia 176 (4): 475‑503. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134379-bja10017.
- Lovell, N.. 2002. Cord of blood. Possession and the making of voodoo, Pluto Press, London.
- Martin, Emily. The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles, Signs, Spring, 1991, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 485-501.
- Mauss, Marcel. (1936) 2024. Les techniques du corps. Les Atemporels. JDH Éditions.
- Rubin, Gayle. 1975. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex”, dans Toward an Anthropology of Women, Rayna R. Reiter (dir.), New York, Monthly Review Press, pp. 157–210.
- Sahlins, Marshall. 2013. What Kinship Is - And Is Not. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Sellami, Meryem. 2007. « Du risque de devenir femme en Tunisie : scarifications et statut du corps chez les adolescentes tunisiennes ». Revue des sciences sociales 38 (1): 128‑33. https://doi.org/10.3406/revss.2007.1699.
- Vergottini, Valentina. 2025. “Making the Invisible Visible. Fetal Ultrasound Images and Oracular Consultations in Southern Benin”, Antropologia, vol.12, n.2, pp. 119-134, https://doi.org/10.14672/ada20252pp119-134.
- Vialles, Noëlie. 1987. Le sang et la chair. Les abattoirs des pays de l’Adour. Ethnologie de la France. Maison des sciences de l’homme.
Teaching materials
- Corpus de documents (disponibles sur Moodle)
Faculty or entity
