Welcome to the supplemental pages for Ryan’s lectures in ANTH 1002: Anthropology for a better world. Ryan will post outlines for his lectures here. Full details about the class, other lectures by Shiori, Luis, and the guest lecturers, and the class assignments can be found on the class Canvas site.

Course description

This unit of study examines contemporary global issues from anthropological perspectives. Global crises affect all forms of life - both human and ‘more-than-human’ - in different and unequal ways. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to humanity’s planetary future. The first step towards healing is to stay with the trouble, by listening to each other. Anthropologists are trained to listen so that they can disrupt taken-for-granted norms and imagine the future otherwise. Students will think with anthropological works that explore topics such as climate change, financial crisis, pandemic, and war. By doing so, we aim to explore how we can create a more just and kinder world together.

Coordinator and lecturer, Weeks 1–4, and 13

Ryan Schram
ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
Social Sciences Building, Room 410

Weekly schedule

Week Date Topic and reading(s)
1 August 5 What is anthropology and why should anyone care? (Economic rationality and the reality of society)
2 August 12 Gifts, commodities, and spheres of exchange / West (2012) / Eriksen (2015); Lyon (2020)
3 August 19 Spheres of exchange, in comparative and historical perspective / Swanson (2014a) / Swanson (2014b); Deomampo (2019)
4 August 26 Transnational families and global gifts / Leinaweaver (2010); Wright (2020)
.. .. Weeks 5–12 will be taken by other lecturers. Full details on the class Canvas site.
13 November 4 A home at the end of the world: Anthropology and human futures
14 November 11 Reading week
15 November 18 Final exam period

References

Deomampo, Daisy. 2019. “Racialized Commodities: Race and Value in Human Egg Donation.” Medical Anthropology 38 (7): 620–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2019.1570188.
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 2015. “Exchange and Consumption.” In Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology, 4th ed., 217–40. London: Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt183p184.16.
Leinaweaver, Jessaca B. 2010. “Outsourcing Care: How Peruvian Migrants Meet Transnational Family Obligations.” Latin American Perspectives 37 (5): 67–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X10380222.
Lyon, Sarah. 2020. “Economics.” In Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology, edited by Nina Brown, Thomas McIlwraith, and Laura Tubelle de González. Arlington, Va.: The American Anthropological Association. https://pressbooks.pub/perspectives/chapter/economics/.
Swanson, Kara W. 2014a. “Feminine Banks and the Milk of Human Kindness.” In Banking on the Body: The Market in Blood, Milk, and Sperm in Modern America, 159–97. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674369481.
———. 2014b. “Introduction: Banking for Love and for Money.” In Banking on the Body: The Market in Blood, Milk, and Sperm in Modern America, 1–14. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674369481.
West, Paige. 2012. “Village Coffee.” In From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The Social World of Coffee from Papua New Guinea, 101–29. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Wright, Andrea. 2020. “Making Kin from Gold: Dowry, Gender, and Indian Labor Migration to the Gulf.” Cultural Anthropology 35 (3): 435–61. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca35.3.04.