| CODE | ANT2025 | ||||||
| TITLE | Anthropology of Moralities | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 02 - Years 2, 3 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Anthropological Sciences | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit explores the moral or ethical dimension of culture. It probes different collective cultural constructions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ action, of good and evil, through recent anthologies of morality in ethnographic studies. It compares different perspectives on morality in anthropological theory including the work of Michael Lambek, Joel Robbins, and Jarrett Zigon. A wide ethnographic literature is discussed that examines moral language-and-consciousness in different kinds of society. Study-unit Aims: This study-unit is designed, first, to sensitize students to the social processes whereby actions are publicly justified, or legitimated, in different cultures; secondly, to increase students’ capacity to participate in the wide-ranging debates about Ethics in a globalizing world; and thirdly, to equip students of anthropology, sociology, philosophy and theology with the methods for analyzing morality that have been developed in the discipline of social anthropology. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Discuss orally and in written form the main differences between different understandings of 'morality' in the new sub-discipline of social anthropology known as the 'anthropology of moralities and ethics'; - Write a detailed comparison of moral consciousness in at least two major culture zones, based on specific ethnographies by anthropologists; - Describe evocatively in essay form the potential contribution of different specific cultures to evolving moral debates in a globalizing world society. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Specify either in speaking or in writing how the speech and action patterns of groups that he/she actually encounters, suggest a particular cultural form of ethical-and-moral consciousness - ie., he/she will be able to penetrate its discursive patterns in such a way as to reasonably suggest its ethics. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: Didier Fassin Samuel Leze (eds) (2013) Moral Anthropology: A Critical Reader. Routlege. Lambek, M. et al. (2015) Four Lectures on Ethics: Anthropological Perspectives. 1st edn. Chicago: Hawoo Publishing Company. Laidlaw, J. (2002) ‘For An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom’, JRAI (New Series), 8(2): 311-332. Supplementary Texts: - Howell, S. (1997) The Ethnography of Moralities. - Beldo, Les. (2014) The Unconditional ‘ought’: A theoretical model for the anthropology of morality. Anthropological Theory, 14(3): 264-279. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463499614534373. - T. Evens (2008), Anthropology as Ethics. - D. Parkin (ed.) The Anthropology of Evil (1985). - Zigon, Jarrett. (2007). Moral Breakdown and the Ethical Demand: A Theoretical Framework for an Anthropology of Moralities. Anthropological theory 7(2): 131–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463499607077295. - Zigon, Jarrett. (2008). Morality: An Anthropological Perspective. Oxford: Berg. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Jean-Paul Baldacchino |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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