Study Group on Philosophy of Anthropology

Philosophy of anthropology is an exciting and unexplored area, and this study group offers a great introduction to some of its issues. The study group is open to all and will be particularly relevant to those in the humanities and social sciences, both undergraduates and postgraduates. The study group will run weekly, starting on January 24th. All readings, room details for in-person meetings at UWA, and Teams links for virtual attendance will be sent to your email (after registration).

Meetings will be 1:30 hours long, starting at 3 pm, Perth time (check here the corresponding time at your location). In this second series of five meetings (24/01, 31/01, 07/02, 14/02, 21/02), we will delve into recent literature on the concept of animism, multispecies kinship, kinship politics, and issues in the discipline of anthropology.

Feel free to join all or selected meetings, according to your availability and interest. If you plan to attend, please let us know by sending an email to: [email protected].

Reading List:

January 24th – Animism
Bird-David, N. (2018). Persons or relatives? Animistic scales of practice and imagination. In M. Astor-Aguilera & G. Harvey (Eds.), Rethinking Relations and Animism: Personhood and Materiality (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203709887
(10 pages) 
Peterson, N. (2011). Is the Aboriginal Landscape Sentient? Animism, the New Animism, and the Warlpiri. Oceania, 81(2), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.2011.tb00101.x
(12 pages) 
 
January 31st – Kinship and Politics
Donner, H., & Goddard, V. (2023). Kinship and the politics of responsibility: An introduction. Critique of Anthropology, 43(4), 331–364. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X231217928
(25 pages) 
Ginsburg, F., & Rapp, R. (2020). Disability/Anthropology: Rethinking the Parameters of the Human. Current Anthropology, 61(S21), S4–S15. https://doi.org/10.1086/705503
(10 pages)  
 

February 7th – The genealogical model vs. the relational animistic model 
Ingold, T. (2000). Ancestry, generation, substance, memory, land. In The perception of the environment: Essays on livelihood, dwelling & skill (pp. 132–152). Routledge.   
(20 pages)
 
February 14th – Social and Cognitive Foundations of Kin Categorization
Mitchell, A., & Jordan, F. M. (2021). The Ontogeny of Kinship Categorization. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 21(1–2), 152–177. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685373-12340101
(20 pages)
 
February 21st – Anthropology's Avatars
Kuper, A. (2019). Deconstructing anthropology: First Annual Stephen F. Gudeman Lecture. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 9(1), 10–22. https://doi.org/10.1086/703730
 (11 pages)