How do we live? What guiding principles do we use to organize ourselves in our societies? Anthropology is the comparative study of culture and human societies. This course offers an introduction to the discipline of anthropology and its practical relevance in our lives. It introduces the different ways we can examine human societies and understand our place with them. Each week will consist of a brief lecture of 30~40 minutes based on class notes and readings, followed by a class discussion and group exercises.

Anthropology is the comparative study of culture and human societies and examines the general principles of social and cultural life. This course offers an introduction to the discipline of anthropology and its practical relevance to understanding societies. It presents students with different ways to examine human societies and understand exchange processes; Relatedness and family; marriage; the nature-culture dichotomy; gender; nation building; and religion and ritual. Each week will consist of a brief lecture of 30~40 minutes based on class notes and readings, followed by a class discussion and group exercises.

Week 1. Overview
Week 2. Why Anthropology?
Week 3. Relatedness
Week 4. Marriage
Week 5. Human Societies and Nature (1)
Week 6. Mapping the Non-Human (2)
Week 7. Human Societies and Nature (3)
Week 8. Gender
Week 9. Identifying “Others”
Week 10 Community Building: Transnational Japan
Week 11. Nation Building and Nationalism
Week 12. Inclusion/Exclusion
Week 13. Religion and Ritual: Meanings of Belief
Week 14. Group Discussions
Week 15. Feedback

Students are expected to actively engage in discussions, complete assigned readings essential for informed participation, and submit concise reflection essays. Given the course's strong emphasis on class dialogue, students need to possess proficient English language skills for effective communication with their peers.

The final semester grade will be determined as follows: short assignments (35%), attendance and class participation (30%), and a written essay (35%) to be submitted at the end of the course.

Students will have readings prepared for each week along with class notes.

Office hours are Mondays 4th period.
This course restricts student enrollment by 25.

This course will introduce students to the central topics, concepts and methods of socio-cultural anthropology, which can be broadly defined as the study of human cultures and societies. It will survey the key areas of inquiry in contemporary socio-cultural anthropology and offer insights into how the seemingly most commonsensical aspects of any person’s life can be informed by the cultural and social contexts of which they consider themselves a part.

The course will draw on ethnographic examples and case studies from a variety of cultures, but contemporary Japan will play a major role, in order to provide students with an interpretational framework for a better understanding of the context where we are living.

The course aims to introduce the key debates and understandings within socio-cultural anthropology. It will allow students to:
- understand key concepts and terminology of socio-cultural anthropology
- develop a cultural perspective, to realize that anthropology involves a way of seeing, a frame of reference for interpreting people's behaviour in all societies
- develop an acceptance and appreciation of people informed by different cultures, and maintain a non-judgmental attitude
- understand social relationships, for a comprehension not only of man, society and culture in general, but also of ourselves, our experiences, our own societies and cultures, as well as of the particular context where we are living at present, i.e. contemporary Japan.

The following list of topics is indicative. Depending on the class and discussions, the topics taken into consideration might end up being be fewer. Nevertheless, they will include:

Week 1: Course Introduction/What is Anthropology?
Week 2: Race, Cultural Evolutionism and Racism
Week 3: The Characteristics of Culture
Week 4: Symbolic Classifications, Taboo, Pollution and Disgust
Week 5: Gifts, Exchange and Reciprocity
Week 6: The Anthropology of Ritual - Definitions
Week 7: The Anthropology of Ritual - Durkheim and Functionalism
Week 8: Cosmologies and Magic
Week 9: Religion and Spirituality
Week 10: Witchcraft
Week 11: Shamanism and Spirit Possession
Week 12: Law, Order and Social Control
Week 13: Myths, Social Memory and Invented Traditions
Week 14: Course Summary and Round-up Discussion
Week 15: Final Test
Week 16. Feedback

特になし

Class Attendance and Contribution to Discussions (20%)
Final Test (80%)

Students are required to complete the assigned readings and to come to class prepared to discuss them.

During the Course Introduction, we will discuss the possibility of conducting small ethnographic projects outside of class time.

The list of topics above is indicative and rather optimistic. Depending on how long class discussions go on, the number of topics might be reduced. Needless to say, the final test will cover only the topics introduced during classes.

This course focuses on the anthropology of religion, magic and witchcraft. It will take into consideration and analyze human religious experiences from an anthropological perspective, by focusing on topics such as debates about definitions and the origin of “religion”, cosmology, myth and social memory, ritual, magic, witchcraft, ghosts, spirit possession, shamanism, religious healing, spirituality and secularization.

In doing so, it will also provide a historical overview of anthropological theories on these topics, thus informing students on the history of the anthropology of religion as a discipline.

Ethnographic examples from a variety of societies will be analyzed and discussed, in order to illustrate the wealth of religious experiences that exists around the world. Especially examples about East Asian and Japanese religions (including ascetic and shamanic practices) will be central, although also World Religions, contemporary New Age in the West, as well as classical examples about African or Native American religious practices will be taken into consideration.

- Students will learn the historical development of anthropological theories and debates regarding religion and ritual, thus familiarizing with terminology and concepts.
- Students will learn to understand religious and spiritual phenomena in their social context.
- Students will gain an understanding of religion as an institution through which gender, class, identity, morality, health and personhood are expressed and performed.
- Students will examine the ways in which religions and their adherents respond to social, political and economic changes.
- Students will use appropriate methodological tools to formulate scholarly arguments

The following list of topics is indicative. Depending on the class and discussions, the topics taken into consideration might end up being be fewer. Nevertheless, they will include:

WEEK 1: Course Introduction
WEEK 2: What is "Religion"?
WEEK 3: Debating the Origins of "Religion"
WEEK 4: Cosmology, Animism, Magic, Religion and Spirituality
WEEK 5: Witchcraft, Accusations and an Anthropology of Rumours
WEEK 6: Symbolic Classifications, Pollution, Taboos and the "Sacred"
WEEK 7: The Ritual Turn, Rites of Passage and Communitas
WEEK 8: (Ritual) violence, Social Liminality and Symbols
WEEK 8: The Ways of the Shamans
WEEK 9: Charismatic Leadership
WEEK 10: Embodiment and Spirit Possession
WEEK 11: Myths, History and Social Memory
WEEK 12: Religion and Material Culture
WEEK 13: The Environment and the Ecological Approach
WEEK 14: Pilgrimage and Tourism
WEEK 15: Final Test
WEEK 16: Feedback

特になし

Contribution to Discussions (20%)
Final Examination (80%)

Students are expected to have read the assignments before class and be ready to discuss them.

The list of topics above is indicative and rather optimistic. Depending on how long class discussions go on, the number of topics might be reduced. Needless to say, the final test will cover only the topics introduced during classes.

This course provides a critical introduction to how we experience gender in different societal contexts. It explores the various social and cultural contexts within which we make sense of and talk about Gender taking examples from the 20th/21st century Asia-Pacific region. We will draw on comparative material from other places around the globe as well.

The broad goal of this course is to introduce to students to the broad diversity of gender experiences available in today’s highly globalized societies. In particular, the course will give students an analytical framework to contextualize this gender diversity and its continual transformation over the past couple of centuries to situate their own experiences. At the end of the course, students will have increased ability to give balanced consideration to the expression of individual gendered points of view and sexual orientation in different cultural contexts.

Week 1. Introduction and Overview of the Course
Week 2. Mapping Gender
Week 3. Untangling Gender: The Nature/Culture Debate
Week 4. Plural Co-existence in Southeast Asia
Week 5. Plural Co-existence in Southeast Asia: Indonesia
Week 6. Plural Co-existence in Southeast Asia: Myanmar
Week 7. National Discourses and the Construction of Gender in Japan
Week 8. Gendering Citizens: Conceptualising the national household in Japan
Week 9. "I am a Herbivore" Discourses of masculinity in Contemporary Japan
Week 10. Corporeal Shaping: Gender, Health and Discipline
Week 11. From Entertainer to Carer? Gender, Care and Migration
Week 12. The Gender See-saw: Inequality/Equality (1)
Week 13. The Gender See-saw: Inequality/Equality (2)
Week 14. Final Group Discussions
Week 15. Recap

Students should be able to participate in discussions, do readings (required for participation), and submit short reflection pieces.
This course is heavily geared toward discussion works so students are required to have a good command of English (TOEFL ITP score ≧550).

The final semester grade will be decided upon by participation in class lectures (short assignments and attendance) (65%) and a written essay (35%) to be submitted at the end of the course.

Each week will consist of materials to be prepared in advance for class discussion. Students are responsible for printing materials.

Office hours are on Mondays and Tuesday, 4th period.
This course restricts student enrollment by 25.

This course will introduce students to the central topics, concepts and methods of socio-cultural anthropology, which can be broadly defined as the study of human cultures and societies. It will survey the key areas of inquiry in contemporary socio-cultural anthropology and offer insights into how the seemingly most commonsensical aspects of any person’s life can be informed by the cultural and social contexts of which they consider themselves a part.

The course will draw on ethnographic examples and case studies from a variety of cultures, but contemporary Japan will play a major role, in order to provide students with an interpretational framework for a better understanding of the context where we are living.

The course aims to introduce the key debates and understandings within socio-cultural anthropology. It will allow students to:
- understand key concepts and terminology of socio-cultural anthropology
- develop a cultural perspective, to realize that anthropology involves a way of seeing, a frame of reference for interpreting people's behaviour in all societies
- develop an acceptance and appreciation of people informed by different cultures, and maintain a non-judgmental attitude
- understand social relationships, for a comprehension not only of man, society and culture in general, but also of ourselves, our experiences, our own societies and cultures, as well as of the particular context where we are living at present, i.e. contemporary Japan.

The following list of topics is indicative. Depending on the class and discussions, the topics taken into consideration might end up being be fewer. Nevertheless, they will include:

Week 1: Course Introduction/What is Anthropology?
Week 2: Race, Cultural Evolutionism and Racism
Week 3: The Characteristics of Culture
Week 4: Symbolic Classifications, Taboo, Pollution and Disgust
Week 5: Gifts, Exchange and Reciprocity
Week 6: The Anthropology of Ritual - Definitions
Week 7: The Anthropology of Ritual - Durkheim and Functionalism
Week 8: Cosmologies and Magic
Week 9: Religion and Spirituality
Week 10: Witchcraft
Week 11: Shamanism and Spirit Possession
Week 12: Law, Order and Social Control
Week 13: Myths, Social Memory and Invented Traditions
Week 14: Course Summary and Round-up Discussion
Week 15: Final Test
Week 16. Feedback

特になし

Class Attendance and Contribution to Discussions (20%)
Final Test (80%)

Students are required to complete the assigned readings and to come to class prepared to discuss them.

During the Course Introduction, we will discuss the possibility of conducting small ethnographic projects outside of class time.

The list of topics above is indicative and rather optimistic. Depending on how long class discussions go on, the number of topics might be reduced. Needless to say, the final test will cover only the topics introduced during classes.

This course focuses on the anthropology of religion, magic and witchcraft. It will take into consideration and analyze human religious experiences from an anthropological perspective, by focusing on topics such as debates about definitions and the origin of “religion”, cosmology, myth and social memory, ritual, magic, witchcraft, ghosts, spirit possession, shamanism, religious healing, spirituality and secularization.

In doing so, it will also provide a historical overview of anthropological theories on these topics, thus informing students on the history of the anthropology of religion as a discipline.

Ethnographic examples from a variety of societies will be analyzed and discussed, in order to illustrate the wealth of religious experiences that exists around the world. Especially examples about East Asian and Japanese religions (including ascetic and shamanic practices) will be central, although also World Religions, contemporary New Age in the West, as well as classical examples about African or Native American religious practices will be taken into consideration.

- Students will learn the historical development of anthropological theories and debates regarding religion and ritual, thus familiarizing with terminology and concepts.
- Students will learn to understand religious and spiritual phenomena in their social context.
- Students will gain an understanding of religion as an institution through which gender, class, identity, morality, health and personhood are expressed and performed.
- Students will examine the ways in which religions and their adherents respond to social, political and economic changes.
- Students will use appropriate methodological tools to formulate scholarly arguments.

The following list of topics is indicative. Depending on the class and discussions, the topics taken into consideration might end up being be fewer. Nevertheless, they will include:

WEEK 1: Course Introduction
WEEK 2: What is "Religion"?
WEEK 3: Debating the Origins of "Religion"
WEEK 4: Cosmology, Animism, Magic, Religion and Spirituality
WEEK 5: Witchcraft, Accusations and an Anthropology of Rumours
WEEK 6: Symbolic Classifications, Pollution, Taboos and the "Sacred"
WEEK 7: The Ritual Turn, Rites of Passage and Communitas
WEEK 8: (Ritual) violence, Social Liminality and Symbols
WEEK 8: The Ways of the Shamans
WEEK 9: Charismatic Leadership
WEEK 10: Embodiment and Spirit Possession
WEEK 11: Myths, History and Social Memory
WEEK 12: Religion and Material Culture
WEEK 13: The Environment and the Ecological Approach
WEEK 14: Pilgrimage and Tourism
WEEK 15: Final Test
WEEK 16: Feedback

特になし

Contribution to Discussions (20%)
Final Examination (80%)

Students are expected to have read the assignments before class and be ready to discuss them.

The list of topics above is indicative and rather optimistic. Depending on how long class discussions go on, the number of topics might be reduced. Needless to say, the final test will cover only the topics introduced during classes.