Economical and Political Anthropology

Power is one of most fundamental explanatory categories in social sciences. What is power in anthropological perspective? How is it related to wealth and prestige? How is “the economic” related to “the political”, and how universal and cross-cultural are these categories? How does the diversity and complexity of today’s world look from this point of view? The main goal of this course is the exploration of two closely related anthropological sub-disciplines: political and economic anthropology. The course draws on ethnographic examples from the world’s various regions and sociocultural contexts, such as the post-Soviet and post-colonial, Western and non-western, global north and south. In doing so, its lectures, seminars and student projects examine ethnographic and theoretical approaches in politics and economics as areas of anthropological inquiry. Student project work includes subjects such as the anthropology of the market, debt, gifts, migration, the state and everyday politics, governance, new forms of sovereignty and ownership. These and other topics are to be considered from the point of view of anthropology of economics and the state; conflicts and identity politics, including nationality/ethnicity and gender/sexuality.