{"ModuleCode":"SC3207","ModuleTitle":"Cultures of Kinship","Department":"Sociology","ModuleDescription":"Kinship, a foundational concern of anthropology, is essentially about relationships. We investigate the forms, meanings and manipulations of relationships that people have constructed across various historical and cultural contexts. Comparing the diverse ways in which people live, labour and love, we examine the centrality of kinship to understandings of what it means to be a person. Concurrently, kinship is a medium for grappling with the interactions between intimate life and public culture, domestic production-reproduction and political economy, everyday practices and conceptual structures and affection and moral obligations. Our focus is on how kinship is a vital force in contemporary societies.","ModuleCredit":"4","Workload":"2-1-0-3-4","ExamDate":"2015-11-26T17:00+0800","ExamDuration":"P2H","ExamVenue":"AS3-02-15","Types":["Module","UEM"],"Lecturers":["Indira Arumugam"],"IVLE":[{"Announcements":null,"Forums":[],"Workbins":[],"Webcasts":[],"Gradebooks":[],"Polls":[],"Multimedia":[],"LessonPlan":[],"ID":"4d8fe5ae-53b3-4056-99b6-bee6bfd98467","CourseLevel":"1","CourseCode":"SC3207","CourseName":"CULTURES OF KINSHIP","CourseDepartment":"","CourseSemester":"Semester 1","CourseAcadYear":"2015/2016","CourseOpenDate":"/Date(1431878400000+0800)/","CourseOpenDate_js":"2015-05-18T00:00:00","CourseCloseDate":"/Date(1449244800000+0800)/","CourseCloseDate_js":"2015-12-05T00:00:00","CourseMC":"0","isActive":"Y","Permission":"S","Creator":{"UserID":null,"Name":"Indira Arumugam","Email":null,"Title":null,"UserGuid":"caac009d-5aa3-4976-9895-65effafdbf07","AccountType":null},"hasGradebookItems":false,"hasTimetableItems":true,"hasGroupsItems":false,"hasClassGroupsForSignUp":false,"hasGuestRosterItems":false,"hasClassRosterItems":false,"hasWeblinkItems":false,"hasLecturerItems":true,"hasDescriptionItems":true,"hasReadingItems":false,"hasAnnouncementItems":false,"hasProjectGroupItems":false,"hasProjectGroupsForSignUp":false,"hasConsultationItems":false,"hasConsultationSlotsForSignUp":false,"hasLessonPlanItems":false,"Badge":0,"BadgeAnnouncement":0,"WebLinks":[],"Lecturers":[{"ID":"85ef87f8-a593-44eb-a2d4-708a8776c3a9","User":{"UserID":null,"Name":"Indira Arumugam","Email":null,"Title":null,"UserGuid":"caac009d-5aa3-4976-9895-65effafdbf07","AccountType":null},"Role":"Lecturer ","Order":1,"ConsultHrs":null}],"Descriptions":[{"ID":"1e5f053b-8835-4692-be49-41f07234cfff","Title":"Learning Outcomes","Description":"Module Description
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\r\nThis course examines ‘kinship’, as an object of social scientific analysis and a domain of human action. Kinship is, essentially about, relationships. Anthropologists use relationships to uncover and analyse other and yet more relationships – between intimate life and public culture, between domestic production-reproduction and political economy, between everyday practices and conceptual structures, between affection and moral obligation. Some of the questions with which we will be grappling throughout this module are: How do people form relationships? How do they think about such relationships? How are these relationships categorised? What are different the ways in which value is attributed to different types of relationships? What are the specific sorts of obligations what are due to specific sorts of people? In the process, how do people organize themselves? Kinship does not simply make society. It is neither the foundational structure nor an alternative to society. At an even more fundamental level, the proper study of kinship is central to our understanding of what it means to be a person – the processes by which one’s self becomes one’s self. Throughout the course, students will become familiar with the key concepts of the anthropology of kinship and gain an understanding of relevant theoretical debates.
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\r\nKinship is not natural; always cultural – that is, it is always a matter of human thought and action. Despite the claims to normativity, universality and fixity, the relationships that people – across various time periods and from different societies – recognize, form and value are not only diverse in their conceptions but also fluid in their practices. Analysed in terms of ethnographic examples from diverse cultures such as Malaysia, India, Sudan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Madagascar, Mongolia, The United Kingdom and China, our exploration of the cultural frameworks and social practices of kinship will be firmly grounded in a pluralistic as well as comparative framework. Placing ethnographic materials in critical dialogue with recent theoretical developments, this course will encourage debate over core concepts such as “death”, “marriage”, “sex”, “gender”, “the person” and the relationship between “nature” and “culture”. In addition, we will be investigating the interactions between and overlapping of domains– kinship and politics, the domestic and economics, relatedness and values – that have tended to be made discrete in conventional analyses of social phenomena. Challenging the presupposition that it has simply been relegated to the domestic domain and/or become entirely secularized and rationalized in state-based societies, we analyse how kinship continues to be an organizing force in contemporary political and economic structures and processes. This course will introduce the multiple, complex and sometimes even opposing understandings of relatedness – as a mode of everyday experience, as a social institution as well as a part of anthropological approaches to the analysis of kinship.
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\r\nAt the heart of kinship are ethical deliberations. What is the best way to live a life? What is the best way to live with others? What is the best way to secure the future of our society? Along with our focus on the conceptual structures, the everyday practices and emotional resonances of kinship, we will also be exploring how different peoples in different societies have attempted to come to grips with these perennial questions through the diverse ways in which they live, labour and love.
\r\n ","Order":2},{"ID":"3e5f053b-8835-4692-be49-41f07234cfff","Title":"Teaching Modes","Description":"SC3207 - Cultures of Kinship
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\r\nA) 1 lecture (2 hours) - Monday - 2pm - 4pm - LT 14
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\r\nB) 1 tutorial (2 hours) - every two weeks
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\r\n ","Order":3},{"ID":"8e5f053b-8835-4692-be49-41f07234cfff","Title":"Assessment","Description":"COURSE REQUIREMENTS
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\r\nThe Continual Assessment (CA) for the module is pegged at 50%. The examination component makes up the remaining 50% of the final grade. Of the 50% of CA – the marks are apportioned as follows:
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\r\n1) 20% for active tutorial participation
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\r\nAttendance of all seminars and active participation during discussions is essential. Attendance alone – i.e. being present but without any actual speaking in class – does not constitute participation in the tutorial. Non-engagement, even if accompanied by perfect attendence, will not be allocated any marks. Students are also expected to complete all assigned readings prior to their tutorials.
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\r\n 2) 30% for 1 individual term paper
\r\n ","Order":4},{"ID":"4fc15d73-755a-4242-8b63-89a264c41d27","Title":"Workload","Description":"2-1-0-3-4
Workload Components : A-B-C-D-E \r\n
A: no. of lecture hours per week \r\n
B: no. of tutorial hours per week \r\n
C: no. of lab hours per week \r\n
D: no. of hours for projects, assignments, fieldwork etc per week \r\n
E: no. of hours for preparatory work by a student per week","Order":5}],"ReadingFormatted":[],"ReadingUnformatted":[]}],"Timetable":[{"ClassNo":"1","LessonType":"Lecture","WeekText":"Every Week","DayText":"Wednesday","StartTime":"1200","EndTime":"1400","Venue":"LT11"},{"ClassNo":"D2","LessonType":"Tutorial","WeekText":"Odd Week","DayText":"Friday","StartTime":"1200","EndTime":"1400","Venue":"AS3-0306"},{"ClassNo":"E1","LessonType":"Tutorial","WeekText":"Even Week","DayText":"Monday","StartTime":"1000","EndTime":"1200","Venue":"AS1-0208"}],"CorsBiddingStats":[{"AcadYear":"2015/2016","Semester":"1","Round":"1A","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"58","Bidders":"7","LowestBid":"1","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"300","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P]"},{"AcadYear":"2015/2016","Semester":"1","Round":"1B","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"51","Bidders":"2","LowestBid":"1","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"1","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P]"},{"AcadYear":"2015/2016","Semester":"1","Round":"1C","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"49","Bidders":"6","LowestBid":"10","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"1000","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P]"},{"AcadYear":"2015/2016","Semester":"1","Round":"1C","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"5","Bidders":"0","LowestBid":"0","LowestSuccessfulBid":"0","HighestBid":"0","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Reserved for [G] in later round"},{"AcadYear":"2015/2016","Semester":"1","Round":"2A","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"48","Bidders":"4","LowestBid":"1","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"835","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P] and NUS Students [G]"},{"AcadYear":"2015/2016","Semester":"1","Round":"2B","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"45","Bidders":"1","LowestBid":"10","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"10","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P] and NUS Students [G]"},{"AcadYear":"2015/2016","Semester":"1","Round":"3A","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"51","Bidders":"4","LowestBid":"101","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"1000","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"NUS Students [P, G]"},{"AcadYear":"2015/2016","Semester":"1","Round":"3B","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"47","Bidders":"1","LowestBid":"1","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"1","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"NUS Students [P, G]"},{"AcadYear":"2014/2015","Semester":"1","Round":"1A","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"14","Bidders":"10","LowestBid":"1","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"345","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P]"},{"AcadYear":"2014/2015","Semester":"1","Round":"1B","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"4","Bidders":"2","LowestBid":"100","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"100","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P]"},{"AcadYear":"2014/2015","Semester":"1","Round":"1C","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"2","Bidders":"3","LowestBid":"10","LowestSuccessfulBid":"203","HighestBid":"350","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P]"},{"AcadYear":"2014/2015","Semester":"1","Round":"1C","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"3","Bidders":"0","LowestBid":"0","LowestSuccessfulBid":"0","HighestBid":"0","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Reserved for [G] in later round"},{"AcadYear":"2014/2015","Semester":"1","Round":"2A","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"3","Bidders":"4","LowestBid":"101","LowestSuccessfulBid":"327","HighestBid":"500","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P] and NUS Students [G]"},{"AcadYear":"2014/2015","Semester":"1","Round":"2B","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"1","Bidders":"1","LowestBid":"1001","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"1001","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"Returning Students [P] and NUS Students [G]"},{"AcadYear":"2014/2015","Semester":"1","Round":"3A","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"16","Bidders":"2","LowestBid":"1","LowestSuccessfulBid":"1","HighestBid":"1","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"NUS Students [P, G]"},{"AcadYear":"2014/2015","Semester":"1","Round":"3B","Group":"Lecture 1","Quota":"14","Bidders":"0","LowestBid":"0","LowestSuccessfulBid":"0","HighestBid":"0","Faculty":"Arts & Social Sciences","StudentAcctType":"NUS Students [P, G]"}],"LecturePeriods":["Wednesday Afternoon"],"TutorialPeriods":["Friday Afternoon","Monday Morning"]}