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Faculty of Arts and HumanitiesDepartment of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Socialities, Value(s), and Religion

Topthemen

  •
  • Socialities - Family, Friendship, Kinship, Social Order

    Socialities - Family, Friendship, Kinship, Social Order
  • Shared Socialities - Group Boundaries, Intersecting Identities

    Shared Socialities - Group Boundaries, Intersecting Identities
  • Religion - Religious Practices, Rituals and Perspective, World Views

    Religion - Religious Practices, Rituals and Perspective, World Views

General Definition of the Focus Area

The main emphasis in this focus area is on the comparative exploration of values, understood in diverse ways including economic goods, ethical projects, and religious worlds. As values shape diverse social worlds, they come to represent and influence common visions, ideas, and concepts, including religious practices and ritual forms. Challenging rigid group boundaries and static categories of ethnicity, gender, and kinship, this focus area considers how people inhabit particular, situated, and intersecting social identities.

It also explores the constitution of social orders, ethical action, and value orientation, and their significance for ritual and religious practices and understandings of the sacred.

A cross-cultural and comparative anthropological approach informs the ethnographic knowledge, approaches and debates to socialities, values, and religion in this focus area. 

 

Key topics of the focus area

  • Intersecting identities and shared socialities

  • The creation and constitution of value and values

  •  Ethical and moral orientations

  •  Religious worlds and ritual forms

The B.A. and M.A. Degree Programmes

Topics in this focus area are central to understanding the current conditions as well as future challenges for humanity. Moreover, intercultural expertise and global exchange can enhance and foster scientific knowledge and ethical decisions in this area. Anthropology is therefore particularly well situated to contribute to this field.

 

In the B.A. degree program, you will learn about the foundations and trajectories of socialities, values, and religion in contemporary anthropology ( BM3 Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Thematic Subfields, AM3/4 Specialization in Anthropological Theories and Thematic Subfields)

 

In the M.A. degree program, this knowledge base will be developed and deepened systematically within the module AM3 Comparative Cultural Research: Socialities, Religion, and Ethics.

 

Deepening discourse in this area will develop your analytic skills, powers of presentation, and problem-solving strategies on multidisciplinary topics in a fast-changing world.