Aims

Who counts as a person, and how do we know? When does personhood begin, and when does it end? How do the answers to that question vary from culture to culture? And what are the cross-cultural differences in the possibilities of the forms that personhood takes? This module explores, through cross-cultural examples and by looking at different points in the life course, how notions of the person are reproduced and vary substantially through time and space.

SOC3077 examines the ways in which people are constituted through social relations and practices across the life course and how these vary cross-culturally. Indicative examples includes from personhood before birth; how personhood is built via childrearing and caretaking practices; through skilled practices such as hunting and animal husbandry; during the ageing process and later life; when personhood becomes endangered such as in through locked-in syndrome or during dementia; personhood that extends after death; and how personhood is treated in regards to burial and remembrance.

The module will introduce students to how anthropological perspectives can be applied to contemporary debates about personhood. Indicative examples include the extension of legal personhood to rivers and mountains; fetal personhood and reproductive rights; assisted dying; and artificial intelligence.

Finally, this module will develop students’ knowledge of theoretical debates in the social sciences over personhood and relationality, with particular regards to what these social practices reveal about the categories of nature and culture and normative Western ideals of the autonomous individual by exploring some of the moral dynamics and power relations of personhood cross-culturally.

Outline Of Syllabus

This module introduces students to anthropological perspectives on transitions in the human life course and the category of the person. Rather than take an approach that simply describes discrete roles and stages, this module examines the life course via a focus on how people build relations with the world and each other at various crucial points across the life course. Such connections often come into focus at moments of extreme experiences (such as birth, rites of passage and death), but are also achieved through more mundane practices (such as eating, hunting, gardening, caretaking and remembrance). Whether extreme or mundane, all have profound consequences for social life, and this module considers instances of both using a number of cross-cultural case studies. Such transitions can be understood as moments in which cultural meaning is made, personhood is reproduced, social cohesion is maintained and at times challenged. The module explores these themes using theoretical perspectives that unite the biological and the social as well as look beyond ontologies that divide the world into human and non-human realms.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures are utilised to introduce students to the scope of the subject, theoretical perspectives, and empirical evidence. They provide the narrative thread around which students’ own reading should take place.

Workshops are organised to encourage students to explore contemporary debates around who counts as a person with the module leader via small group discussion and activities. Each Workshop will be linked to substantive themes of the module and will use ethnographic examples of cross-cultural differences in how human beings make sense of personhood across the life course. Workshops will also include topical debates illustrating live examples of why and how questions about personhood matter so much in the real world. Debate topics used will change from year to year, but illustrative examples include AI and ChatGPT, reproductive rights, and assisted dying.

There is a series of four films included in the module content, each of which complements and extends student understanding about personhood in different cultural settings.

An organised fieldtrip with the module leader permits "learning in the open" about practices of public commemoration, death, and personhood.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The module is assessed by one portfolio submission. The portfolio has three parts: 1) an essay; 2) a poster; and 3) a reflective log comprised of 4 captioned photographs from the fieldtrip.

Part 1
The essay is a 2,000-2,500 word assignment which will permit students to explore module topics in some depth, to read around the topic, draw from and organize scholarly sources to develop an argument, showcase critical analysis, and evidence their claims.

Part 2
The poster will allow students to apply their knowledge gained from the scholarly literature to examples encountered in one of the teaching films (student’s choice of which film) in more depth. The poster will be both visual, representing key aspects of the film, as well as textual, with short explanatory captions and analysis that tie elements of the film back to the academic literature on personhood. Students will be provided with support and detailed explanation of how to successfully complete this task. The poster will enable skills development in critical active viewing of visual forms of knowledge, and in relating academic concepts to empirical information.

Part 3
The reflective log is a photo essay with short captions derived from the fieldtrip. This will enable students to document and reflect on how the academic themes of the module are reflected in everyday real life sites.