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Title for AN302: Saints, Scholars, and Social Scientists: Ireland and the Ethnographic Imaginary
The island of Ireland has been the object of the anthropological gaze since before the foundation of the Irish state. Indeed, this area of the world was variously figured as a locus of the 'mystical', 'savage', and 'exotic' since the advent of the discipline, and this shaped international perceptions of 'the Irish'. Throughout much of the twentieth century, anthropologists invariably focused upon the rural village as a unit of cultural analysis; the workings of the 'traditional community' reflected those of an entire country. However, having experienced a belated modernisation and a cessation of sectarian violence in recent decades, Ireland can be said to have become a 'zone[s] of cultural invisibility' (Rosaldo: 1988) for anthropologists. In this module, students will be required to engage with canonical ethnographic accounts of Ireland and the Irish, more current ethnographic writing about Ireland, as well as analysing contemporary Irish culture through an anthropological lens.
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SPECIAL TOPICS IN ANTHROPOLOGY 1
