module

Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ANT3017: Anthropology of Islam

This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.

Overview

This module will explore the anthropology of Islam, emphasizing the diversity of the Islamic tradition and exploring how various currents within Islam challenge some of the most cherished assumptions of ‘Western’ social theory. In the first half of the module you will be introduced to a range of textual, historical, sociological and ethnographic approaches to the study of Islam. In the second half of the module you will be presented with a range of case studies looking at how historical and contemporary Muslim societies have struggled with fundamental questions about the human condition, offering alternative conceptions of kinship, gender, economics, space, locality, secularism, and modernity in the process.