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76415-01 - Proseminar: Order, Disorder, Chaos: Anthropological Perspectives (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | George-Paul Meiu (gp.meiu@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Order may refer to the principles by which we tidy a space, organize objects, systematize ideas, or structure time. It can also refer to social, juridical, political, and economic entities and their conditions of cohesion and stability. We speak, for example, of “indigenous order,” “state order,” or the “global world order” as much as we speak of “political disorder” or“social chaos.” Order and its imagined opposites—disorder, chaos, mess—are central to power and authority, personhood and relatedness, legal and religious regimes. But what counts as order is never a given. It is rather entailed in concrete efforts to know, represent, and organize bodies, objects, and ideas so that, from particular vantage points, their conjoining may appear to constitute an orderly totality. Pursuing different kinds of order—seeking to imagine, name, and craft worlds that appear orderly—may offer us a relative sense of certainty, clarity, and security, especially in times of turbulent political-economic transformations. Here, political campaigns, ritual performances, or consumption practices may promise us the “return” of a certain order. But what counts as order and disorder, coherence and chaos is ever shifting in complex fields of contestation. New forms of governance and value production, political ideas of coloniality, indigeneity, or nationalism, and various claims to rights, recognition, and resources, all posit order and disorder in different ways. In this proseminar students will read a set of ethnographic texts think critically about order, disorder, chaos in different contexts. |
| Learning objectives | In this proseminar students will read a set of ethnographic texts in order to think critically about order, disorder, chaos in different contexts. In the process, students will become familiar with key anthropological concepts and approaches. |
| Bibliography | Among other texts, students will read excerpts of the following: Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concept of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge. Mosko, Mark S. & Fred Damon. 2005. On the Order of Chaos: Social Anthropology and the Science of Chaos. New York: Berghahn Books. Simpson, Audra. 2014. Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across Borders of Settler States. Durham: Duke University Press. Turner, Victor. 1969. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. Kauanui, J. Kēhaulani. 2018. Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State Nationalism. Durham: Duke University Press. |
| Admission requirements | The number of participants is limited to 25 students. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to the subjects listed under "modules". |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Monday | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 15.09.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 22.09.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 29.09.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 06.10.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 13.10.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 20.10.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 27.10.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 03.11.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 10.11.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 17.11.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 24.11.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 01.12.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 08.12.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Monday 15.12.2025 | 16.15-18.00 | Ethnologie, grosser Seminarraum |
| Modules |
Modul: Ethnographien (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Ethnologie |