4000

This seminar presents and discusses lines of thought and influential contemporaneous sociological and anthropological theories conceived over the last few decades of the 20th Century. Several of these theoretic orientations are a response to and reflect transformations in experiences, social practices and the expectations of extensive sectors and social agents in the world today. The study points out backgrounds and relationships between different fields of social life, thought and contemporaneous social theory. It attempts to give students the chance to appreciate different approaches and perspectives on aspects of contemporaneous social reality and the forms of viewing it, without exhausting all the possible approaches or perspectives.

In the contemporaneous panorama of social and cultural anthropology, there is a vein of reflective thought on the production itself of anthropological knowledge. The objective of this seminar is to examine this controversy based on ethnographic material. It is about considering ethnographic fact a fundamental part of anthropological knowledge, particularly as regards Colombian anthropological thought. This consideration, based on Colombian ethnographic experience, attempts to provide specific elements for students to carry out their own ethnographies (or their continuation). This means that the seminar has a dual perspective: An analytical or critical perspective and a proactive or operational perspective.

The objective of this course is to give students an overall view of world and Colombian archeology theory. This is not a history of archeology, although we will look at historical aspects, but an attempt to raise students’ awareness of different postures, the importance of these discussions to archeological work, the need to be explicit with research questions and the theoretical assumptions in any project.

This course will discuss the different scales on which archeology works, according to the specific problem being investigated. We will evaluate the analytical spectrum defined as regional or local, and will reflect on the criteria for selecting the right methodology and field techniques, so that the information gathered in the field will be relevant for solving the problems under investigation.

This semester is used by students to perform the specific activities required to carry out the research project formulated in the first year. These activities, among others, correspond to regional reconnaissance, prospection, excavations, searches in files and libraries, and the "onsite" observations and descriptions of activities. During this period, students will have the guidance of the research director as per the timetable agreed upon between the parties.

The graduation project consists of analyzing the information retrieved and producing the final research report, which is one of the requirements to receive a Master’s Degree in Anthropology.

Students are required to enroll in the last semester of their studies to carry out the graduation process.