The Cultural Anthropology of Ireland

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

"This course gives a historical overview of the development of cultural anthropology in Ireland. Beginning with early travelers' accounts and official inquiries and surveys, it moves to the development of antiquarian interest in Irish archaeology, history, language and culture. In the nineteenth century, the burgeoning interest in what would be called folklore converged with the project of a national literature, and from the end of the century, the first evolutionist anthropological studies appear. With the work of the Harvard anthropologists Arensberg and Kimball in the 1930s, the cultural anthropology of Ireland properly began, and the course looks at the key topics and themes of research since then and outlines the major ethnographic collections in the country."