Historical Anthropology of The Middle Ages

(4 Credits)

History and anthropology became separate disciplines in the mid-nineteenth century when the emergence of a consciousness of progress caused history to become the study of developed societies liable to rapid transformations, as distinct from the investigation of so-called primitive societies. After a divorce of two centuries the two disciplines are converging once again. The purpose of this colloquium is to identify, analyze and assess the role of anthropological concepts and methods in examining the cultures and societies of the medieval west.