Course overview
The core aim of this course is to help students understand how consumption and “taste” are shaped by culture, power, gender and identity through an anthropological lens. It has the following interrelated aims:
- To examine how people develop and express taste, passions, and consumption habits in different cultural contexts.
- To explore how ideas of “good” or “bad” taste are connected to class, gender, race, and cultural background.
- To investigate how power and social judgement shape what is considered acceptable, deviant, fashionable, tasteful, or dangerous.
- To analyse everyday practices — such as eating, drinking, fashion, fandom, music, tattoos, and graffiti — using anthropological theories and methods.
- To encourage students to critically reflect on their own consumption practices and identities in order to understand how anthropological insights work in practice.
- Orientation: Taste of Anthropology
- Food and Cultural Classifications
- Drinking Cultures
- Taste –Observation or Consumption Activity
- Low / High Culture: Subcultures and Distinction
- Graffiti Writers
- Fans and Fandom
- Consuming Music: Material and Digital Culture
- Fashion and Tattooing
- Passion Project
Course learning outcomes
- Demonstrate understanding of key concepts, theories and methods used in anthropology and their connection to contemporary examples related to taste and consumption.
- Apply anthropological research skills by completing practical exercises.
- Analyse topics from an anthropological perspective using relevant sources of information.