The aim of this course is to train students to engage critically with classic and contemporary texts in the discipline, thereby deepening understandings of current trends and emerging debates. It will examine the theoretical implications of particular anthropological approaches by surveying their origins, their strengths and their critique. The course will take the form of lectures and classes conducted as an intensive reading group in which approximately three texts will be discussed and analysed in depth, along with supplementary reading material where appropriate. Students will be expected to develop their own critical responses to each text, as well as an appreciation of the context in which it was written and its contribution to relevant theoretical discussions and debates. Students taking this course will develop their capacity to meet the distinctive demands of reading and analysing longer (typically book-length) texts. This course offers a step towards graduate-level skills of independent work, and places emphasis on the active role of the students in identifying their own lines of analysis in relation to a set text.