Unfreedoms: Anthropological Explorations of Oppression, Tyranny and Domination

Freedom occupies a key place in modern theory and public discourse. The capacity to make choices is often described as the most fundamental feature of humanity: In many contemporary social theory texts free will - the ability to become an agentive subject and choose between different courses of action - is what defines the human condition. In this course we will critically interrogate this assumption by turning it on its head. By deploying a number of anthropological angles, we will move beyond simplistic depictions of human nature as fundamentally good or evil, instead trying to make sense of the complex and often violent dynamics that impinge on people’s autonomy and self-determination. We will use unfreedom as a prism to shed light on historical and contemporary forms of subjugation, including slavery, domestication, debt and many others. The course will provide the conceptual and empirical tools to examine how unfreedom manifests across diverse social, political, cultural and economic contexts. Throughout the course, we will pay close attention to diverse experiences of unfreedom, as well as examining it as a form of social engineering. The first half of the course will be dedicated to identifying and discussing key concepts anthropologists have developed to address forms of subjection, imprisonment and enslavement. Having established a robust theoretical framework, the second half of the course will be dedicated to case studies that analyse everyday experiences of unfreedom from different vantage points.