Anthropologists are philosophers of the social. With firm roots in classical social theory, anthropologists have always questioned the relationship of materiality and imagination in human culture, the dialectic of individual and social, the structures of power and authority, the pull of kinship and cosmology, and the cultural patterning of time, space, gender, and story. Anthropology trains our attention on big questions of comparative and global import, but seeks answers in concrete things that people do, say, and make. Anthropological theory thus rests on the empiricism of ethnography, archaeology, and material studies, and provides the questions that drive research. This course links contemporary theoretical work in the discipline with essential forerunner texts and projects. It also considers influential texts from theorists outside the discipline proper, recognizing that anthropology takes insights from many theoretical quarters, and in turn informs theoretical endeavors across the social sciences and humanities.