ANTHRO 288Relational Models Theory and Research Design
Anthropology · 4 units · Graduate courses (200-299)
Relational models theory (RMT) posits that people in all cultures use combinations of just four relational models (RMs) to organize most aspects of most social coordination: communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, and market pricing. Exploration of how people use these RMs to motivate, generate, constitute, coordinate, judge, and sanction social interaction. RMT aims to account for what is universal and what varies across cultures, positing necessity for cultural complements that specify how and with whom each relational model operates. Readings may include RMT research in social anthropology, archaeology, social theory, semiotics, linguistics, developmental, cognitive, social, political, moral, clinical, and cultural psychology, neuroscience, evolution, sociology, family studies, philosophy, management, marketing, and consumer psychology, economics, justice, public health, public policy, and international development.
S/U or letter grading.
When it runs
Not on the schedule for any of Fall 2025 through Spring 2027. UCLA publishes only that window, so this does not mean the course is gone — check the official listing.
Requisites
UCLA lists no requisites for this course.
Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
Nothing — this is an entry point.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.