12. Conclusion: Anthropology & Care

12. Conclusion: Anthropology & Care

Welcome to Week 12 of Transforming Lives through Care

🎯 Learning Goals

By the end of this week, you should be able to: 

• Reflect on key themes and case studies from the subject. 
• Revisit and connect major anthropological concepts used to understand care. 
• Identify areas where you'd like to explore further or deepen your understanding.
• Recognise how this subject has transformed your thinking about everyday life

.🚦 Introduction

Welcome to Week 12 of Transforming Lives through Care. This final week is all about reflection and revision. You’ve journeyed through many forms of care—across borders, generations, species, and institutions. This week gives you the space to look back on what you’ve learned, revisit what stood out, and consolidate your understanding of how care transforms lives—and how anthropology helps us make sense of it.

📘 Essential Materials

Read: Buch, E. D. (2015). Anthropology of Aging and Care. Annual Review of Anthropology, 44(1), 277–293. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-014254, 

Watch:

📚 Recommended Materials

To prepare you for the Essential Materials, read my blog summarising Buch .

🏁 Conclusion

Summary

Over the past twelve weeks, you’ve explored how care is not just something we do, but something that shapes—and is shaped by—culture, power, kinship, the state, and more-than-human worlds. We’ve looked at how people give, receive, refuse, and negotiate care in ways that are deeply embedded in social life. From transnational families to animal sacrifice, from neoliberal self-care to radical acts of solidarity, you’ve seen how care is at once intimate and political. 

Significance

Anthropology shows us that care is not universal—it is always situated. What counts as care in one place or moment might look very different in another. But by paying attention to care practices, we get unique insight into what matters to people, what they struggle with, and how they imagine good lives and good relations. You are now equipped to think anthropologically about care—critically, creatively, and with deep respect for cultural complexity.

What’s Next

 The next steps are up to you. You now have a strong grounding in anthropology and you are ready to go on to La Trobe Anthropology’s second and third year subjects. Enjoy a journey that will change your life, like it changed it mine!