Undergraduate Catalogue of Courses 2013/2014
ANTHROPOLOGY
PLEASE NOTE: Resit: (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr T Argounova-Low
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 who have passed AT 3027 / AT 3527 Anthropological Theory
In this course we explore concepts of movement and mobility, topical themes in contemporary Anthropology. This course ranges over such themes as roads, automobility, car cultures, migration, trafficking, road narratives, and roads in film and literature, gradually building up towards theoretical conceptualization of roads. The course will mainly rely on ethnographic material from the North, including Scotland. Students will conduct original research on the theme of road.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial per week. There is a built-in fieldwork element that students have to carry out in their own time (3 hours).
1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (60%), continuous assessment (40%), including one 3,000 word project essay (30%) and ten short written assignments based on required readings (10%).
Resit: 1 three-hour written examination (60%), in-course grades will be carried forward unless the student opts to resubmit course work.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Each student is expected to present at least once on a required reading. This is assessed during the class.
Written feedback will be provided for continuous assessment work, where appropriate. This will normally be provided within three weeks of the submission date. Oral feedback on class presentations will also be provided where appropriate.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr A Brown
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 in Anthropology.
The interplay between historical representational practices and the construction of identity has long been of interest to anthropologists. The peoples of the Plains region of North America have arguably been subjected to more cultural stereotyping than any other indigenous group; popular representations include warriors and princesses, the 'stoic Indian', and the 'ecological Indian'. Through a study of contemporary issues affecting their daily lives, the lectures and seminars will consider how the tensions created by such imaginaries are negotiated by indigenous peoples on the Plains today as well as how they feed into broader anthropological concerns relating to the politics of representation. Themes to be covered may include the impact of stereotypes, sovereignty, relations between museums and first nations, the social and political implications of defining 'Indianness', new economic developments, the reintroduction of the buffalo and cultural tourism.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial per week, to be arranged.
1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (60%) and in-course assessment (40%). In-course assessment will consist of 10 posts on the MyAberdeen Discussion Board (10%) and one 3,000 word essay (30%).
Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Students are expected to submit a detailed essay plan in week 6 of the course. They will be given written feedback on the plan and suggestions for additional readings.
Written feedback will be given on the essay plan and the final essay.
Verbal feedback on MyAberdeen discussions (which amount to 10% of the overall mark) will be given in tutorials.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr N Wachowich and Dr A King
Pre-requisite(s): Open to students in Level 4 of programmes in Anthropology.
This course critically examines the form, content, politics and practice of oral traditions. It will elucidate the multiple roles that narratives, storytelling and oral traditions serve in everyday life and at ritual occasions. Oral traditions exist as evidence of the past, but they also act as social constructions in the present. Individual and collective memory-making, historical events, social and political forces all play a role in how a story is told, its authority and its agency. This course will evaluate the differences between oral and written traditions in the politics of historical representation. Students will be introduced to methods and practice in oral history and will explore different cross-cultural and inter-generational storytelling and performative traditions.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour seminar a week.
1st Attempt: 500 word proposal and annotated bibliography (10%); 2,000 word narrative analysis (25%); 1,500 word essay (25%); 1 two-hour examination (40%).
Resit: 1 three-hour examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Written feedback will be given on essays and projects. Work on the project begins in week 1 of the course and students will be able to discuss aspects of their project and receive verbal feedback during the weekly practicals.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr R Wishart
Pre-requisite(s): Available to students in Programme 4 who have passed AT 3027 / AT 3527 Anthropological Theory.
This course explores cultures of the Circumpolar Arctic and sub-Arctic focusing on ethnographies from various northern regions: Scandinavia, Canada, America, and Russia. We investigate the concept and idea of the North with reference to the main themes such as frontier, movement, and flow. The course critically assesses stereotypes applied to describe diverse areas of the circumpolar region. Other topics covered in the course include: sharing, exchange and food; alcoholism; identity; movement and mobility in the North.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-tutorial per week, including a fieldwork class in the old part of Aberdeen.
1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (60%), continuous assessment (40%), including one 3,000 word project essay (30%) and ten short written assignments based on required readings (10%).
Resit: 1 three-hour written examination (60%), in-course grades will be carried forward unless the student opts to resubmit course work.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Each student will be expected to present in the class at least once on one of the selected readings.
Written feedback will be provided for continuous assessment work, where appropriate. This will normally be provided within three weeks of the submission date. Oral feedback on class presentations will also be provided where appropriate.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr J Rasanayagam
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 on programmes in Anthropology.
This course examines how Muslims engage with Islam as a system of morality and belief. It discusses the debates within Muslim societies about what constitutes 'real' Islam and how Muslims should conduct themselves. How does belief in Islam as a unitary, transcendent Truth, which is universal to all humanity, relate to the diverse manner in which Islam in actually lived in practice throughout the world? An important issue which will be explored in the course is that of subjectivity and selfhood within a Muslim context, and how we might approach the topic of belief itself.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (60%); continuous assessment (40%)
Continuous assessment element: 2 essays of 2,000 words, 20% of course assessment each.
Resit: 1 three-hour examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Tutorials. Presentations in tutorials. Meetings with the course coordinator and/or tutor in case of need, initiated by the student or coordinator/tutor.
Feedback on work submitted for continual assessment will be provided in the marking sheet - a narrative comment indicating strengths and weaknesses, advice for improvement will always be included as part of this.
Students are encouraged to arrange meetings with the course coordinator/tutor for feedback meetings if they feel the need.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr A D King
Pre-requisite(s): Level 4 standing in Anthropology or permission of course coordinator.
The anthropology of myth highlights the social and cultural contexts of myths as sacred narratives. This course draws upon a wide range of cultures, from ancient Greeks, Mesopotamia and China to contemporary Africa, Asia, and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Boasian approaches to Native American myths as oral literature and windows into cultural values can be contrasted with the functionalist theories of Tylor and Malinowski. This course emphasizes the performative qualities of myth, drawing upon the work by Dell Hymes, Albert Lord, Dennis Tedlock, Claude L-vi-Strauss, Edmund Leach, Ruth Finnegan and others. The course concludes with a discussion of the relevance of myth in contemporary society.
2 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (40%)
continuous assessment (60%); 10% weekly contributions to class discussion board, 50% essays totalling 4,000 words.
Resit: Examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Active participation in tutorial, taking turns leading discussion and commenting intelligently upon the assigned reading for that week.
Discussion board will receive marks and comments on strengths and weaknesses each week.
Essays will be marked and have extensive comments, both in the margins and on the official Social Science School feedback form, indicating the good, the bad, and the ugly in that piece of writing.
Formative assessment will come through the tutorial discussions.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr A Brown
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 of Anthropology Degree programmes, or with the permission of the course co-ordinator.
Museums are often seen as the public face of anthropology but have increasingly become contested places in today's world. This course provides an introduction to museums as a field site for anthropology. Using case studies and current debates within critical museology it draws attention to aspects of the culture, history and functions of museums, and to their emerging role within projects of cultural revitalization.
Themes to be covered may include how artefacts are defined and valued in different contexts; how meaning is negotiated in exhibitions; relationships between museums and indigenous peoples; digital technologies and 'knowledge repatriation'; traditional care and curation; ownership and appropriation.
1 two-hour seminar (to be arranged) per week.
1st Atttempt: In-course assessment (100%); essay (50%); artefact study and presentation (30%); exhibition review (20%).
Resit: Examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Informal verbal feedback will be given on the artefact studies during class presentations. Written feedback will be given to students on all summative assessments in line with the University's guidelines.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr R Wishart
Pre-requisite(s): Open only to students in joint honours Anthropology programmes at the senior honours level. Students must also have permission to do an honours dissertation in anthropology from their other discipline.
Note(s): The course takes place mostly in the autumn term but the deadline for submitting the written assessment is not until week 36 in the winter term.
The content of this course is developed by the student while under the supervision of one of the academic members of staff in the anthropology department. As an independent studies course, the student will select an anthropological topic or problem to work on during the duration of the course. They will meet with their supervisor several times during the duration to discuss their research and receive feedback. Written feedback will be provided when the student submits a draft of the dissertation in December.
1 one-hour orientation meeting and then 5 one-hour supervisions with the student's dissertation supervisor.
1st Attempt: Continuous assessment (100%) comprised of one 10,000 word anthropology dissertation.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Students will be able to develop their ideas and learning by presenting their research to their supervisor.
A draft of the dissertation will be formative by providing written feedback.
Participation in supervisions will be formative as students will receive instant feedback on their ideas.
An orientation meeting will help the students understand what is required of them and assist them in developing research and writing strategies.
Oral feedback will be provided by the supervisor during supervisions.
Students will be encouraged to get feedback on their ideas from their classmates.
A draft of the dissertation will be read by the supervisor and feedback will be provided both in writing and in discussion.
The dissertation will be double marked according the marking structure for honours dissertations in the anthropology department. Extensive written feedback is provided by the markers.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr M Bolton
Pre-requisite(s): AT 3021 - Doing Anthropological Research, AT 3027 - Anthropological Theory, AT 3529 - Research Project Part 1.
Since the course allows students to complete an independent research project, the academic content will vary from one student to another.
The group sessions cover the different aspects of dissertation writing and include dissertation-writing workshops in which students can air any problems they have encountered in the preparation of their dissertations.
Group teaching is through 1 two-hour seminar per week.
Individual supervision sessions between students and supervisors to be arranged at times of mutual convenience.
1st Attempt: Completed dissertation (10,000 words maximum) (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
One presentation to peer group.
One presentation to staff and students of the anthropology department.
Meetings with supervisor as arranged by the student.
Dissertation draft submitted to supervisor.
Oral comments from peer group, students in other years and staff members will form the feedback on presentations.
Supervisor will provide feedback on dissertation plans.
Feedback on dissertation draft will be given by individual supervisors.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr J Vergunst and Dr A Brown
Pre-requisite(s): Open to any Programme Year 4 student with the permission of the Head of Department of Anthropology.
This course aims to explore the connections between Anthropology, Archaeology, art and architecture, conceived as complementary approaches to understanding and shaping how people perceive and relate to their surroundings, in currents of space, time and movement. We will focus on issues of design, construction and materiality, on the generation and reproduction of form in natural and built environments, on the relation between bodily movements and lived time/space, on the role of the senses in perception, on the significance of craft and skill, and on lines, drawing and notation. We conclude by comparing the ways in which the 4 A's orient to time.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour seminar per week and up to two additional fieldtrips, each lasting one afternoon.
1st Attempt: one essay (20%), one project (20%) and 1 three-hour examination (60%).
Resit: Examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Written feedback wil be given on essays and projects. Work on the project begins in week 1 of the course and students will be able to discuss aspects of their project and receive verbal feedback during the weekly practicals.
Course Co-ordinator: Dr M Bolton
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in programme year 4 of Anthropology (including joint degrees).
The theoretical focus of this course is on technology and uses of materials and the way that these intersect with questions of political power. The course will cover symbolic and Marxist approaches to technological choices; theories of embodiment, skills and learning; theories of inscription; and approaches to technological change, innovation and expertise from science studies (eg through actor-network theory). The theoretical concerns are addressed by introducing the anthropology of the Andean region, with the rationale that approaches to working with materials in this region differed markedly from those of Europe until (and also beyond) the Spanish conquest of the 16th century. Different areas of technology and material culture are addressed through examining both historical material and contemporary ethnographic studies - from prehispanic metallurgy to contemporary agricultural development and the role of scientifically trained experts in bringing about changes in practices. Four main technological areas are addressed in the course: mining and metallurgy; fibres and Andean textuality; medicine and the body; and working the land.
1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.
Three screenings of ethnographic and documentary films.
1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (three essay questions) (60%);
Continuous assessment (40%) comprising two 2,500 word projects (20% each).
Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
Student understanding of case studies and theory will be tested through student presentations and informal discussion in class.
Students will be required to make two contributions to online discussions on specific topics through MyAberdeen.
Feedback on written coursework will be provided in the form of written comments from the course coordinator in the relevant sections of the School of Social Sciences assignment cover sheet.
Feedback on the written examination will be available on request from the course coordinator.
Feedback on formative assessment will be given orally by the course coordinator.
Feedback through peer review will be given through class discussion and contributions to online discussions.
Course Co-ordinator: Professor J Leach
Pre-requisite(s): Available only to students in Programme Year 4 in Anthropology (including joint degrees).
This course will explore some of the history, meanings, and uses of 'Intellectual Property', a concept of increasing importance in anthropology and beyond. The series of lectures and seminars will provide students with theoretical tools to approach contemporary issues of innovation, ownership, and the value placed upon knowledge. We ask, 'How is knowledge produced'; What are the connections people make between it and other items that can be owned?; How do precedents from one realm of production and ownership appear relevant in another? The lectures will cover literature from Classical Political Economy, Political Philosophy, Economic Anthropology, and international precedents for attributing authorship and cultural rights to persons and groups. Part of the course will be dedicated to literature within Science and Technology Studies, and studies of Biodiversity, and Genetics, and of software production. The underlying theme is to expose some of the consequences of liberal individualism for the structure and politics of contemporary social realities.
1 two-hour lecture/seminar per week.
1st Attempt: 1 three-hour unseen written examination (60%) and 2 2,000-3,000 word assessed essays for continuous assessment (40%).
Resit: 1 three-hour written examination (100%).
Formative Assessment and Feedback Information
In group seminars as general points drawn from an overview of submitted written work. Individual written feedback on summative assessment in line with University Guidelines.