Anthropology

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr Johan Rasanayagam

Pre-requisites

To be inserted

Co-requisites

To be inserted

Notes

Overview

These courses introduce key issues of philosophy, theory and method raised by research in the related fields of social anthropology, ethnology and cultural history,

Structure

To be inserted

Assessment

To be inserted

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr Johan Rasanayagam

Pre-requisites

Available to students in level 5 only.

Overview

The course will begin by examining practices and phenomena which tend loosely to be gathered within the study of religion, such as ritual, belief and spirituality, as well as the concepts of morality, witchcraft, magic and myth. It will interrogate the utility of the category of "religion" for understanding these phenomena and whether they might more effectively be understood in alternative terms. The second part of the course will look at the broadest politics of the category of "religion" and how it becomes distinguished from the "secular". How have these categories emerged through the history of ideas and political institutions?

Structure

One 2-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

One 5,000 word essay.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr James Leach/Prof Tim Ingold

Pre-requisites

N/A

Co-requisites

Compulsory for students taking Design Anthropology MSc

Overview

This is the course for the Design Anthropology Masters programme. The course will begin with orientation and familiarisation with the emerging field of Design Anthropology by reviewing the emerging literature around anthropological practice in corporations, with designers and artists, and in other non-academic situations.

Through practical exercises, students will learn to analyse and understand the context in which they will operate as Design Anthropologists. Students will learn how to position themselves as Design Anthropologists, and introduce them to various theoretical and practical tools for making anthropological understandings available to non-specialist audiences.

We will consider how Design Anthropology differs from Applied and Development Anthropolgical approaches, the content will familiarise students with developments on Aberdeen Design Anthropology - specifically the theory and application of phenomenological approaches to perception and the aesthetics of everyday life and how these relate to processes of design and making. Ethnographic practice as interested engagement will be covered in theoretical and practical exercises, and the application of theoretical tools distilled from academic anthropological practice will be covered. To this end, material on concepts such as relational approaches to understanding the constitution of objects wil be taught, as well as theories that can be adapted to the practical analysis of common situations (such as gift/commodity distinctions).

Finally, students will be guided through the process of reading complex ethnographic and theoretical texts with the specific purpose of extracting understandings and ideas from those texts that can then be tailored to the needs of specific users/collaborators. In this manner, the course aims of giving students a practical set of tools, a method of understanding and adapting to non-academic working environments, and of being able to tailor anthopological theory and materials to be useful and useable by specified and identified interlocutors/collaborators will be achieved.

Structure

1 hour lecture and 1 hour individual supervision

Assessment

100% coursework

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr Jo Vergunst/Prof Tim Ingold

Pre-requisites

N/A

Co-requisites

Concepts and Approaches in Design Anthropology

Overview

This course will explore the connections between anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture, conceived as alternative 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 perception, design and construction, on the generation and reporducion of form in natural and 'built' environments, on the relation between bodily movements and live time/space, on the significance of craft and skill, on activities, of depiction and description, and on impacts of old and new technologies. We will explore these issues through readings, practical exercises and site visits.

Structure

2 hour lecture, 1 hour individual supervision

Assessment

100% coursework

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr James Leach/ Dr Maggie Bolton

Pre-requisites

N/A

Co-requisites

Concepts and Approaches in Design Anthropology

Overview

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 Biodivesity, and Genetics, and of software production. The underlying theme is to expose some of the consequences of liberal individualism for the structure and politics on contemporary social ralities.

Structure

1 hour lecture and 1 hour individual supervison per week.

Assessment

100% coursework

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr Arnar Arnarson/Dr James Leach

Pre-requisites

N/A

Co-requisites

Concepts and Approaches in Design Anthropology

Overview

This course explores theoretical issues and key debates in contemporary anthropology. We begin by establishing a broad overview of theoretical developments in anthropology. We will then review how the central concepts of culture and society were rethought in anthropology during the 1980s. Following on from this, we ask the questions that underlie the discussions during the course: how can anthropology proceed if the targets of its investigation can no longer be understood as objective entities? How can anthropology proceed if the anthropologist themeselves is inevitably implicated in and part of those very targets? To look for possible answers, the course examines current anthropological interest in power and history, political economy and phenomenology, experience, embodiement and practice. While the intent is theoretical these issues and debates will be explored largely through ethnographic writing on such subjects as emotions and the body, genetics and reproduction, personhood and politics, death, memory and forgetting. Emphasis will be placed on encouraging students to apply theoretical insights from anthropology to their everyday lives and the world around them.

Structure

1 hour lecture and 1 hour individual supervision per week.

Assessment

100% coursework.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr Maggie Bolton/Dr James Leach

Pre-requisites

N/A

Co-requisites

Concepts and Approaches in Design Anthropology

Overview

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 embodiement, skills and learning; theories of inscription; and approaches to technological change, innovation and expertise from science studies (e.g. 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 markeldy 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 tranied 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.

Structure

1 hour lecture and 1 hour individual supervison per week.

Assessment

100% coursework

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr Johan Rasanayagam

Pre-requisites

To be inserted

Co-requisites

To be inserted

Notes

Overview

These courses introduce key issues of philosophy, theory and method raised by research in the related fields of social anthropology,ethnology and cultural history.

Structure

To be inserted

Assessment

To be inserted

Credit Points

60

Course Coordinator

Dr Johan Rasanayagam

Pre-requisites

To be inserted

Co-requisites

To be inserted

Notes

Overview

The dissertation is a substantial piece of independent research and writing. In it, students will demonstrate the extent to which they have achieved the critical learning outcomes from their year of research training.

Structure

To be inserted

Assessment

To be inserted

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Mr Neil Curtis

Pre-requisites

Available only to registered postgraduate students

Overview

This course will affod students the opportunity to work with Aberdeen's extensive museum archival and rare book collections to design and execute an exhibition with both a physical and virtual presence.

Structure

Assessment

One design brief (30%); one group exhibition (30%); one individual portfolio, including a 3,500 word reflexive essay (40%).

Credit Points

60

Course Coordinator

Dr James Leach/Prof Tim Ingold

Pre-requisites

N/A

Co-requisites

Compulsory for students taking MSc in Design Anthropology

Overview

This is a core component of the Design Anthropology Masters programme. Undertaking an extended guided project that incorporates reflection on the approaches and tools utilised will constitute the content of the Dissertation. Practical study may take the form of internships in relevant organisations or corporations and placements in companies or other institutions. It could also be based on sustained engagemnent with people involved in specific making processes outside industry or corporations. The dissertation will be a report on the context in which the project work has been udertaken, and the form that the application of Anthropological approaches look, a reflexive consideration of interventions into that context, and a discussion of the theoretical, methodological and practical elements of the project. Sustained consideration of the usefulness of various tools and concepts through this exercise will equip students with skills in assessing and articulating tyhe value and effect (or otherwise) of approaches in Design anthropology to specific circumstances while putting into practice the anthropological approaches taught elsewhere on the MSc. While it is hoped students will come to the course with ideas and contacts with relevant sites for this module, there will be possibilities available drawing on the networks of staff for internships and placements of various kinds.

Structure

By weekly supervision

Assessment

12,000 word thesis.