1. The Archaeological and Anthropological Tripos shall consist of three Parts, Part I, Part IIa, and Part IIb. In Part IIa and Part IIb there shall be an examination in each of the following three subjects: Archaeology (including Assyriology and Egyptology), Biological Anthropology, Social Anthropology. For Part I there shall be a single class-list; for Part IIa and Part IIb there shall be a separate class-list for each of the three subjects of the examination.
2. The Faculty Board of Human, Social, and Political Science shall nominate such number of Examiners to conduct the examination for Part I of the Tripos, and a Senior Examiner and such number of Examiners to conduct the examination in each subject for Part IIa and Part IIb, as they shall deem sufficient. The Faculty Board shall have power to nominate such number of Assessors as they shall deem sufficient to assist the Examiners for each Part. If required to do so, Assessors shall set papers in the subject or subjects assigned to them, shall mark the answers of the candidates in those papers, shall assess dissertations, and shall advise the Examiners on the performance of candidates in the examination. Assessors may be summoned to meetings of the Examiners for the purpose of consultation and advice, but shall not be entitled to vote.
3. The Faculty Board may from time to time make supplementary regulations defining all or any of the subjects and specified texts of examination and may modify, alter, or withdraw such supplementary regulations as they think fit, due care being taken that sufficient notice is given of any change.
4. Before the end of the Easter Term each year the Faculty Board shall give notice of the variable subjects for the examinations to be held in the academical year next following; provided that the Board shall have the power of subsequently issuing amendments if they have due reason for doing so and if they are satisfied that no student's preparation for the examination is adversely affected. The Board shall have power when they give notice of variable subjects to announce any consequential restriction on the combination of papers that a candidate may choose to offer.
5. The questions proposed by each Examiner and Assessor shall be submitted for approval to the whole body of Examiners for Part I or to the Examiners in the particular subject for Part IIa or Part IIb.
6. The answers to each question shall be read by at least two Examiners or Assessors.
7. Separate meetings shall be held of all the Examiners for Part I and of the three bodies of Examiners for Part IIa and Part IIb, at which the respective class-lists shall be drawn up. In each class- list the names of the candidates who deserve honours shall be placed in three classes, of which the second shall be divided into two divisions. The names in the first and third classes, and in each division of the second class, shall be arranged in alphabetical order. For special excellence a mark of distinction may be awarded. The class-lists for Part IIa and Part IIb shall indicate whether a candidate has offered in the examination the Assyriology and/or Egyptology option.
8. No student shall be a candidate for more than one Part, or for any Part and also for another Honours Examination in the same term.
9. No student who has been a candidate for any Part shall again be a candidate for the same Part.
10. A candidate shall not offer in any Part of the Tripos a paper that he or she has previously offered in another University examination.
11. The following may present themselves as candidates for honours in Part I:
12. The scheme of examination for Part I shall be as follows:
Paper 1. |
The development of human society (also serves as Paper 6 of Part I of the Politics, Psychology, and Sociology Tripos). |
Paper 2. |
Humans in biological perspective (also serves as Paper 7 of Part I of the Politics, Psychology, and Sociology Tripos). |
Paper 3. |
Human societies: the comparative perspective (also serves as Paper 8 of Part I of the Politics, Psychology, and Sociology Tripos). |
Paper 4A. |
Being human: an interdisciplinary approach. |
Paper 4B. |
Introduction to sociology: modern societies (Paper 2 of Part I of the Politics, Psychology, and Sociology Tripos). |
Paper 4C. |
The analysis of modern politics I (Paper 1 of Part I of the Politics, Psychology, and Sociology Tripos). |
Paper 4D. |
Introduction to psychology (Paper 3 of Part I of the Politics, Psychology, and Sociology Tripos). |
Paper 5. |
Introduction to the cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia. |
Paper 6. |
Akkadian I (also serves as Paper X.1 of Part Ia of the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Tripos). |
Paper 7. |
Egyptian language I (also serves as Paper X.2 of Part Ia of the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Tripos). |
A candidate for Part I shall offer one of the following:
13. A student who has obtained honours in Part I of the Archaeological and Anthropological Tripos or in another Honours Examination may be a candidate for honours in Part IIa in the year next after so obtaining honours.
14. (a) A student who has obtained honours in any Honours Examination other than Part I of the Archaeological and Anthropological Tripos may be a candidate for honours in Part IIb in the year next after so obtaining honours, provided that
(b) No student shall be a candidate for Part IIb in Archaeology unless the Head of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology is satisfied that the student has, since matriculation, undertaken at least six weeks of archaeological excavation or fieldwork7 on a project or projects (or in the case of candidates for Assyriology or Egyptology on a study visit to Egypt or the Middle East and/or study in a museum) approved by the Head of the Department, provided that the Head of the Department shall have power to grant exemption from this requirement to a candidate who has obtained an equivalent amount of appropriate experience in some other way. Before the division of the Lent Term each year the Head of the Department shall draw up a list of those candidates who have satisfied this requirement or have been granted exemption from it, and shall communicate this information to the Registrary.
15. The scheme of examination for Part IIa and Part IIb shall be as follows:
A1. |
Archaeological thought I |
A2. |
Archaeology in action I (also serves as Paper O12 of Part II of the Classical Tripos) |
A3. |
Archaeological thought II |
A4. |
Archaeology in action II |
A10. |
Archaeological practice |
Special areas |
|
A5. |
The archaeology of early human development8 |
A6. |
The Palaeolithic of the Old World |
A7. |
The Upper Paleolithic from the Alps to the Americas8 |
A8. |
European prehistory |
A9. |
Special topics in European prehistory |
A13. |
Aegean prehistory (Paper D1 of Part II of the Classical Tripos) |
A14. |
A topic within classical archaeology and/or art (Paper D2 of Part II of the Classical Tripos) |
A15. |
A topic within classical archaeology and/or art (Paper D3 of Part II of the Classical Tripos) |
A16. |
A topic within classical archaeology and/or art (Paper D4 of Part II of the Classical Tripos) |
A17. |
The historical archaeology of Ancient Egypt I8 |
A18. |
The historical archaeology of Ancient Egypt II8 |
A19. |
Ancient Egyptian religion I8 |
A20. |
Ancient Egyptian religion II8 |
A21. |
Mesopotamian culture I: literature8 |
A22. |
Mesopotamian culture II: religion and science8 |
A23. |
Mesopotamian archaeology I: prehistory and early states8 |
A24. |
Mesopotamian archaeology II: territorial states to empires8 |
A25. |
Europe in the first millennium ad I: Anglo-Saxon archaeology (also serves as Paper 14 of Part I and Paper 16 of Part II of the Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic Tripos) |
A26. |
Europe in the first millennium ad II: Scandinavian archaeology (also serves as Paper 15 of Part I and Paper 17 of Part II of the Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic Tripos) |
A27. |
Europe in the first millennium ad II: Migration period archaeology9 |
A28. |
The archaeology of medieval Britain |
A29. |
Ancient India I: prehistory of India8 |
A30. |
Ancient India I: the Indus civilization and beyond8 |
A31. |
Ancient India II: early historic cities of South Asia8 |
A32. |
Ancient India II: art and architecture of ancient India8 |
A33. |
Ancient South America8 |
A34. |
The archaeology of Mesoamerica and North America8 |
A36. |
The late prehistoric and historical archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa |
A37. |
Introduction to scientific approaches in archaeology |
A38. |
Archaeological science |
M1. |
Akkadian language II (also serves as Paper X.6 of Part Ib of the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Tripos) |
M2. |
Akkadian language III |
M3. |
Sumerian |
M4. |
Mesopotamian history I: states and structures8 |
M5. |
Mesopotamian history II: empires and systems8 |
E1. |
Egyptian language II (also serves as Paper X.7 of Part Ib of the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Tripos) |
E2. |
Egyptian language III |
The Faculty Board shall announce before the end of the Easter Term the papers that will be available in the examinations to be held in the next academical year.
BA1. |
Foundations in biological anthropology: the human animal |
BA2. |
Foundations in biological anthropology: the human journey |
BA3. |
Foundations in biological anthropology: the human lifespan |
BA4. |
Theory and practice in anthropology |
BA5–16. |
Not more than twelve papers, each on a special subject in biological anthropology prescribed by the Faculty Board. In announcing the special subjects available the Faculty Board shall also announce the form of the examination which shall be either a written examination of two hours’ duration or the submission of an essay or other exercise in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 19 and which may also include practical work to be submitted in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 18. |
S1. |
Foundations of social anthropology I |
S2. |
Foundations of social anthropology II |
S3. |
Theory, methods, and enquiry in social anthropology |
S4. |
Thought, belief, and ethics |
S5. |
Political economy and social transformations |
S6. |
Ethnographic areas |
S7–11. |
Not more than five papers, each on a special subject in social anthropology prescribed by the Faculty Board. Each paper shall be of three hours’ duration, provided that the Faculty Board may announce an alternative mode of assessment for any of the special subjects which shall consist of the submission of two essays in accordance with the provisions of Regulation 19(b). |
16. Subject to the provisions of Regulation 10, candidates for Part IIa shall offer papers and other exercises as follows:
Option 2 (Assyriology)
Option 3 (Egyptology)
Option 4 (Assyriology and Egyptology)
|
Historical Tripos, Part I |
|
|
Paper 21. |
Empires and world history from the fifteenth century to the First World War. |
|
Politics, Psychology, and Sociology Tripos, Part II a |
|
|
Paper Pol. 3. |
The analysis of modern politics II. |
|
Paper Psy. 1. |
Social psychology. |
|
Paper Soc. 1. |
Social theory. |
|
Paper Soc. 2. |
Contemporary societies and global transformations. |
17. Subject to the provisions of Regulation 10, candidates for Part IIb shall offer papers and other exercises as follows:
provided that a candidate may not offer (i) Paper A22 unless he or she has previously taken either Paper A21 or Papers A23 or A24, and (ii) Paper A38 unless he or she has previously taken Paper A37.
Option 2 (Assyriology)
Option 3 (Egyptology)
Option 4 (Assyriology and Egyptology)
18. Candidates for Part IIa and Part IIb in Archaeology (and where appropriate in Biological Anthropology) shall present for the inspection of the Examiners, by a date which the Head of the Department shall announce not later than the division of the Michaelmas Term, records of such practical work done during the courses leading to the examination as shall be determined from time to time by the Faculty Board. The Examiners shall be provided by the Head of the Department with assessments of candidates’ practical work, and shall take these assessments into account in assigning marks for the examination.
19. (a) The arrangements for the submission of essays or other exercises by candidates for Part IIa and Part IIb in Biological Anthropology who choose a paper from Papers BA5–16 for which the Faculty Board have announced that the examination shall be by one of these alternative means shall be as follows:
Essays shall not exceed 4,000 words in length, excluding footnotes, figures, tables, appendices, and bibliography. Candidates shall be required to state in the bibliography the sources that they have used and to declare that the essay represents their own work unaided except as may be specified in the declaration. Detailed instructions about other exercises shall be issued by the Head of the Department together with the announcements of variable subjects by the Faculty Board. Each essay or other exercise shall be typewritten, unless a candidate has obtained previous permission from the Faculty Board to present it in manuscript; essays or other exercises shall be submitted to the Head of the Department so as to arrive not later than the third Monday of the Full Easter Term in which the examination is to be held. A candidate who submits an essay or other exercise after that date may be penalized.
(b) The arrangements for the submission of essays by candidates for Part IIb in Social Anthropology who choose a paper from S7–11, for which the Faculty Board have announced that the examination may be by this form of assessment, shall be as follows:
Two essays shall be submitted, each not exceeding 5,000 words in length, excluding footnotes, figures, tables, appendices, and bibliography. Candidates shall be required to state in the bibliography the sources that they have used and to declare that the essay represents their own work unaided except as may be specified in the declaration. Each essay shall be typewritten, unless a candidate has obtained previous permission from the Faculty Board to present it in manuscript; essays shall be submitted to the Administration Office in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, one to arrive not later than the first Friday of Full Lent Term and one to arrive by the first Friday of Full Easter Term. A candidate who submits an essay after the required date may be penalized. A candidate who submits an essay or other exercise in place of the written examination may not also submit a dissertation.
20. (a) A candidate for Part IIb who wishes to offer a dissertation under Regulation 17 shall submit an application, including the title of the proposed dissertation, a brief account of its scope, and a statement of the scheme of papers to be offered in the examination. A candidate who so wishes may request permission to include a film or filmed material, amounting to not more than twenty minutes in length, as a component part of the dissertation. Applications shall be submitted to the Head of the Department so as to arrive not later than the last day of the Full Michaelmas Term next preceding the examinaiton.
(b) Each candidate must obtain the approval of the Faculty Board for the proposed title not later than the division of the Lent Term. When the Faculty Board have approved a title, no change shall be made to it, or to the candidate's scheme of papers, without the further approval of the Faculty Board.
(c) A dissertation shall be of not more than 10,000 words in length, excluding footnotes, figures, tables, appendices, and bibliography. Each dissertation shall be typewritten, unless a candidate has obtained previous permission from the Faculty Board to present it in manuscript.
(d) A dissertation shall be submitted to the Senior Examiner in the Department not later than the following dates:
A dissertation shall be accompanied by (i) a brief synopsis on a separate sheet of paper of the contents of the dissertation, and (ii) a certificate signed by the candidate that it is his or her own original work, and that it does not contain material that has already been used to any substantial extent for a comparable purpose.
21. At the discretion of the Examiners, a candidate for Part IIb may be examined viva voce.
This paper serves as an introduction to the collection, analysis, and interpretation of archaeological data, and focuses on major issues in the development of human societies. Examples are drawn from the entire span of the human career, from the initial evolution of hominid behaviour patterns to the emergence of historically documented states and empires. Issues are explored in terms of the principal archaeological methods and theories which contribute to our current understanding of past societies.
This paper provides an introduction to biological anthropology. The syllabus covers the genetic basis of life; evolutionary theory; primate biology, ecology, and behaviour; human evolution; human diversity, geographical patterns of variation and its genetic basis; human ecology, including disease, nutrition, energetics, and behaviour; problems in gene-environment interactions and behavioural genetics. Two special subjects will be prescribed from time to time by the Faculty Board.
This paper provides an introduction to the aims, scope, and methods of social anthropology. It covers the whole range of human societies, past and present, with a view to understanding them both individually in depth and within a broad comparative perspective. It approaches social life from a number of different angles, focusing on the ideas that people hold, their forms of organization, the way they interact, and the things they produce.
This paper combines approaches from archaeology, biological anthropology, and social anthropology to study the human condition. Questions addressed will concern: the origins and evolution of human society; symbols, communication, and culture; problems of human ecology and adaptation. Special topics may include sex and gender; sociality and social inequality; art and material culture; technology; language; health and illness; nutrition and development.
The origins and institutional features of modern societies. Social change and global interconnections in the modern world. Selected aspects of modern societies including work, stratification, and inequality; gender and sexual divisions; race and ethnicity; political organization and the modern state; culture and mass communication; deviance and social control.
This paper introduces the cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia and is taught through lectures in each subject area and comparative seminars. The paper is in two parts: section A consists of five comparative questions; section B consists of ten subject specific questions, five related to Egypt and five to Mesopotamia. Students are required to answer one question from each section and a third question from either section.
This paper consists of passages for transliteration from cuneiform and translation from Akkadian taken from the texts read in class and specified from time to time in the Reporter, a passage for translation from English into transliterated Akkadian, and questions on grammar.
This paper covers the study of hieroglyphic texts in Middle Egyptian, the classic form of the language. Students will be expected to transliterate and translate into English passages from the specified texts, and comment where appropriate. They will also be given a passage from an unspecified text for transliteration and translation into English.
Why study archaeology, when did people start studying archaeology, and what role does archaeology play in contemporary society? Answers to such questions are discussed in the course for this paper, which reviews the history of archaeological thought. The main issues in archaeology, as they have been seen since the early nineteenth century, are covered, with emphasis placed on the rise of a scientific archaeology in the mid-twentieth century and reactions to it.
The course for this paper shows how the sciences and the humanities are integrated in the practice of archaeology over a broad range of topics concerned with the nature of past societies. The interdisciplinary character of archaeology is explored through consideration of a range of thematic issues, such as material culture; the study of landscapes and settlements; the establishment and study of temporal sequences, and archaeological field methods.
The course for this paper provides an opportunity to extend the depth and range of theoretical issues introduced in Paper A1. In terms of depth, there is fuller coverage of modes of explanation and interpretation in archaeology and discussion of how they are situated within wider debates in the sciences and the humanities. In terms of range, the scope of archaeological awareness is extended to global issues, drawing on a variety of themes in world archaeology.
This paper expands on the range of themes covered in Paper A2, exploring ways in which a wide range of scientific approaches and techniques can be integrated with humanistic and social science perspectives in studying and interpreting the nature of past societies. The interdisciplinary character of archaeology is explored through consideration of a range of thematic issues, such as human impact on the environment; the study of households and communities; the archaeology of death and the body; the archaeology of ‘art’; categorization and style; symbols and power; production and exchange, and contemporary notions of heritage.
The course for this paper provides an introduction to the practical methods and approaches used by archaeologists to create and analyse archaeological data. It covers the ways in which archaeological theories are applied in practice, through data recovery, analysis, and interpretation. Much of the instruction is provided through hands-on practicals, field trips, and fieldwork.
These papers are paired. Courses are taught over a two-year cycle and are examined in alternate years, so that in any particular year one paper of each pair will be set, corresponding to the subject that has been taught in that year.
This course surveys the development of human societies from their primate origins 2–3 million years ago to the emergence of food production in the early postglacial period. The scope of the course is world-wide; it puts special emphasis on the processes of population dispersal (of both the earliest hominids and biologically modern humans) and the processes of technological and social adaptation to the changing environmental conditions of the Pleistocene period. Special emphasis is placed on the patterns of human social and cognitive development, and on the inevitably close inter-relationships between the parallel processes of biological and cultural evolution throughout the course of human development. One of Papers A5 and A7 is taught in alternate years.
This course presents a broad general introduction to later European prehistory from the beginning of the Holocene through the earliest historical societies. Coverage includes the Mesolithic, the Neolithic, the Copper and Bronze Ages, and the Iron Age.
This course presents advanced discussion of special topics in European prehistory. Each year’s topics are drawn from a rotating list of regional, thematic, and/or theoretical subjects relevant to Later European Prehistory (Mesolithic through Iron Age). It is normally expected that students will have taken or be taking Paper A8 (Later European prehistory) currently.
Within Classical archaeology, four different papers are available, concerning which information is available from the Faculty of Classics.
The course reviews the historical archaeology of ancient Egypt from its origins to the Roman conquest and integrates archaeological, textual, and artistic evidence. Emphasis is placed on examining the nature of society, urbanism, kingship and political power, ideology, and interactions between Egypt and its neighbours. The course is taught over a two-year cycle: A17 covers the unification of Egypt to the end of the Second Intermediate Period (c. 3000–1550 bc); A18 covers the New Kingdom and up to the Roman conquest (c. 1550–30 bc).
This course examines archaeological, textual, and artistic evidence for ancient Egyptian religious practices and beliefs. The course is taught over a two-year cycle: A19 covers the period from the unification of Egypt to the end of the Second Intermediate Period (c. 3000–1550 bc); A20 covers the New Kingdom and up to the Roman conquest (c. 1550–30 bc).
This paper will cover both Sumerian and Akkadian literary texts in translation, and thus be open to candidates not studying either language. It will cover myths and epics, including Gilgamesh and the Epic of Creation, as well as political and ‘Wisdom’ literature.
This paper will deal with literacy and numeracy in ancient Mesopotamia; science and scholarship, including divination; religious beliefs as expressed in both the textual and the archaeological sources. Knowledge of the languages will not be required.
This course covers the archaeology of modern Iraq and Syria. Subjects addressed include the development of agriculture and urbanism, the relationship of the environment to the rise of complex society, the interplay of textual and archaeological data, propaganda and the presentation of kingship and power, symbolism in art and architecture, and the archaeological evidence for religious ritual. The course covers the archaeology of Mesopotamia in two periods (6000–2000 bc and 2000–539 bc), is taught over a two-year cycle and examined in Papers A23 and A24 in alternate years.
This course surveys the period which saw the rise, development, and fall of the Roman Empire, and the emergence of the early medieval states which were the foundation of modern Europe; it relates mainly to the northern and western parts of Europe (including Scandinavia). The course includes two papers which are both normally taught every year.
This course covers the archaeology of post-conquest Britain, approximately ad 1050 to 1500. This was the period when the ‘historic’ landscape of Britain took on its pre-industrial form, and the history of landscape and villages, castles, towns, and the church is still visible in the material remains of this period. Since East Anglia is particularly rich in such evidence, lectures are complemented by field trips or museum sessions for almost every topic.
This course surveys the archaeology and art of ancient India extending from the prehistoric periods up to the fifth century ad. In one year the main emphasis is on the earlier prehistoric periods (up to the emergence of agriculture), together with a survey of the principal excavated historical sites (c. 600 bc to c. ad 400). In the other year the emphasis is placed on the later prehistoric and proto-historic periods, and on the major features of Indian art, architecture, inscriptions, and coins. The course also surveys the geographical and environmental features of ancient India, and the history of archaeological research in the subcontinent. Four modules are taught over a two-year cycle, two being available each year: Prehistory of India; The Indus civilization and beyond; Early historic cities of South Asia; Art and architecture of ancient India.
The course covers major developments in the region, from the peopling of the New World and the origins of agriculture to the rise of complex societies that culminated in the late pre-Hispanic empires (Inka and Aztec). Emphasis is placed on theoretical approaches to understanding the long-term development of social inequality and the rise of complex societies, and attention is given to the interactions of human populations with their environments. Two modules (Ancient South America, and Archaeology of Mesoamerica and North America) are taught over a two-year cycle and are examined in alternate years.
The course provides a broad overview of the prehistory of the African continent from the earliest times, together with the historical archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa. Emphasis is placed upon the study of Post-Pleistocene times and upon the relationship between archaeology and other sources of information about the African past. The subject is viewed from an essentially African perspective, although due attention is paid to external connections. Students are encouraged to view African prehistory as an essential and central part of human development.
The courses for these papers allow students to explore a range of scientific approaches in archaeology in depth. Consideration is given to the geo-archaeological context of our evidence, and the dynamics of preservation and transformation of archaeological materials. From this foundation students can select from a range of bio-archaeological and environmental options, e.g. in archaeobotany or zoo-archaeology, backed up by laboratory practicals. These papers can be taken with, and are designed to complement, any of the papers on special areas, for those candidates who wish to put a greater emphasis on scientific method in the course as a whole.
This paper is for candidates in their second year of study of Akkadian, and will test candidates’ knowledge of the Old Babylonian and Standard Babylonian dialects of Akkadian as used in literary and historical texts. They will be required to transliterate from cuneiform and translate passages from both seen and unseen texts. Comment may be required on points of grammar and/or content.
This paper is for candidates in their third year of study of Akkadian. It will include transliteration and translation from unseen texts and from a range of Akkadian texts studied during the year including letters and legal documents, some in Assyrian dialect. Comment may be required on points of grammar and/or content.
This paper is only offered to candidates taking Paper M2 in Part IIb. It will consist of passages from Sumerian texts studied during the year for transliteration and translation, together with questions on Sumerian grammar.
These papers are taught through the same lecture course as Mesopotamian archaeology (Papers M4/5 are the same as Papers A23/24), in the same two-year cycle. In year I the course covers the early history of Sumer and Akkad, through the Old Babylonian period in Mesopotamia and Syria. In year II it covers the ‘Amarna Period’ or later 2nd millennium bc, and the Assyrian and Babylonian empires down to the fall of Babylon to Cyrus in 539 bc. A balance is maintained between the narrative of political events and social and economic history.
This paper contains passages from specified and unspecified texts for transliteration and translation into English. The passages are taken from Middle Egyptian texts.
This paper contains passages from specified and unspecified texts for transliteration and translation into English. The passages are taken from Old and Middle and Late Egyptian texts.
This paper examines the human species in a broad comparative perspective, with two themes. The first is the extent to which humans share their biology and behaviour with other animals, especially primates. The second perspective is concerned with comparisons between humans and the rest of the biological world in terms of similarities, differences, and uniqueness. Material will be drawn from genetics, morphology, and behaviour.
This paper will look at the evolution of the human species, from its origins among the great apes, to the evolution of modern humans, and the diversity that has taken place in the course of the last 10,000 years, leading to the processes of modernization. Material will be drawn from the fossil record, archaeology, genetics, and human population biology and ecology.
This paper looks at human biology and behaviour from the perspective of development and ontogeny. From conception to death, humans undergo a process of development that is shaped by both genes and environment. The patterns of such development can be framed in terms of life history theory, the role of nutrition, and the interactions between demography and threats to life such as disease, and the way in which reproduction is integrated into the lifespan.
This paper explores current developments in the discipline, and how advances in theory and method in anthropology and related disciplines are having an impact on anthropology and the understanding of the human species and its diversity. Emphasis is on the understanding of analytical methods and assessment of hypotheses to tackle problems in biological anthropology.
The aim of these papers is to examine in detail particular subjects in biological anthropology and related disciplines. Topics for special subjects will be announced by the Faculty Board, and details of the syllabus will be provided in the course handbook.
Kinship and economics have been linked in the major theories of production, reproduction, and exchange. The course for this paper considers the conditions under which kinship becomes an organizing template for economic relations, and its bearing on group dynamics and gender relations. New patterns of marriage, conjugality, sexuality, and procreation throw into relief the continuing relevance of classic kinship theory. Under the rubric of economics, the course treats the nature and interaction of different systems of production, distribution, and exchange, and historical processes of economic transformation; it reviews different ways of conceptualizing the economy, the works of major theorists, and key contemporary debates in economic anthropology.
The course for this paper brings together politics and religion. Under politics, it deals with theories of the state; inequality; war and violence; law and dispute-settlement; political action, strategy, and tactics; ‘fourth-world’ political action and resistance; social movements; the role of ideology and theories of governance. Under religion, the course deals with the major anthropological theories of religion and their relation to systems of knowledge and ideology. Specific fields covered include ritual and sacrifice; spirit possession and shamanism; forms of traditional knowledge and classification; world religions; the transformation of religion in the contemporary world. Emphasis will be given to the many links between politics and religion.
This course provides a grounding in sociological theories and discusses their relation to more recent anthropological theory and methods. Topics to be discussed include: eighteenth and nineteenth century social theory; Marx, Durkheim, Simmel, Weber, Mauss; functionalism, structural-functionalism; structuralism; cultural materialism and neo-Marxism; interpretative anthropology, semiology, and symbolic anthropology. These theories are seen in the context of anthropological field research and the various types of anthropological writing.
The courses for this paper will normally cover anthropological perspectives on mind, thought, and belief. Particular concerns may be expected to include the anthropology of cognition, knowledge, and belief systems, and the anthropological study of ethics and moral economy.
The courses for this paper will normally cover anthropological perspectives on political economy and processes of social transformation. Particular concerns may be expected to include anthropological contributions to the study of value, property, and domination, and the growth and legacy of modern social forms including capitalism and socialism.
Candidates will be required to offer one ethnographic area from a choice of three, which will be specified by the Faculty Board each year and will be taken from the following list: Europe, Latin America, Inner Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Africa.
Up to five papers will be available each year. These are currently drawn from the following list:
This course is concerned with illness and healing in comparative perspective. It discusses ideas of health and illness, causation and healing, how they are constructed and how they change. A wide range of societies provides the examples of different approaches, from urban and industrialized contexts to relatively isolated, self-sufficient settings. Alternative systems of medicine and local regional systems, as well as the impact of western biomedicine on local regional systems, are considered in relation to medical pluralism and contexts of practice. Attention is also given to the cultural understanding of the body in illness, and to the management of childbirth and reproduction in different societies. Teaching for the course is by lecture and seminar.
While a primary objective of this paper is to examine the processes of city transformation in recent times, attention is also paid to pre-twentieth century and non-European cities. Processes of urbanization bring out the political, economic, and cultural complexities of city social organization. Images of the city are approached through examining utopian thought and experimentation, social engineering, urban planning, and forms of architecture. The city as a symbolic form and as a centre of power is addressed through studies of urban rituals, processions, commemorations, buildings, and through consideration of the relationships between space, the body, and gender. The paper also includes an examination of the ways in which the city has been theorized, and the problems of reconciling the distinctive method of fieldwork-based anthropology when applied to the large-scale organizational complexity of urban life.
This paper aims to use a variety of disciplinary perspectives to explore powerful new developments in the experience and understandings of gender and kinship in the context of the emergent field of ‘care’. The course addresses recent developments in gender theory and global changes in the nature of intimacy. It examines anthropological evidence of the re-emergence of more traditional kinship and gender relations in new forms. Cross-cultural studies of same-sex and heterosexual relationships and especially friendships will be examined so as to better theorize the ways in which care is being reconfigured both within and outside normative kinship configurations. The new theorization of care builds upon the new ways of caring for the sick, frail, and elderly as well as the young and examines policy concerns about the failures of parents in the care of children. It also examines care as a form of governance and identifies the ways in which the multiple and culturally specific ways of ‘caring’ are often not recognized by the state which increasingly seeks to standardize practices of care and divest them of their socio-cultural meanings and significances. Themes to be addressed include: gender and work/family balance, migration and the international division of reproductive labour (employed care givers and global ‘care-chains’), ‘caring capitalism’, new models and practices of parenting, domestic and state coercions, public planning, and state policy in the realm of care.
The professionalization of anthropology as a social science resulted among other things in the definition of the discipline through a specific kind of empirical research (fieldwork) and a specific narrative form (ethnography). There are of course other professionals who address issues central to anthropological concerns: other social scientists, philosophers, historians, novelists, and poets – many of whom borrow from anthropological works and whose works are borrowed as well. This paper seeks to broaden the basis on which anthropological texts may be analysed as well as to broaden critical awareness of anthropological inquiry beyond textual form. Both the bases on which anthropological knowledge came to be defined and the grounds on which these bases may be re-evaluated critically are presented, including an examination of the professionalization of anthropology, and the intellectual traditions influential in this process; the theoretical question of ‘representation’, and how ‘others’ represent themselves to themselves. In collaboration with the Faculty of English, the paper addresses aspects of literary theory through the consideration of specific texts and literary techniques, poetics, the use of ‘multimedia’, and what one may learn from the parallel examinations of anthropological and non-anthropological texts.
This paper draws attention to the aesthetic and performative aspects of human communication. It provides an introduction to the main perspectives anthropologists have brought to an understanding of the visual and performing arts. While the paper provides a broad cross-cultural overview of distinctive artistic practices and productions, each year a section of the course focuses in some detail on a particular cultural area. Where appropriate the course will draw on the extensive collections of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the video library held within the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology. Topics for study are drawn from the following areas: theories of non-western art and aesthetics; social and technical aspects of artistic production and consumption; the use of different media in anthropological analysis; the poetics and politics of representation; museology; masking and body decoration; the anthropology of dance; aspects of ethnomusicology; and analyses of film and advertising.
This paper covers social, economic, and political aspects of ‘development’, with particular reference to the experience of the poorer countries since World War II and to the theories and practical involvement of anthropologists. Case studies of development projects of rural and urban areas are analysed, with particular attention being paid to indigenous knowledge, and the participation of local people in projects which transform their lives. Other themes include socialist development, the demise of ‘peasant economy’, and the emergence of new social movements in Third World cities. Anthropological approaches to the study of policy, planning, and development organizations are also considered and throughout the course students are encouraged to maintain a critical stance towards the very concept of ‘development’.
The paper aims to examine the societies of the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe as they are currently undergoing transformation. Virtually all of them have abandoned socialism for different political and economic paths. The aim of this paper is to understand (a) what actually existing socialism was, (b) the causes and consequences of its collapse, and (c) what heritage or residue of socialism remains in the post-socialist societies. We examine the processes of transformation, in political, economic, social, and cultural terms. The paper focuses particularly on ways in which we can analyse the experience of sudden change, the associated phenomena labelled as ‘development’ or ‘regression’, emerging social and familial forms, new attitudes to history and memory, and changes in ‘high’ and popular culture, ideology, and values.
The aim of this paper is to offer a critical introduction to the literature on nationalism, race, and ethnicity both in and outside anthropology, and to explore the ideas advanced in that literature in relation to material drawn from specific historical and cultural contexts. This includes the intellectual history of the concepts of, respectively, nation and race, to be examined through the main relevant theoretical literature. Historical, anthropological, and sociological approaches are covered. Specific case material, drawn from a range of geographical and historical contexts, will address issues such as the politics of identity in Britain; thinking about conflict in Northern Ireland; ‘tribalism’ and the culture of post-colonial states in sub-Saharan Africa; communal identities and violence in South Asia; religion and communal mobilization; Diaspora communities and transnationalism; gendering the nation. The examples vary from time to time.
Focusing on a wide range of regional case studies, this paper explores the emergence of colonial politics, cultures, and imperial systems of power as objects of anthropological analysis, and considers the ways in which both the making and unmaking of Western as well as non-Western imperial systems have had ramifications for the societies and cultures studied by anthropologists. A variety of theoretical and interpretive approaches will be discussed, but the main emphasis will be on ethnographic accounts, and on the anthropological implications of historical studies. A wide range of examples may be covered, including social, cultural, and political transformations arising from Western colonial conquest and rule in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, and aspects of empire as conceptualized and experienced under Chinese, Ottoman, and/or Russian/Soviet rule.
Legal frameworks have re-emerged, in the contemporary period, as ways to justify social and political action. The language of ‘the law’ pervades a multiplicity of arenas, both local and global, implicating experience, personhood, and subjectivity. The aim of this paper is to show the way the law is used as a vehicle to structure relations, whether between states, between colonized and colonizer, or between special interest groups (as in the case of new technologies). Legal systems acquire a social and cultural character of their own, appearing to be departments of modern life and thus potential ethnographic objects. If such systems represent themselves as normative and rational, from an anthropological view they are contextualized by other phenomena. The course explores what it means to study legal systems, and in doing so opens up questions about organizing concepts (such as ‘rights’) of major contemporary importance.
The aim of this paper is to offer a critical exploration of recent developments and debates in the anthropology of science in a wide range of social and regional settings, as well as across diverse traditions of thought. The course explores what it means to study societal, institutional, and epistemic conditions of science and scientific knowledge production through a comparative frame. From an anthropological view the critical study of ‘cross-cultural science’ as ethnographic object puts into political relief the way that encounters between ‘parallel worlds’, ‘purity’, ‘hybridity’, ‘reliability’, ‘evidence’, ‘verification’, and so on are justified as particular social forms and moral action claims.