Curriculum & Timetable | Staff | Resources | Teaching, Timetable & Admissions
Symbolic culture, which includes language, ritual, myth and ideology, is what distinguishes us from our nearest primate relatives. How did language and symbolic culture evolve? What are the significant transformations that were made on that evolutionary path? How much of contemporary culture is shaped by these processes? Is it appropriate to try to interpret present day cultures and social behaviour informed by evolutionary theory? And how can the answers to these crucial questions inform the fieldwork that we currently undertake? These are the “big” questions at the cutting edge of anthropological and archaeological research. Answering them will help us better understand how we think and feel and behave as human beings. Our inter-disciplinary research expertise has an especial, but not exclusive, focus on the analysis of the origins of language, kinship and gender, war and revenge, equality and hierarchy and the analysis of ritual. It is a return to the founding concerns of classical anthropology – but through the revolution in the life sciences over the last forty years. The methods we use are drawn from a number of cognate disciplines: human behavioural ecology, cultural and social anthropology, archaeology and cultural astronomy.
Please send completed application forms and references to:
Diane Ball,
Anthropology,
School of Humanities and Social Sciences,
University of East London,
Docklands Campus,
4-6 University Way,
London E16 2RD, UK
On the one hand, the UEL programme will offer the student the opportunity to work within the established discipline of Human Behavioural Ecology. On the other hand, it will focus on how or why, over evolutionary time, humans have established, elaborated and diversified their symbolic systems, languages, rituals, gender ideologies and magico-religious myths. The challenge will be taken up, rarely addressed by Darwinians, to specify the concrete selection pressures which, uniquely in the case of human evolution, led to such fictions being entertained by human minds in the first place.
Blended delivery will include support for students engaging in fieldwork to meet the requirements for flexible study routines in emerging labour markets. All core classes, workshops and seminars will be conducted in the evenings.
Intense focus on the preparation, methods and successful completion of an independent research dissertation.
Normally one year full-time; two years part-time. Two 30 credit taught modules; one 60 credit taught module; one 60 credit research dissertation.
Prepares students for employment where their skills as cultural brokers, their fieldwork ability and qualitative and quantitative research skills can be used. They include posts in the Civil Service, Local Government, Health Authorities, Central Government, Voluntary Organizations and NGOs. Others will develop skills for further academic research.
Each student will have support from a tutor responsible for providing regular guidance and support in the relevant areas of personal and academic life. In addition, students will have regular access to academic tutors in each of their modules.
Additional support for study and research skills will be available in weekly workshops and via the School’s Student Support & Referral Unit. There will also be a twelve-week course designed for developing written language skills for those students who have English as a second language.
All students benefit from access to seminars and workshops organised by the School’s Post-Graduate Committee.
Applicants are normally required to have a good honours degree in a cognate area of study. Under special circumstances, applicants without a relevant first degree but with substantial professional experience may be considered usually by interview. For those students whose first language is not English, they are expected to have an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) grade of 6.5.
© 2009
UCAS code N/A
Final award MSc
Intermediate awards available Postgraduate Certificate; Postgraduate Diploma
Details of professional body accreditation N/A
Relevant QAA Benchmark statements N/A
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