Postgraduate Course: The Archaeology of Human-Animal Relationships (PGHC11472)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The aim of this course is to introduce students to the evolution, significance and complexity of past human-animal relationships. Students will engage with international case studies exploring the practical and conceptual nature of these interactions, and their context and consequence on local and global scales, from individual pet keeping to the worldwide spread of farming. |
| Course description |
The course explores the evolution, significance and complexity of past human-animal relationships. Students will engage with international case studies exploring the practical and conceptual nature of these interactions, and their context and consequence on local and global scales, from individual pet keeping to the worldwide spread of farming. Focussing primarily on the archaeological past, it will also draw on selected ethnographic case studies. The course also provides contextualisation to current and future global challenges centred on how we live with animals.
The subject will be explored through a mixture of lectures, in-class discussions, and student presentations. Weekly lectures will cover major themes, with focus on the different forms and impacts of relationships, and critical assessment of how this is evidenced and investigated from the archaeological record. Students will give short presentations exploring specific examples of past human-animal relationships drawn from the breadth of past human experience that will augment these major themes. These insights will be expanded through in-depth discussions in seminars to explore theoretical models of human-animal relationships. These seminars will address key conceptual and evidential challenges to understanding past human-animal relationships.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate a detailed and critical command of the body of knowledge relating to the study of past human-animal relationships;
- demonstrate an ability to analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship concerning the investigation and interpretation of past human-animal relationships;
- demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain original scholarly arguments in oral and written form by independently formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence considered in the course;
- demonstrate in seminar discussions and written assignments originality and independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers; and a considerable degree of autonomy.
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Reading List
Albarella U and Trentacoste A (eds.) 2011, Ethnozooarchaeology. The present and past of human-animal relationships. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Armstrong Oma, K., 2010. Between trust and domination: social contracts between humans and animals. World Archaeology 42(2): 175-187.
Clutton-Brock J, ed. 1989. The Walking Larder: Patterns of Domestication, Pastoralism, and Predation. London: Hyman
Davis S J M 1987, The archaeology of animals. London: Batsford.
Ingold, T., 2000. The perception of the environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. Routledge; London and New York.
Kardulias, P.N. (ed.), 2015. The ecology of pastoralism. Boulder; University Press of Colorado.
Larson, G. and Fuller, D.Q., 2014. The evolution of animal domestication. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 45: 115-136.
Mullin, M.H., 1999. Mirrors and windows: sociocultural studies of human-animal relationships. Annual review of anthropology, 28(1), pp.201-224.
Orton, D., 2010. Both subject and object: herding, inalienability and sentient property in prehistory. World Archaeology 42(2): 188-200.
Russell N 2011, Social Zooarchaeology: Humans and Animals in Prehistory. Cambridge University Press.
Sykes N 2014, Beastly Questions: Animal Answers to Archaeological Issues. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Zeder M A 2012, Pathways to animal domestication. In: Gepts P, Famula T R, Bettinger R L, Brush S B, Damania A B, McGuire P E and Qualset C O (eds.), Biodiversity in Agriculture: Domestication, Evolution and Sustainability: 227-259. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
On successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
- extract key elements and meanings from complex data sets
- develop a reasoned argument, support it with relevant evidence, and communicate it appropriately and persuasively
- present their ideas and analyses in a coherent fashion
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| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Robin Bendrey
Tel: (0131 6)50 9110
Email: |
Course secretary | |
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