University of Edinburgh
School of Social & Political Science
Social Anthropology
2014-2015
Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers
(SCAN10042)
Key Information
Course Organiser
Professor Alan Barnard
Email: [email protected]
 (0131) 650 3938
Room 5.20
Chrystal MacMillan Building, George Square
Location
Semester 2
Mondays, 16.10 – 18.00
Seminar Room 3, 15 Buccleuch Place
Course Secretary
Ewen Miller
Email: [email protected]
Undergraduate Teaching Office,
MacMillan Building
Assessment
deadlines
Ground
Floor,
Chrystal
 Short Essay: 12 noon Tuesday 10 February 2015
 Long Essay: 12 noon Tuesday 21 April 2015
Aims and objectives:
This course explores ethnography of the world’s hunting-and-gathering societies and
the contributions made through this ethnography to anthropological theory and
contemporary debate. Regions covered include Southern and Central Africa;
Aboriginal Australia; the Arctic, Subarctic and Northwest Coast of North America;
Indigenous South America; and Foraging Populations of South and Southeast Asia.
Theoretical ideas and debates include notions of immediate and delayed-return
economic systems, the ‘original affluent society’, the revisionist debate (on the extent
and meaning of culture contact in historic periods), and the indigenous debate (on
whether special rights should be accorded to hunter-gatherers by virtue of legallydefined indigeneity).
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course students should be able to describe the lifestyles of a variety
of hunter-gatherer peoples; make meaningful comparisons within and between regions
on aspects of subsistence economy, kinship, gender roles, religious beliefs and ritual,
etc.; and formulate ethnographically-informed opinions on issues such as social
development in hunter-gatherer communities. They should also be able to engage in
advanced debate, at postgraduate level, on theoretical issues in hunter-gatherer
studies and understand the relation of these to wider issues in anthropological and
social theory.
1
Teaching methods:
The course will consist of lectures, individual student presentations, and discussion.
The exact class format can be somewhat flexible, depending on student numbers.
Presentations and essays will involve independent research to find relevant sources,
while class discussion will usually centre around two specific journal articles per week.
All these are available electronically.
Assessment:
Students will be assessed by:
(i)
(ii)
A short essay (word-limit: 1500) due on Tuesday 10 February 2015; this carries
a weighting of 30% towards the final overall mark for the course
A longer (word-limit: 2500) essay due on Tuesday 21 April 2015, this carries a
weighting of 70% towards the final overall mark for the course
Short Essay Topic
How would you define hunter-gatherer sociality?
Long Essay Topic
Choose ONE of the following topics:
1.
Describe briefly the essence of the ‘Kalahari Debate’ and assess the applicability
of its traditionalist and revisionist approaches in TWO regions beyond Southern
Africa (e.g. for Central Africa, Aboriginal Australia, Native North America, etc.).
2.
There are many themes in hunter-gatherer studies: environment and technology,
gender and kinship, sharing and egalitarianism, art and myth, and most recently,
the evolution of symbolic thought. The relative importance of such themes varies
between different regions. Choose any ONE region and discuss ONE of its major
themes.
Please refer to Appendix 1 for additional information about assessment and
submission procedures.
Communications You are strongly encouraged to use email for routine communication with lecturers.
We shall also use email to communicate with you, e.g., to assign readings for the
second hour of each class. All students are provided with email addresses on the
university system, if you are not sure of your address, which is based on your matric
number, check your EUCLID database entry using the Student Portal.
This is the ONLY email address we shall use to communicate with you. Please note
that we will NOT use ‘private’ email addresses (such as Yahoo or Hotmail). It is
therefore essential that you check your university email regularly, preferably each day.
2
CLASSES AND READING LIST:
Lecture Summary
Week
Date
Lecture
1
12.01.2015
Introduction and Overview
2
19.01.2015
Prehistoric hunter-gatherers
3
26.01.2015
Symbolic Thought ( and Munro lecture)
4
02.02.2015
Australia
5
09.02.2015
The Arctic
16 – 20 February: Innovative Learning Week
6
23.02.2015
The Subarctic, the Northwest Coast, and similar
areas
7
02.03.2015
South America
8
09.03.2015
South and Southeast Asia
9
16.03.2015
Southern, Central and East Africa
10
23.03.2015
Schools of thought, comparisons, generalizations and
the future
Overview
Over 99 percent of the time-span of human existence has been spent entirely in hunterand-gathering (or foraging) societies: all other kinds of society are comparatively only
very recent. This course explores the ethnography of the last remaining hunting-andgathering societies, their internal organization, their contact with outsiders, and the
meaning of their social practices for the understanding of human nature, human social
evolution, and the significance of the hunter/non-hunter divide, both historically and in
terms of present-day concerns over the welfare of foraging peoples.
Normally, each two-hour class will be divided into two sections:
a)
b)
A short lecture giving an ethnographic overview of a particular region, and
Student-led discussion and debate on a specified topic. Other topics for
theoretical debate will emerge according to regional interests and in cumulative
comparisons between the regions.
For example, Aboriginal Australia has special significance for the study of kinship,
gender relations, and beliefs on cosmological order, as well as a unique place in the
study of colonial contact and the present-day preservation of tradition. Comparisons
between Australia and other regions can be enlightening for the understanding of
similar aspects of society elsewhere. Part of the class will be lecture, and part student
presentation. Each student will be required to specialize in an ethnographic region,
and each will take special responsibility for participation in one of the weekly
discussions or debates. These will not be formal debates, but rather directed
discussions of key theoretical issues in hunter-gatherer studies.
3
Debates that continue through hunter-gatherer studies include the ‘revisionist debate’
on the meaning of historical interactions between agro-pastoralists and foragers
(played out in the pages of Current Anthropology and elsewhere since 1990), the
‘indigenous debate’, a practical and philosophical variant ostensibly based on the
applicability ILO Convention 169 (also in Current Anthropology, since June 2003), the
Tasaday controversy (on ethnographic ‘reality’), flexibility vs. structure in models of
early human cosmological systems (based respectively on African vs. Australian
ethnography), and notions such as Sahlins’ ‘original affluent society’, Woodburn’s
‘immediate and delayed-return’, Bird-David’s ‘giving environment’, Lee’s ‘foraging
mode of production’, Barnard’s ‘foraging mode of thought’, etc.
Course Outline
For basic ethnographic coverage, general books such as Bicchieri’s Hunters and
Gatherers Today, Lee and Daly’s The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Hunters and
Gatherers, and to a lesser extent Barnard’s Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology
and Anthropology (which deals more with schools of thought in the history of huntergatherer studies), are good sources. The other sources listed under each week cover
more theoretical topics related to the questions for discussion. Items marked with an
asterisk are available on-line within the University of Edinburgh via the University’s ejournal link. Most other items listed in the ‘Course Outline’ are readily available on
Reserve, on Short Loan, or in the Reference Section of the University Library.
However, you must read beyond these, especially for your essays and class
presentations. For further suggestions on ethnographic and other bibliography, see the
‘Bibliography’ section below this ‘Course Outline’. . Probably journals (e-journals) will
be your main source, and you should learn to search for them, to read articles you see
referenced, and to build up your own bibliographies for essays and class presentations.
It is up to you to find relevant readings, to read them, and to be prepared to discuss
them. All this is part of the learning exercise.
Week 1: Introduction and overview
This class will be broad and general. Through informal discussion we will get to know
each other and our respective interests related to hunter-gatherers and huntergatherer studies. We also look at the issue of defining hunter-gatherers: an issue which
is relevant to the short assignment.
* A. Barnard, ‘Contemporary hunter-gatherers: Current theoretical issues in ecology
and social organization’. Annual Review of Anthropology 12: 193-214 (1983)
* R.B. Lee, ‘Art, science or politics? The crisis in hunter-gatherer studies’. American
Anthropologist 94: 21-54 (1992)
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), Introduction and selections of your choice from Part II Folio GN388
Cam.
A. Barnard (ed), Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (2004),
‘Introductory essay’ and Part I (selections of your choice) GN388 Hun.
Week 2: Prehistoric hunter-gatherers
An overview of archaeological periods: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, transition to the
Neolithic (food production), contact with Iron Age peoples (e.g., in Africa), etc. Diverse
methods and ideas in archaeology and social anthropology. ‘Out of Africa’, early
symbolic culture, rock art, etc.
* A. Barnard, Social Anthropology and Human Origins (2011) GN281 Bar.
* C. Stringer, The origin of our species (2012), Ch. 1 GN281 Str.
4
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), ch II.I.2 and selected archaeology chapters in Part I
Folio GN388
Cam.
M. Bicchieri (ed), Hunters and Gatherers Today (1972), chs 7, 8
A. Barnard (ed), Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (2004),
chs by Pappu, Lane & Schadla-Hall, Sheehan GN388 Hun.
I. Watts, ‘The origin of symbolic culture’, in R. Dunbar, C. Knight and C. Power (eds),
The Evolution of Culture: An Interdisciplinary View (1999) GN360 Evo.
Selections of your choice from issues of the electronic journal Before Farming.
Question for discussion:
(1) To what extent do archaeological approaches differ from social anthropological
ones? Why do they differ?
Week 3: Symbolic Thought (and Munro Lecture)
* A. Barnard, Genesis of Symbolic Thought (2012) GN452.5 Bar.
* C. Renfrew and I. Morley (eds.), Becoming Human (2009) GN79.R4 Bec.
R. Dunbar, C. Knight and C. Power (eds.), The Evolution of Culture (1999) GN360
Evo.
C. Gamble, Origins and Revolutions (2007) GN281 Gam.
R. Dunbar, C. Gamble and J. Gowlett (eds.) (2010) Social Brain, Distributed Mind
(2012) BF698.95 Soc.
R. Lewin and R. Foley (eds.), Principles of Evolution (2004) GN281 Lew.
Week 4: Australia
Possible topics for ethnographic exploration include the elementary structures of
kinship, ritual and gender relations, the notion of an ordered universe and religion
based on ‘pure form’. How Europeans reinterpreted the Aborigines in each generation.
Aboriginal peoples today.
* M. Bicchieri (ed), Hunters and Gatherers Today (1972), chs 5, 6 GN315 Hun. or
GN315 Bic.
* A. Barnard, ‘Modern hunter-gatherers and early symbolic culture’, in R. Dunbar, C.
Knight and C. Power (eds), The Evolution of Culture: An Interdisciplinary View
(1999) GN360 Evo.
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), Part I.VII Folio GN388 Cam.
Questions for discussion:
(1) Which is the better model for early symbolic culture: African or Australian
ethnography?
(2) Which was the greater ‘revolution’, the Symbolic or the Neolithic?
5
Week 5: The Arctic
Inuit, Eskimo and Aleut. Siberian hunters. Saami reindeer herders (should they be
considered ‘hunter-gatherers’?) The determining and limiting factors of the
environment, and the ideas of Julian Steward (though drawn up with reference to nonArtic groups), may be relevant for discussion.
* M. Bicchieri (ed), Hunters and Gatherers Today (1972), ch 1 GN315 Hun. or GN315
Bic.
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), chs I.I.7, I.I.8 and chapters of your choice from Part I.III
Folio GN388
Cam.
A. Barnard (ed), Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (2004),
chs by Artemova and Sirina
GN388 Hun.
J. Steward, Theory of Culture Change (1955) HM101 Ste. or .30124 Ste.
Questions for discussion:
(1) Is the Arctic a culture area?
(2) Does environment determine culture?
Innovative Learning Week:
No teaching.
Week 6: The Subarctic, the Northwest Coast, and similar areas
Canadian and Alaskan Subarctic: band aggregation and dispersal. Northwest Coast:
formalism and substantivism in economic theory, the idea of surplus and its
distribution, and notions of equality and inequality. Other ethnographic cases: the Ainu
of Japan, the Shoshone of California, etc.
* J. Woodburn, ‘Egalitarian societies’, Man (n.s.): 17: 431-51
M. Bicchieri (ed), Hunters and Gatherers Today (1972), chs 2, 3, 11 GN315 Hun. or
GN315 Bic.
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), Part I.I
Folio GN388 Cam.
A. Barnard (ed), Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (2004),
chs by Myers, Pinkoski & Asch
GN388 Hun.
J. Woodburn, ‘Hunters and gatherers today and reconstruction of the past’, in E.
Gellner (ed), Soviet and Western Anthropology (1980) GN308.3.R9 Sov.
Question for discussion:
(1) What are the limits of ‘immediate-return’? Of sharing?
(2) Why are some hunter-gatherers egalitarian and others not?
Week 7: South America
The Ona and Yahgan: ‘a life of man nasty, poore, brutish and short’? Indians of
Paraguay, Brazil, etc.: social organization, mythology, shamanism, cultivation and
hunting.
* M. Bicchieri (ed), Hunters and Gatherers Today (1972), ch 4 GN315 Hun. or GN315
Bic.
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), Part I.II
Folio GN388 Cam.
A. Barnard, ‘The foraging mode of thought’, in H. Steward, A. Barnard and K. Omura
(eds), Self- and Other Images of Hunter-Gatherers (Senri Ethnological Studies, No.
60). GN388 Sel.
6
Questions for discussion:
(1) ‘Pure’ hunter-gatherers and part-time cultivators: is there a difference?
(2) Foraging: mode of production or mode of thought?
Week 8: South and Southeast Asia
The Andamans and mainland India: ‘savage’ vs ‘tame’ hunter-gatherers. Southeast
Asian foragers vs cultivators. The Philippines: Tasaday controversy.
* N. Bird-David, ‘Beyond the “original affluent society”: A culturalist reformulation’.
Current Anthropology 33: 25-35 (1992)
* N. Bird-David, ‘The giving environment: another perspective on the economic system
of hunter-gatherers’. Current Anthropology 31: 189-96 (1990)
M. Bicchieri (ed), Hunters and Gatherers Today (1972), chs 9, 10 GN315 Hun. or
GN315 Bic.
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), ch II.III.1 (on the Tasady controversy) and selections of your choice from
Part I.V and Part I.VI
Folio GN388 Cam.
M. Sahlins, Stone Age Economics, ch 1.
GN489 Sah.
T.N. Headland (ed), The Tasaday Controversy: Assessing the Evidence (1992)
DS666.T32 Tas.
Questions for discussion:
(1) Which is the better characterization of hunter-gatherer society in nature: ‘original
affluent society’ or people in a ‘giving environment’?
(2) What is the Tasaday controversy really about? Which side, if either, is right?
Week 9: Southern, Central and East Africa
(Guest Lecture: Jenny Lawy)
Southern Africa: the revisionist debate. East Africa: immediate and delayed-return
economic systems. Central Africa: patronage and clientship.
* J. Solway and R. Lee, 1990. ‘Foragers, genuine or spurious: Situating the Kalahari
San in history’. Current Anthropology 31: 109-46
* Sylvain, Renee. 2003. ‘Class, Culture and Recognition: San Farm Workers and
Indigenous Identities’. Anthropologica 45(1): 111–19
* Suzman, James. 1999. ‘Things from the Bush’: A Contemporary History of the
Omaheke Bushmen. ‘Introduction’ pp 1 – 25. Basel: Schlettwein Publishing.
DT1558.S38 Suz
Gordon, Robert J., and Stuart Sholto-Douglas. 2000. The Bushman Myth: The Making
of a Namibian Underclass. Ch 22 ‘The culture of terror and the inevitability of
violence’ pp 231 – 53. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. DT1558.S38 Gor
Saugestad, Sidsel. 2001. The Inconvenient Indigenous: Remote Area Development in
Botswana, Donor Assistance, and the First People of the Kalahari. Chapter 13
‘To find a voice’ pp 209 – 27. Boras, Sweden: The Nordic Africa Institute.
DT2458.S26 Sau
Robins, Steven. 2000. ‘Land Struggles and the Politics and Ethics of Representing
“Bushman” History and Identity’. Kronos 26: 5–75.
A. Barnard, Anthropology and the Bushman (2007) Chapter 7 ‘An Original Affluent
Society?’
Pp 67- 82 DT1058.S36 Bar.
7
Week 9 continued
E.N. Wilmsen and J.R. Denbow, ‘Paradigmatic history of San-speaking peoples and
current attempts at revision’. Current Anthropology 31: 489-524 (1990)
A. Barnard (ed), Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (2004),
chs by Ichikawa, Sugawara, Suzman, Widlok
GN388 Hun.
Questions for discussion:
(1) Have the Kalahari revisionists got a point?
(2) To what extent is redefining San as an underclass useful?
Week 10: Schools of thought, comparisons, generalizations and the future
The diverse approaches of anthropology in North America, France, Japan, the UK, and
Russia, etc. Possible topics include: early evolutionism and diffusionism; the ‘original
affluent society’, cultural ecology, Marxist ideas on modes of production, and recent
debates on ‘indigenous peoples’.
Review of the course. The issue of ‘comparison’ from a theoretical point of view, and
in practice. The future for the world’s remaining hunter-gatherers and those who
identify as (recent) hunter-gatherers.
* A. Kuper. ‘The return of the native’. Current Anthropology 44(3): 389-402 (2003) and
45(2): 261-67 (2004)
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), ch II.III.4 Folio GN388 Cam.
A. Barnard (ed), Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (2004),
Part II (selections of your choice)
GN388 Hun.
Questions for discussion:
(1) How have approaches to hunter-gatherers differed through time? In different
national traditions?
(2) Hunter-gatherers: indigenous peoples, or just plain folk?
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), chs II.III.2, II.III.3, II.III.4
Folio GN388 Cam.
Questions for discussion:
(1) What is meant by ‘comparison’ in anthropology? With reference to huntergatherer studies, what is its theoretical basis?
(2) What future do you see for living hunter-gatherers?
8
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ethnographies and journal articles on hunter-gatherers
The aims of this course include improving skills in research, data analysis,
presentation, and writing. I will offer guidance, but it is up to each student do his or her
own research to locate materials relevant to individual interests. What is listed above
is just basic reading. Go deeper into sources to develop your specialist ethnographic
knowledge on a particular region or regions and to help you in your chosen topics for
presentation and essay. The library holds well over a hundred hunter-gatherer
ethnographies, covering all six inhabited continents. Locate ones of interest to you and
read them. Work backwards in time through bibliographies, search the web, search the
Library catalogue, or learn both the Dewey system (for older books) and the LOC
system (for recently-acquired books) and browse the shelves.
Note too that ‘ethnographies’ are not all the same: they have different purposes and
different audiences, and they represent different foci and diverse perspectives. To take
a just few of the hundreds of Australian examples, Spencer and Gillen’s The Native
Tribes of Central Australia (1899) was among the first great ethnographies and highly
influential in pre-Malinowskian, evolutionist anthropology. Radcliffe-Brown’s The
Social Organization of Australian Tribes (1931) was in its time the great synthesis.
Kaberry’s Aboriginal Woman (1939) initiated a rethink of gender relations, with many
further rethinks in recent decades. Maddock’s The Australian Aborigines (1972), in my
view the best of several general works on Aboriginal Australia, updates RadcliffeBrown’s overview of social systems and for a wider public, while Maddock’s Your Land
is Our Land (1983) concentrates on legal issues and the land question. Hiatt’s
wonderful but sometimes dense Arguments about Aborigines (1996) tells of the ideas
developed by anthropologists through Aboriginal studies and the relation between
ethnography and theoretical debate. Strang’s Uncommon Ground (1997) represents
an unusual example of comparison between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
understandings of the environment, while Dussart’s The Politics of Ritual in an
Aboriginal Settlement (2000) is one many recent ethnographies emphasizing
individuals as well as collectivities.
Likewise, the library holds several thousand articles in anthropology journals on
hunting and-gathering societies and the ideas that have come from their study.
Relevant journals include Africa, American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist,
Current Anthropology, Ethnology, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,
Oceania, Social Anthropology, among others. Most of these are available in both print
and
on-line
versions.
Check
RAI’s
Anthropological
Index
Online
(http://aio.anthropology.org.uk/aio/AIO.html) to locate journal articles additional to the
ones on the reading list. You can search back to the 1950s, or you can search for
articles in a more recent time period. For example, when in July 2004 I searched simply
under ‘hunting and gathering societies’ for such articles published in the first decade
of the 2000s, my search yielded 133 journal articles published in 2001, 2002 and early
2003. How many you read, which ones you read, how much detail to take away with
you, and how to deal with diverse ideas from different articles on the same subject, is
up to you.
Check JSTOR (http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/resources/collections/serials/ejintro.shtml)
from within the university computer system or via MYED to see if electronic versions
are available and, if so, to download them. If not, try the print versions. Most
anthropology journals are located on the fourth floor of the Library at Per .572 (then
alphabetically by journal title). This year’s issues are in the Current Periodicals Room
on the first floor.
9
Another very useful resource is the bibliography of writings on hunter-gatherers
compiled
by
James
W.
Helmer
of
the
University
of
Calgary:
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~helmer/biblio.html. It contains 900 items published up to
1997. Since all 900 are listed on a single electronic page, it is very easy to use: search
it in Explorer by ‘Edit’ then ‘Search (on this page)’. Try searching for ethnic group
names. For example, I got 14 hits for ‘!Kung’ and 124 hits for ‘Eskimo’. (Yes, there is
a slight Arctic bias, as Helmer himself is an Arctic specialist.) Or simply try the
bibliographies of recent books and articles you read. The most recent large
bibliography in hunter-gatherer studies is the combined one for my edited collection
Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (2004), which contains
about 800 items. Even if you take away the items that are not explicitly on huntergatherers (like Engels or Lévi--Strauss) and those that are in Russian and not available
in Edinburgh, there are still many hundreds to choose from. The bibliographies at the
end of each chapter of Lee and Daly’s The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and
Gatherers (1999) are extremely useful.
In addition, there is a very important new online journal devoted exclusively to huntergatherer studies (both archaeological and social anthropological): Before Farming. It
started publishing in only 2002. Look at the tables of contents for each issue (via the
e-journal link): there are only a modest number, and it is easy and worthwhile. The
ground-breaking ‘Man the Hunter’ conference held in Chicago in 1966 (now known to
some as Chags 0) set the scene for modern hunter-gatherer studies. Since then have
been nine more world conferences on hunting-and-gathering societies, the most recent
held in Edinburgh in 2002 (Chags 9). Some of the papers from that conference have
recently been published (e.g., nearly all chapters in my Hunter-Gatherers in History,
Archaeology and Anthropology and several more papers in issues of Before Farming).
The best papers from the previous eight conferences were published mainly in edited
collections, some of which are listed below.
The list below is but a small selection, annotated to give you an idea of content,
derivation and style. I stress again: read within this list, but go beyond it to topics that
interest you. Check the bibliographies of the more recent works below for further
selections, or talk to me about possibilities, depending on your own interests and essay
topic. I know you can’t read everything, even every page in the reading for a given
week, but you must read what you feel is most useful to you for your contributions to
the course. Not everything may be available, but there is always something relevant
and interesting. Find it!
Some edited collections on hunter-gatherers
A. Barnard (ed), Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology (2004).
Papers from the Edinburgh Chags 9 on the history of hunter-gather studies and
on different national traditions (Japanese, Russian, etc.)
GN388 Hun.
M. Bicchieri (ed), Hunters and Gatherers Today (1972). See below. GN315 Hun. or
GN315 Bic.
E. Burch and L. Ellanna (eds), Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research (1994). Papers
from the Fairbanks Chags 6 on various topics.
GN388 Key.
V. Cummings, P. Jordan and M. Zvelebil (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the
Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunters and Gatherers (2014). Long and
comprehensive: 61 chapters.
F. Dahlberg (ed), Woman the Gatherer (1981). An attempt to counter male bias in
ethnography. GN479.7 Wom.
J. Gowdy, Limited Wants, Unlimited Means (1998). Essentially a reader containing
some of the classic papers in hunter-gatherer studies. GN388 Lim.
E. Leacock and R. Lee (eds), Politics and History in Band Societies (1982). A selection
of papers from the Paris Chags 1, mainly those dealing with political aspects of
hunter-gatherer life. GN388 Pol.
10
R.B. Lee and I. DeVore (eds), Man the Hunter (1968). The classic first collection of
modern hunter-gatherer studies, from the 1966 Chicago conference. GN422
Man.
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999), Folio GN388 Cam.
T. Ingold, D. Riches and J. Woodburn (eds), Hunters and Gatherers, 2 vols (1988).
Two sets of papers from the London Chags 4, the first on history, evolution and
social change, and the second on property, power and ideology.
GN388 Hun.
C. Panter-Brick, R.H. Layton and P Rowley-Conwy (eds), Hunter-Gatherers: An
Interdisciplinary Perspective (2001). A very interdisciplinary collection: health
and nutrition, demography, language, art, etc. GN388 Hun.
C. Schrire (ed), Past and Present in Hunter-Gatherer Studies (1984). Papers from the
Bad Homberg Chags 3, all largely revisionist in perspective.
GN407.3 Pas.
P.P. Schweitzer, M. Bielese, and R.K. Hitchcock (eds), Hunters and Gatherers in the
Modern World (2000). Papers from the Moscow Chags 7, with an emphasis on
relations between groups and with the state.
GN388 Hun.
H. Stewart, A. Barnard and K. Omura (eds), Self- and Other-Images of HunterGatherers (2000). One of a few monographs from the Osaka Chags 8, this one
on imagery, tourism, etc.
GN388 Sel.
B. Winterhalder and E.A. Smith (eds), Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies (1981).
Quite a classic in ‘optimal foraging theory’, mainly archaeological. GN388 Hun.
Of these, Bicchieri’s Hunters and Gatherers Today is the most useful and is available
in multiple copies in the Library. It contains eleven well-written mini-ethnographies of
well-known hunter-gatherer peoples, all written by people with recent field experience
at the time. I have also requested that copies of Lee and DeVore’s Man the Hunter and
Gowdy’s Limited Wants, Unlimited Means be placed on Reserve in the Library.
The Oxford Handbook (Cummings et al.) and the Cambridge Encyclopedia (Lee and
Daly) are also very general and very useful guides.
Some general works on hunter-gatherers and other relevant books
R.L. Bettinger, Hunter-Gatherers: Archaeological and Evolutionary Theory (1991).
Mainly archaeological and theoretical.
GN407.3 Bet.
T. Ingold, The Appropriation of Nature (1986). A collection of essays, mainly on huntergatherers, by one of the world’s most imaginative anthropologists.
GN388
Ing.
T. Ingold, The Perception of the Environment (2000). Not just on hunter-gatherers, but
contains some fascinating and brilliant essays on all sorts of things. GN33 Ing.
R.L. Kelly, The Foraging Spectrum (1995). Widely praised and commonly used as an
introduction to hunter-gatherer studies in North American courses, but perhaps
a bit too ‘scientific’ for most social anthropologists in the UK. GN388 Kel.
R. Lee and R. Daly (eds), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers
(1999). See below.
Folio GN388 Cam.
E.R. Service, Primitive Social Organization (1962). A classic in the Stewardian tradition
(see Steward below). GN490 Ser.
E.R. Service, The Hunters, 2nd edn. (1978). A short, broad overview within evolutionist
theory. GN388 Ser.
J. Steward, Theory of Culture Change (1955). The great classic in theoretical huntergatherer studies, now someone dated but still a baseline for modern discussion.
HM101 Ste. or .30124 Ste.
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Of these, Lee and Daly’s 511-page, well-illustrated Cambridge Encyclopedia is
particularly useful, for detailed ethnographic overviews, for maps and bibliography, and
for more theoretical essays. Along with Bicchieri’s Hunters and Gatherers Today, this
can be regarded as a main source book for this course, though you are, of course,
encouraged to read references cited in the bibliographies at the end of each chapter
according to your regional specialization. Remember that learning to do your own
bibliographical research is, in any case, one of the purposes of this course, so you must go
beyond what is on this list above.
12
APPENDIX 1 – SUBMISSION & ASSESSMENT INFORMATION
Word Count Penalties
Short Essay:
Your short essay should be a maximum of 1500 words (excluding bibliography).
Essays above (1500) words will be penalised using the Ordinary level criterion of 1
mark for every 20 words over length: anything between (1500 and 1520) words will
lose one mark, between (1500 and 1540) two marks, and so on.
Long Essay:
Your long essay should be a maximum of 2500 words (excluding bibliography).
Essays above 2500 words will be penalised using the Ordinary level criterion of 1 mark
for every 20 words over length: anything between (2500 and 2520) words will lose one
mark, between (2500 and 2540) two marks, and so on.
You will not be penalised for submitting work below the word limit. However, you should
note that shorter essays are unlikely to achieve the required depth and that this will be
reflected in your mark.
ELMA: Submission and return of coursework
Coursework is submitted online using our electronic submission system, ELMA. You
will not be required to submit a paper copy of your work.
Marked coursework, grades and feedback will be returned to you via ELMA. You will
not receive a paper copy of your marked course work or feedback.
For information, help and advice on submitting coursework and accessing feedback,
please see the ELMA wiki at:
https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/pages/viewpage.action?title=ELMA&spaceKey=SPSITWiki
Further detailed guidance on the essay deadline and a link to the wiki and submission
page will be available on the course Learn page. The wiki is the primary source of
information on how to submit your work correctly and provides advice on approved file
formats, uploading cover sheets and how to name your files correctly.
When you submit your work electronically, you will be asked to tick a box confirming
that your work complies with university regulations on plagiarism. This confirms that
the work you have submitted is your own.
Occasionally, there can be technical problems with a submission. We request that you
monitor your university student email account in the 24 hours following the deadline
for submitting your work. If there are any problems with your submission the course
secretary will email you at this stage.
We undertake to return all coursework within 15 working days of submission. This time
is needed for marking, moderation, second marking and input of results. If there are
any unanticipated delays, it is the course organiser’s responsibility to inform you of the
reasons.
All our coursework is assessed anonymously to ensure fairness: to facilitate
this process put your Examination number (on your student card), not your
name or student number, on your coursework or cover sheet.
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Return of Feedback:
Feedback for coursework will be returned online via ELMA the following dates:
Short Essay = 03.03.2015
Long Essay = 12.05.2015
The Operation of Lateness Penalties
Unlike in Years 1 and 2, NO EXTENSIONS ARE GRANTED WITH RESPECT TO THE
SUBMISSION DEADLINES FOR ANY ASSESSED WORK At HONOURS LEVEL.
Managing deadlines is a basic life-skill that you are expected to have acquired by the
time you reach Honours. Timely submission of all assessed items (coursework,
essays, project reports, etc.) is a vitally important responsibility at this stage in your
university career. Unexcused lateness can put at risk your prospects of proceeding to
Senior Honours and can damage your final degree grade.
If you miss the submission deadline for any piece of assessed work 5 marks will be
deducted for each calendar day that work is late, up to a maximum of five calendar
days (25 marks). Thereafter, a mark of zero will be recorded. There is no grace period
for lateness and penalties begin to apply immediately following the deadline. For
example, if the deadline is Tuesday at 12 noon, work submitted on Tuesday at 12.01pm
will be marked as one day late, work submitted at 12.01pm on Wednesday will be
marked as two days late, and so on.
Failure to submit an item of assessed work will result in a mark of zero, with potentially
very serious consequences for your overall degree class, or no degree at all. It is
therefore always in your interest to submit work, even if very late.
Please be aware that all work submitted is returned to students with a
provisional mark and without applicable penalties in the first instance. The mark
you receive on ELMA is therefore subject to change following the consideration
of the Lateness Penalty Waiver Panel (please see below for further information)
and the Board of Examiners.
How to Submit a Lateness Penalty Waiver Form (LPW)
If there are extenuating circumstances beyond your control which make it essential for
you to submit work after the deadline you must fill in a ‘Lateness Penalty Waiver’ (LPW)
form to state the reason for your lateness. This is a request for any applicable penalties
to be removed and will be considered by the Lateness Penalty Waiver Panel.
Before submitting an LPW, please consider carefully whether your circumstances are
(or were) significant enough to justify the lateness. Such circumstances should be
serious and exceptional (e.g. not a common cold or a heavy workload). Computer
failures are not regarded as justifiable reason for late submission. You are expected
to regularly back-up your work and allow sufficient time for uploading it to ELMA.
How to Submit a Lateness Penalty Waiver Form continued
You should submit the LPW form and supply an expected date of submission as soon
as you are able to do so, and preferably before the deadline. Depending on the
circumstances, supporting documentation may be required, so please be prepared to
provide this where possible.
14
LPW forms can be found in a folder outside your SSO’s office, on online at:
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/undergrad/on_course_students/assessment_and_regulation
s/coursework_requirements/coursework_requirements_honours
Forms should be returned by email or, if possible, in person to your SSO. They will
sign the form to indicate receipt and will be able to advise you if you would like further
guidance or support.
Please Note: Signing the LPW form by either your SSO or Personal Tutor only
indicates acknowledgment of the request, not the waiving of lateness penalties. Final
decisions on all marks rest with Examination Boards.
There is a dedicated SSO for students in each subject area in SPS. To find out who
your SSO is, and how to contact them, please find your home subject area on the table
below:
Name of
Email
SSO
Phone
Politics
TBC
0131
650
4253
International
Relations
Rebecca
Shade
[email protected]
Social
Anthropology
Vanessa
Feldberg
0131
[email protected] 650
3933
Social Policy
Louise
Angus
[email protected]
0131
650
3923
Social Work
Jane
Marshall
[email protected]
0131
650
3912
Sociology
Karen
Dargo
[email protected]
0131
651
1306
Sustainable
Development
Sue
Renton
[email protected]
0131
650
6958
Subject Area
0131
651
3896
Office
Room 1.11,
Chrystal
MacMillan
Building
Room 1.10,
Chrystal
MacMillan
Building
Room 1.04,
Chrystal
MacMillan
Building
Room 1.08,
Chrystal
MacMillan
Building
Room 1.07,
Chrystal
MacMillan
Building
Room 1.03,
Chrystal
MacMillan
Building
Room 1.09,
Chrystal
MacMillan
Building
If you are a student from another School, you should submit your LPW to the SSO for
the subject area of the course, Vanessa Feldberg.
15
Plagiarism Guidance for Students: Avoiding Plagiarism:
Material you submit for assessment, such as your essays, must be your own work.
You can, and should, draw upon published work, ideas from lectures and class
discussions, and (if appropriate) even upon discussions with other students, but you
must always make clear that you are doing so. Passing off anyone else’s work
(including another student’s work or material from the Web or a published author) as
your own is plagiarism and will be punished severely.
When you upload your work to ELMA you will be asked to check a box to confirm the
work is your own. ELMA automatically runs all submissions through ‘Turnitin’, our
plagiarism detection software, and compares every essay against a constantlyupdated database, which highlights all plagiarised work. Assessed work that contains
plagiarised material will be awarded a mark of zero, and serious cases of plagiarism
will also be reported to the College Academic Misconduct officer. In either case, the
actions taken will be noted permanently on the student's record.
For further details on plagiarism see the Academic Services’ website:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/academicservices/students/undergraduate/discipline/plagiarism
Data Protection Guidance for Students:
In most circumstances, students are responsible for ensuring that their work with
information about living, identifiable individuals complies with the requirements of the
Data Protection Act. The document, Personal Data Processed by Students, provides
an explanation of why this is the case. It can be found, with advice on data protection
compliance and ethical best practice in the handling of information about living,
identifiable individuals, on the Records Management section of the University website
at:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/records-management-section/dataprotection/guidance-policies/dpforstudents
16
APPENDIX 2 – GENERAL INFORMATION
Learning Resources for Undergraduates:
The Study Development Team at the Institute for Academic Development (IAD)
provides resources and workshops aimed at helping all students to enhance their
learning skills and develop effective study techniques. Resources and workshops
cover a range of topics, such as managing your own learning, reading, note making,
essay and report writing, exam preparation and exam techniques.
The study development resources are housed on 'LearnBetter' (undergraduate), part
of Learn, the University's virtual learning environment. Follow the link from the IAD
Study Development web page to enrol: www.ed.ac.uk/iad/undergraduates
Workshops are interactive: they will give you the chance to take part in activities, have
discussions, exchange strategies, share ideas and ask questions. They are 90 minutes
long and held on Wednesday afternoons at 1.30pm or 3.30pm. The schedule is
available from the IAD Undergraduate web page (see above).
Workshops are open to all undergraduates but you need to book in advance, using the
MyEd booking system. Each workshop opens for booking 2 weeks before the date of
the workshop itself. If you book and then cannot attend, please cancel in advance
through MyEd so that another student can have your place. (To be fair to all students,
anyone who persistently books on workshops and fails to attend may be barred from
signing up for future events).
Study Development Advisors are also available for an individual consultation if you
have specific questions about your own approach to studying, working more
effectively, strategies for improving your learning and your academic work. Please
note, however, that Study Development Advisors are not subject specialists so they
cannot comment on the content of your work. They also do not check or proof read
students' work.
To make an appointment
[email protected]
with
a
Study
Development
Advisor,
email
(For support with English Language, you should contact the English Language
Teaching Centre).
Discussing Sensitive Topics:
The discipline of Social Anthropology addresses a number of topics that some might
find sensitive or, in some cases, distressing. You should read this handbook carefully
and if there are any topics that you may feel distressed by you should seek advice from
the course convenor and/or your Personal Tutor.
For more general issues you may consider seeking the advice of the Student
Counselling Service, http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/student-counselling
17
External Examiner
The External Examiner for the Social Anthropology Honours programme is:
Dr Matei Candea
Lecturer, Division of Social Anthropology
Department of Archaeology & Anthropology
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
CAMBRIDGE CB2 3RF
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