Scottish Ethnology and Archaeology MA (Hons)

The University of Edinburgh

Uncover Scotland's past and help shape its future, while gaining skills that you can apply to any country, culture or place.

This innovative joint honours programme combines two related yet distinct approaches to the study of human cultures, past and present.

Taking this programme shows an openness to ideas and perspectives other than your own, an essential attribute in many careers and a global marketplace.

Over the course of your four years with us, you will gain the practical and intellectual tools to handle and interpret:

• historic remains and artefacts
• print and traditional resources
• modern media and digital data

Scottish Ethnology

Ethnology is the study of the culture and traditions of developed societies. It is sometimes described as being at the intersection where history and anthropology meet.

While ethnology is commonly offered in universities across Europe, this is the only full undergraduate programme of its kind in the UK.

Focusing on Scotland, but also looking at comparative material from elsewhere, you will study the varying ways in which a modern European nation expresses itself culturally.

Our courses explore questions like:

• how do customs, beliefs, social organisation, language, music and song help to create and shape identity in the modern world?
• how do we use and make sense of the past from within our present?
• how can this understanding help us to shape our future?

A highlight of our programme is the chance to work with the rich range of materials in the School of Scottish Studies Archives and Scottish Studies Library.

You will explore the work of former staff and students who, since 1951, have been capturing elements of life in Scotland's farming and fishing communities, towns and cities.

Today, the Archives run to:

• 33,000 recordings of songs, music, stories, rhyme and verse in Scots, Gaelic and English, as well as in dialects now extinct
• thousands of photographs and rarely-seen historic documents which capture exceptional and everyday aspects of Scottish culture and heritage

These materials are kept alive through our teaching, undergraduate and postgraduate research, and through the work of our Traditional Artist and Gaelic Writer in Residence.

Archaeology

Complementing the ethnology side of your programme, which explores the recent past and present, your studies in archaeology take you further back in time.

Our courses will help you develop a parallel range of skills in the interpretation of social and cultural change.

The programme also develops your understanding of:

• the material basis of archaeology
• the contested nature of objects
• the social relationships that are spun around them
• the people who use and interpret them

You will gain practical experience in archaeological fieldwork, and use excellent on-campus laboratories.

Studying Scottish Ethnology and Archaeology at Edinburgh has been incredibly rewarding. I have been so surprised at how well both subjects tie into each other, and I doubt any other degree will help you better understand Scotland's material and non-material culture and history.

The programme has opened my eyes to so many elements of our understanding of culture and heritage, while allowing me to consider my own identity and relationship with it. In particular, the scale and breadth of the School of Scottish Studies Archives has given me an opportunity I don't think I would have anywhere else. There's never been a dull moment, and I've been surprised at every turn.

• Alastair, Year 3, Scottish Ethnology and Archaeology MA Hons