Master of Arts in Scottish Ethnology and Archaeology The University of Edinburgh, UK

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

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

Scottish Ethnology
Ethnology is the discipline which studies 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 available within 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.

The programme explores 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 the programme is the chance to work with the rich range of materials in the School of Scottish Studies Archives. These materials include thousands of hours of recordings of songs, music, stories, rhyme and verse in Scots, Gaelic and English, as well as in dialects now extinct.

By the end of the programme, you will have developed the practical and intellectual tools to handle traditional resources, modern media and digital data. In this way, you will be ready to navigate and influence contemporary culture and society in an increasingly globalised world.

Archaeology
Complementing the ethnology side of your programme, which explores the recent past and present, your studies in archaeology take you a good deal 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