MA Scottish Ethnology and Archaeology
About this course
Scottish ethnology and archaeology are both concerned with understanding human cultures, but they approach that task from different angles and with different methods. Archaeology uncovers material evidence of past societies, working from objects, structures, and landscapes to reconstruct how people lived, what they valued, and how their worlds changed over time. Ethnology engages with living and recent cultures, examining traditions, practices, oral history, and material culture as expressions of identity and community. Together they offer a uniquely rich perspective on human life across time, one that connects the deep past to the living present. At Edinburgh, this four-year joint honours programme draws on Scotland's extraordinary depth as a place for both kinds of inquiry. You will study archaeological methods and theory alongside ethnological approaches, developing skills in fieldwork, archival research, object analysis, and oral history. You will engage with questions about how cultural traditions are formed and sustained, how identities are constructed through memory and material culture, and how the discipline of archaeology has shaped and been shaped by ideas about nationhood and heritage. The programme includes a year abroad, offering you the opportunity to study these questions in an international context and to bring comparative insight back to your understanding of Scottish culture. Graduates go on to work in museums, heritage organisations, archaeology firms, archives, community history projects, and cultural policy bodies. The ability to move between material evidence and living culture, and to think across different timescales, is genuinely distinctive and valued in the heritage sector. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in archaeology, ethnology, museum studies, or related fields. The degree also develops transferable skills in research, analysis, and communication that are valued well beyond the heritage sector itself.
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