Module ANTM004 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Postgraduate Module Descriptor
ANTM004: Food and Agriculture in Historical Perspective
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
You will read works on food and agriculture produced within a range of disciplines, including archaeology, classics, ancient history, history, and anthropology. Through engagement with the literature, you will gain perspectives on both historical trends in human foodways and the particularities of foodways in specific places and times. The module will prepare you for your own research in the field of study, whether academic or within the context of public institutions, industries, or third sector organisations with an interest in food and foodways, heritage and sustainablitity.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Understand in detail how agriculture and foodways have evolved over time 2. Discern and trace historical linkages and transformations in agriculture and foodways |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Identify the factors contributing to specific foodways within their historical contexts as well as complex interactions between these 4. Critically analyze the social and environmental consequences of historically specific foodways |
| Personal and Key Skills | 5. Identify and critically analyze sources pertaining to foodways in various historical contexts 6. Present relevant information in support of coherent and persuasive historical accounts of food and agriculture in various specific contexts |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
The module will be structured as a reading and discussion seminar. The following themes will likely be covered, with minor variation from year to year depending upon the availability and current research of lecturers contributing to the module:
- The Agricultural Revolution: Causes and Consequences
- The domestication of animals, and pastoralism
- Food in Antiquity
- Early modern agricultural markets
- The Columbian exchange and the globalization of food
- Cultures of cooking and dining in the early modern period
- Devon food history
- The industrialization of agriculture
- Food preservation and food safety through time
- The nutrition transition
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 22 | 11 x 2-hour weekly seminar |
| Guided Independent Study | 50 | 10 x 5-hours weekly reading for seminar preparation |
| Guided Independent Study | 20 | 10 x 2-hours weekly preparation of reading response papers |
| Guided independent study | 58 | Research and writing of essay |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly reading response papers | 10 x 250 word weekly reading response papers, prepared before seminar and used to guide participation | 1-6 | Oral feedback in seminar, as well as during office hours upon request |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio of weekly reading response papers | 50 | 2,500 words | 1-6 | Weekly papers, revised in light of discussion and submitted at end of term; aggregate mark and written feedback on papers and contributions to seminar given at end of term |
| Essay | 50 | 2,500 word essay on a relevant topic of students choice approved by convener | 1-6 | Mark with written feedback |
| 0 |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio of weekly reading response papers | Portfolio of weekly reading response papers(2,500 words) | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
| Essay | Essay (2,500 words) | 1-6 | August/September reassessment period |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Basic reading:
Bellwood, Peter (2005) First Farmers: The Origins of Agricultural Societies (Oxford: Blackwell).
Bohstedt, J., The politics of provisions [electronic resource]: food riots, moral economy, and market transition in England, c. 1550-1850 (Farnham, 2010).
Goldschmidt, Walter (1978) As You Sow: Three Studies in the Social Consequences of Agribusiness (Allanheld, Osmun, and Co.).
Heath, Francis George (1911) British Rural Life and Labour, chapter 10 (London, P.S. King & Son, Orchard House, Westminster).
Outram, Alan (2014) “Animal Domestications,” in Cummings V, Jordan P, Zvelebil M (eds) Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 749-763
Popkin, Barry M. (2003) “The Nutrition Transition in the Developing World,” Development Policy Review 21(5-6): 581-597.
Smith, Woodruff D. (2002) Consumption and the Making of Respectability 1600-1800 (Routledge).
Thirsk, Joan (2007) Food in Early Modern England: Phases, Fads and Fashions 1500-1760 (Hambledon Continuum, London).
Wilkins, John, David Harvey and Michael Dobson, eds. (1995) Food in Antiquity (Exeter).
Wilson, Bee (2008) Swindled: From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee: The Dark History of the Food Cheats (John Murray).
