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.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
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).