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 Skills1. 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 Skills3. 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 Skills5. 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

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).