ENGLAND: THE OTHER WITHIN

PRM teaching Part 5

Alison Petch,
Researcher 'The Other Within' project

The extracts given below are taken straight from the published Annual Reports of the Museum which have been published annually between 1893 and this year and are all the references to teaching in the Museum's Annual Reports

Section 1 - Annual Reports 1893 to 1941-2
Section 2 - Annual Reports 1942-3 to 1954-5
Section 3 - Annual Reports 1955-6 to 1963-4
Section 4 - Annual Reports 1964-5 to 1982-3
Section 5 - Annual Reports 1983-4 to 1992-3
Section 6 - Annual Reports 1993-4 to 2005-6

Please note that these edited extracts from the Annual Reports omit almost all mention to teaching outside of the mainstream Diploma / Masters teaching in the Pitt Rivers Museum. In addition to the activities recorded here staff supervised research students, lectured at other institutions, and lectured to visiting groups and schoolchildren.

1984-5 The General Board agreed that steps to fill the post of University Lecturer in Ethnology and Assistant Curator, vacant in consequence of Dr. Jones’s appointment as Curator, could be taken immediately. By the end of the year short-listed candidates had been interviewed but no appointment had been announced.
The Assistant Curator, Mr Inskeep and Dr Tayler, agreed to accept a limited amount of teaching as part of their duties (both had been teaching voluntarily). Their posts were therefore redesignated University Lecturer, in Prehistoric Archaeology and Ethnology respectively, and Assistant Curator.

1985-6 Plans were drawn up for two new graduate courses: the M.St. (Master of Studies) in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, and an M.Phil. (Master of Philosophy) in the same field. The first is to be a one-year taught course for graduate students. For those wishing to go on to a second year of graduate research the M.Phil. enables them to concentrate on some special aspect of their first year's work and requires the writing of a thesis under supervision. These new courses will provide opportunities for suitably qualified students to gain instruction in cultural anthropology with special reference to the history and development of Ethnology, as well as the study of art, material culture, and aesthetic anthropology. In addition to the practical study of ethnographic collections in the museum, students can choose the optional subjects ranging from ethnomusicology and museum studies to the ways in which other cultures have been depicted in anthropological films. It is expected that the new courses will begin in Michaelmas Term, I987.
The Department continues to offer two optional courses to undergraduates reading for degrees in Geography: one entitled Man, Environment, and Culture and the other in Palaeolithic and Mesollithic Archaeology. The first of these is taught by Dr Donald Tayler, Dr Howard Morphy, and Dr Schuyler Jones. The second is taught by Dr Derek Roe. The Department also continues to lecture and teach undergraduates reading for the Human Science Degree.
Two of our graduate students continued to carry out research, a North America and the other in South America, dividing their time between Oxford and the field, one working in the Andes and the other on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
One candidate sat the M.St. in Prehistoric Archaeology and M.St. in Anthropological Archaeology. Both candidates were successful. At the doctoral level, Ms J.A. Tyldesley submitted a thesis on The Latest Handaxe Industries of the British Palaeolithic, with Reference to their Affinities in North West Europe and was awarded the degree. In Ethnology Ms S.A. Wright submitted her thesis Identities and Influence:Political Organlzation in Doshman Ziari, Mamasani, Iran and was awarded the degree, and Mr Leonidas Sotiropoulos was equally successful with his thesis Social Institutions of a Greek Village, with Special Reference to Economic Relationships.
During the past few years a trend has developed which has serious implications for future scholarship in various branches of the social sciences. The trend is one in which well qualified graduate students find themselves unable to get grants that will allow them to carry out advanced study and research. Year after year this Department receives between 50 and l00 enquiries, mostly from well-qualified graduates who are interested in pursuing careers either in Cultural Anthropology or Prehistoric Archaeology. Of these, several go on to complete application forms and gain admission to the University only to find that they cannot get the grants that will enable them to embark on graduate studies in their chosen field. In both Prehistoric Archaeology and Ethnology several graduate students were admitted during the year but they failed to get grants in spite of academic performances that were well up to standard. The question that this raises is where we are as a nation, to find suitably qualified persons to look after our museum collections in the decades ahead if today’s students are unable to get financial support for their training and research?
Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Researcb Centre
This centre, which is part of the Department of Ethnology and Prehistory, is at 60 Banbury Road next to the new Balfour Building. Although some of the teaching in Prehistory is still carried out in the Department's facilities adjacent to the main museum, 60 Banbury Road has become the main centre for research in Prehistoric Archaeology.

1986-7 The Department continues to offer optional courses to undergraduates reading for both moderations and the honour school in Geography, as it has done for the past 47 years. We also contribute to the Human Sciences Prelims course. Each year we offer lectures and provide tutorials for about 50 undergraduates.
As anticipated in our 1985-86 annual report, the new M.St. and M.Phil. graduate courses in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography will commence in Michaelmas 1987. Already the course has generated a good deal of interest and a large number of enquiries were received during the year, including requests for information about the M.St. in Anthropological Archaeology.
The total number of graduate students carrying out research for higher degrees in the Department during this reporting period was 19.

1987-8 The new graduate M.St. Course in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography continues to attract a growing number of well-qualified students. Given the small size of our staff and our continuing commitment to teaching for the Human Sciences and Geography degrees, plus the need to supervise our other graduate students, we can only accept six or eight students for this course each year. Nevertheless the number and quality of the applications we are receiving is a clear indication that our M.St. Course fills an academic need in the country.

1988-89 The Department continues to offer optional courses to undergraduates reading for Honour Moderations in Geography, as it has done for the past 48 years. We also contribute to the Human Sciences Prelims course. Each year we offer lectures and provide tutorials for about 50 undergraduates taking these two courses.
The new M.St and M.Phil graduate courses in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, commenced in 1987, have proved very popular. We have also had requests for information about the M.St in Anthropological Archaeology.
The total number of graduate students carrying out research for higher degrees in the Department during this reporting period was 25.
Mr. Ray Inskeep provided lectures on 'Metals in pre-industrial Africa' for three M.St. Students. Dr. Schuyler Jones, Dr. Donald Tayler and Dr. Howard Morphy taught courses in Ethnology & Museum Ethnography; Dr. Helene La Rue taught Ethnomusicology and Dr. Derek Roe taught M.St and M.Phil. courses in Prehistoric Archaeology, as well as certain options in the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography course and for undergraduates studying Quaternary Environments for the Geography Final Honours School. Dr. Roe also provided some supervision for research students in earlier prehistoric archaeology. Mr. Dennis Britton taught for the graduate courses in Prehistoric Archaeology and supervised research students.

1989-90 The title of the principal officer of the museum was changed from Curator to Director in order that Assistant Curators, who in other institutions are often quite junior members of the establishment, could be styled Curators. ...
1. Cultural Anthropology
Dr. Schuyler Jones, Dr. Howard Morphy, and Dr. Donald Tayler continued to offer lectures in the Man, Environment, and Culture series for first year undergraduates reading for Geography and the Human Sciences degrees and for M.St./ M.Phil. students reading for qualifications in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography. They also gave tutorials to undergraduates and held classes, gave supervision, and conducted seminars for graduates reading for the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography. Mrs. Elizabeth Edwards and Dr. Hélène La Rue also continued to contribute to the teaching.
As part of the Museology option of the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, Linda Mowat gave seminars on Museum Documentation and Research and The Organization of Temporary Exhibitions. She also contributed a lecture to the textile series organized for M.St. and undergraduate students.
2. Prehistoric Archaeology
Archaeologists carried out their usual teaching (lectures and tutorials) for the M.St. and M.Phil. in Prehistoric Archaeology, and for the Quaternary Environments option in the Final Honour School of Geography and served as examiners, both in Oxford and elsewhere.
Dr. Roe examined a D.Sc. degree for Bristol University and at Oxford was examiner for the M.St. and M.Phil. qualifying examinations in Prehistoric Archaeology.
Mr. Ray Inskeep delivered 12 lectures to Human Science students for the optional paper in Human Evolution, supervised one D.Phil. student, and examined one D.Phil. thesis for Cambridge University.
Donald Baden-Powell Quarternary Research Centre (Dr. Derek Roe)
In a preceding Annual Report, the Committee expressed the hope that Prehistoric Archaeology and the Donald Baden-Powell Quarternary Research Centre would both retain their identities and their teaching and research roles within the new structure for Anthropology at Oxford. In the event, Prehistoric Archaeology has become submerged within the new Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, though the teaching and research of the members of staff involved continues as before. The Donald Baden-Powell Quarternary Research Centre was more fortunate, being added to the scheme under its own name at the final meeting of the Board of the Faculty of Anthropology and Geography which considered these matters. Within the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, the Centre is now formally a unit of the Pitt Rivers Museum. Its actual work continues unchanged.

1990-1 Museum staff continued to offer courses in Cultural Anthropology for graduate and undergraduate students (mainly Geography, Human Sciences, and the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography). The core lectures for these, People, Environment, and Culture, were given, as in previous years, by Dr. Schuyler Jones, Dr. Howard Morphy, and Dr. Donald Tayler. Teaching for various options in the graduate M.St. course, Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, was provided by Dr. Hélène La Rue, Mrs. Linda Mowat, and Mrs. Elizabeth Edwards. Mrs. Linda Mowat also gave seminars on Museum Documentation and Research and contributed a lecture to the textile series organised for M.St. and undergraduate students. In Michaelmas Term she gave a lecture on Chinese batik in connection with The Goddess of Batik exhibition. During the year Mr. Inskeep supervised one research student, examined two D.Phil. theses for Oxford, and delivered ten lectures to Human Sciences students.
The Donald Baden Powell Quaternary Research Centre (Dr. Derek Roe)
As part of the reorganisation of Anthropology in Oxford, which involved the disappearance of the old Institute of Social Anthropology and the Department of Ethnology and Prehistory, the Centre became a part of the Pitt Rivers Museum, but it has continued to operate, as in previous years, as the main focus for teaching and research in earlier Prehistoric Archaeology at graduate and post-doctoral levels.

1991-2 This reporting period saw an important development in the history of anthropology and archaeology at Oxford: the establishment of a new B.A. Hons. degree in Archaeology & Anthropology. The suggestion that undergraduates might be allowed to read anthropology at Oxford was first proposed more than a hundred years ago by Sir Edward Burnett Tylor. It is satisfying to report that the first students will finally arrive in Michaelmas 1992. ...
Cultural Anthropology: Dr. Donald Tayler, Dr. Howard Morphy, and Dr. Schuyler Jones continued to offer lectures in the People, Environment, and Culture series for first year undergraduates reading for Geography and the Human Sciences degrees and for M.St./M.Phil. graduate students reading for qualifications in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography.
Prehistoric Archaeology: Dr. Derek Roe gave his usual courses of teaching for the M.St. and M.Phil. degrees in Prehistoric Archaeology, and for undergraduate geographers with an interest in Quaternary Environments and the Palaeolithic period. Mr. Ray Inskeep gave two courses of lectures for Human Sciences undergraduates and for M.St. and M.Phil. students, provided supervision for two research students and three others on postgraduate taught courses.

1992-3 The extent to which members of the museum staff are engaged in lecturing to graduate and undergraduate students, supervising graduate dissertations and theses, holding classes, and giving tutorials may occasionally be overlooked by those who tend to think of us as 'just a museum'. In addition to lectures and tutorials for more than fifty first-year Geography and Human Sciences students, we are now teaching for the new Archaeology and Anthropology degree, as well as having approximately 37 M.Phil., M.St., and D.Phil. students.
Heather Berns provided a seminar for the M.St. Students covering the general principles of deterioration and preventive conservation. Elizabeth Edwards has continued to contribute to teaching in the field of visual anthropology and museology in the form of lectures, seminars, tutorials, and the supervision of graduate students. Ray Inskeep gave eight lectures on 'The Evolution of Lithic Technology in Africa' for Human Sciences students, and a single lecture on 'Rock Art in Southern Africa' for the Ethnology and Museum Ethnography course. He also continued to supervise three postgraduate students. Dr Schuyler Jones, together with Dr Tayler and Dr Morphy, continued to offer lectures in the 'People, Environment, and Culture' series during Michaelmas and Hilary Terms. He also gave tutorials to a number of Archaeology and Anthropology undergraduates and supervised the work of several M.St. Students, in addition to supervising some D.Phil. Candidates. Dr Helene La Rue continued to offer lectures in Ethnomusicology for M.St. students as well as running the Ethnomusicology seminars and supervising a growing number of students in that field.
Dr Howard Morphy lectured in the two introductory courses in addition to giving a course on 'The Analysis of Form' with Elizabeth Edwards and classes in Oceanic and Native American Art. With Dr Marcus Banks and Dr R.H. Barnes he organised the ISCA seminar series on 'The Anthropology of Fear'. He was also a member of the Standing Committee for evidence. In addition he continued as a non-stipendiary lecturer at St. Peter's responsible for students in Archaeology and Anthropology as well as supervising 14 graduates students and acting as an examiner for the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography.
Linda Mowat contributed a seminar on Museum Documentation and Research to the Museology option of the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, and lectured on South western Native American basketry and textiles in the series organized for M.St. and undergraduate students. Dr. Donald Tayler continued to offer lectures in the 'People, Environment and Culture' series and classes for the 'Introduction to Ethnographic Film'. He tutored undergraduates reading for the Prelims and Hon.Mods. in Human Sciences, Geography and the new Archaeology and Anthropology degree, and graduate students reading for the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, as well as supervising a number of M.Phil. And D.Phil students.