The University of Aberdeen has a distinguished intellectual history dating back to 1495 but it is certainly not too old to learn something new. Anthropology is the comparative study of human societies and cultural diversity throughout the world, and in September 2002 the University gained its first Department in the subject. In a public lecture (Friday, October 31, 5pm King's College Centre) Professor Tim Ingold, Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, will celebrate its establishment.
Professor Ingold said: "The University can now boast the youngest and most dynamic Department of Anthropology in the UK. Its foundation will give a tremendous boost to the growth of anthropological teaching and research, not just in Aberdeen but in Scotland as a whole".
The new Aberdeen Department is distinctive in offering a unique focus on the Anthropology of the North, taking advantage of Aberdeen's geographical location and of the close connections of staff and research students with northern countries and regions, from Siberia through the Nordic and Baltic countries to Greenland, Canada and Alaska. Additionally, the Department is developing an area of teaching and research on the interface between anthropology, art and material culture.
The inaugural lecture is part of the two-day event to celebrate the founding of the Department. On the morning of Saturday, November 1, a colloquium on the Anthropology of the North, with guest speakers Gisli Palsson (Institute of Anthropology, University of Iceland) and Piers Vitebsly (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge). This will be followed in the afternoon by a colloquium on Art, Anthropology and Visual Culture, with guest speakers Susanne Kuechler (Department of Anthropology, University College London) and Chris Gosden (Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford).
In the evening (Saturday November 1 at 6pm, King's College Centre), Professor Gillian Feely-Harnik, University of Michigan will deliver the British Academy Radcliffe-Brown Memorial Lecture. Presented every