Anyone hate Anthropology?

slum dog

I took this subject up in September and I fcuking hate it with passion. I did a 1500 word assignment during reading week and barely passed it. I spent 7 full days working on it and the tutor had the cheek to leave stupid little comments at the end of each paragrph like 'whats your point'? I think thats the question on alot of peoples minds in this class...what is the F-ing point of this subject? We've been given another assignment to do for next week. We have to find out the name of a place and find out how it got that name. I find it ridiculous. The most common thing the tutor's will tell you b4 you begin your assignemnt is this ;'Make sure you don't turn it into a history assignment or sociology assignment' and I bight my tongue thinking 'Well if its not history or sociology would you mind telling me what the fcuk it IS???? fs

Is anyone having the same trouble?

Regards
Clifford Geertz

funky penguin

Did you chose to do Anthropology because it seemed interesting, or because you heard it was easy?

To be completely honest you're coming across as a bit whiney. Checking the etymology of a place name sounds very interesting, and I do music.

Put the head down and do the work. Drop it next year if it's still bothering you.

squishykins

slum dog wrote: »

and the tutor had the cheek to leave stupid little comments at the end of each paragrph like 'whats your point'?

The tutor wouldn't do that for teh lulz in fairness, he/she clearly couldn't get your point! It may seem perfectly clear to you (I don't do Anthropology but it's really across the board), but there's always a better way to say it...It's called constructive criticism, look at it and see how you can do better for your next assignment...

Kiwi_knock

I did Anthropology last year and I agree with some of your feelings. The tutors were very vague in what you were meant to be doing and there was a distinct lack of communication between the lecturers and the tutors. However it is a very interesting subject and I enjoyed all the presentations and assignments I had to do.

Turtyturd

I am doing it this year...I put a lot of time and effort into the essay and got 52...have not had a chance to read the comments yet but one caught my attention saying you nneed to further elaborate your point about x and not use current day examples, which I thought was a bit odd considering what was asked and the 1500 word limit. I am guessing it's just a matter of practice and you will get to grips with what they are looking for.

I do agree about the tutorials though. My Anthropology is pointless, we had zero discussion about the essay or the current assignment other than outlining what we had to do, and the tutor seems very unapproachable. Subject wise I am enjoying it even if it is a bit dated But the modules after christmas seem to modernise it a bit so Just suffer through it till then and hope for the best.

funky penguin

funky penguin wrote: »

Did you chose to do Anthropology because it seemed interesting, or because you heard it was easy?

To be completely honest you're coming across as a bit whiney. Checking the etymology of a place name sounds very interesting, and I do music.

Put the head down and do the work. Drop it next year if it's still bothering you.

Sorry, I should have added that if you have a problem with your result, take it up with the tutor (in a respectful manner). If you still aren't satisfied, bring it to the lecturer.

Rozabeez

I found with Anthropology that either you get it, or you don't. It's a way of thinking, perhaps you just think too... technically?

Also, it's not very tasteful to post a thread about Anthropology and then sign off using 'Clifford Geertz' - somewhat trollish of you.

useded

I'm a third year Anthropology student and find it wholeheartedly interesting. To be honest, you come across as somebody that is approaching at the complete wrong angle and the subject doesn't quite seem to be for you. I've always found every member of staff (bar one, which isn't in Maynooth anymore) quite warm and helpful, so I can't see what has changed in the last little while. In fact, I've heard some horror stories from other departments that make your problem seem quite insigificant. However, I hope you do end up opening your mind up a little more though, even for your own sake.

BTW, signing off is C. Geertz is so funny! Doesn't make you look like a tosspot at all mate.

mp3guy

To be honest it sounds like you picked the wrong subject for the wrong reasons. It's your own fault. A little research before registration ended would've went a long way.

theturinshroud

I am a third year Anthro student as well and find it a fascinating but sometimes infuriating subject. The first year is a very gentle introduction and I would suggest that it is very important to make a good effort from the start. One of the reasons that the tutors may seem vague is that the study itself is nuanced and there are many conflicting theorists to contend with. Some people may find the lack of empirical truths daunting. As you progress through the modules you may find that you can develop your own arguments in conjunction with respected authors in the field and therefore feel somewhat more in control.

Anthropology is anything but an easy subject and the workload in second year seriously increases. With this in mind first year is a good opportunity to learn to be guided by your tutors in your approach to the subject. How to prepare an assignment, how to approach and construct an essay. Foundation work is important and will make life easier in the future. Lecturers have stated times for students to visit them in their offices, it has been my experience that they appreciate a students visit to discuss coursework, it indicates an interest in the subject and a desire to do well not to mention a validation of the lecturer's efforts.

I wish Slum dog/ Clifford and all the other first years all the best in their anthropological studies and now I must return to my essay pondering Actor Network Theory and the agency of non human objects as proposed by Bruno Latour. If voodoo had a place in his network it would be him with the pain now.

GVNDNN

I agree with you, i cannot stand the subject personally, i struggle to understand it and struggle to get over 40 in any of the assignments...it appears this year more people than ever are dis-liking it?

slum dog

Thanks for all the replies. We had a couple of presentations during the past few weeks. A postgrad would come in and tell us about the research he or she was doing and I couldnt help but feeling sorry for them. One guy came in the other day and discussed the culture of death metal in eastern europe. And I thought to myself 'is this not a sociological topic?' Another guy came in and was probably the worst of them all and discussed his time in spain. The main theme was how people in the village he was studying had a festival every year commerorating religious diversity yet they are still divided over the civil war. WOW fascinating stuff! Did you spend your whole year in Spain researching that? Another chick came in and discussed the human concept of death, the culture that evolves from it and how this fascinated her!

I've come to the conclusion that anthropologists are a group of people that view the world in a similar way and this is in itself a culture of its own. I feel these people contribute nothing to academia or society in general.. A bunch of useless wasters the lot of them i say.

Mr Trade In

Go and speak to someone first thing in the morning,either your tutor or the academic advisory office. I am strugling with some of it but this asignment due at the end of the week is not as bad as the Geertz one. Look at the Basso book and try to make note of what he is doing. What type of questions he asks and how he learns about the Apaches and their culture. Use what you find to set out questions for the new asignment.Make sure to ask for help tomorrow as there is always help available.

squishykins

slum dog wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. We had a couple of presentations during the past few weeks. A postgrad would come in and tell us about the research he or she was doing and I couldnt help but feeling sorry for them. One guy came in the other day and discussed the culture of death metal in eastern europe. And I thought to myself 'is this not a sociological topic?' Another guy came in and was probably the worst of them all and discussed his time in spain. The main theme was how people in the village he was studying had a festival every year commerorating religious diversity yet they are still divided over the civil war. WOW fascinating stuff! Did you spend your whole year in Spain researching that? Another chick came in and discussed the human concept of death, the culture that evolves from it and how this fascinated her!

I've come to the conclusion that anthropologists are a group of people that view the world in a similar way and this is in itself a culture of its own. I feel these people contribute nothing to academia or society in general.. A bunch of useless wasters the lot of them i say.

You had the choice. You had weeks to change. Moaning about it isn't going to help you

LeixlipRed

This lad is definitely on the wind up.

Rozabeez

Keep it nice please children.

Rafcam

slum dog wrote: »

I took this subject up in September and I fcuking hate it with passion. I did a 1500 word assignment during reading week and barely passed it. I spent 7 full days working on it and the tutor had the cheek to leave stupid little comments at the end of each paragrph like 'whats your point'? I think thats the question on alot of peoples minds in this class...what is the F-ing point of this subject? We've been given another assignment to do for next week. We have to find out the name of a place and find out how it got that name. I find it ridiculous. The most common thing the tutor's will tell you b4 you begin your assignemnt is this ;'Make sure you don't turn it into a history assignment or sociology assignment' and I bight my tongue thinking 'Well if its not history or sociology would you mind telling me what the fcuk it IS???? fs

Is anyone having the same trouble?

Regards
Clifford Geertz

I completely agree with you. I swapped over to it after 4 weeks of struggling to do maths. It definitely wouldn't have been my first choice of subject but it sounded like it would be quite interesting and I figured I'd do it for the year but I completely don't get the point of the subject at all! It seems like such a waste of time to me and pretty much everyone I've talked to about it, seem to agree with me. To me it's complete waffle and if I even manage to pass it for First Year, I'll be dropping it next year. Best of luck with it

Oh_Noes

To be honest it sounds like you're resentful towards the workload and maybe a bit daunted by the fact that you won't be asked any multiple choice or yes/no questions. It's common practice for the tutors to give out low marks in the first couple of assignments, it's usually due to structure or spelling/punctuation.

If you decide to continue onto second year and you hand in an essay to Jamie Saris that has spelling errors or is badly structured, he will slaughter you. You'll be expected to make your own argument constructed from the evidence available to you combined with your own unique viewpoint. The idea that Anthropologists contribute little to the Academic sphere is laughable. You didn't mention the names of those postgrads but by reference to their work I know exactly who they are, and a lot of people across the social sciences in Ireland would be familiar with their work.

When I was there, the first year Anthropology class had around 300 students, that shrunk to around 60-70 by third year. It is presented in the beginning as a fun, quirky subject; which it is. But it's quite complicated and requires a lot of reading, writing and creative thinking on your part.

If it's not for you, it's not for you. To suggest it's worthless and attack it just because it's not your cup of tea is just silly.

Rettoc

Wow! I have just been browsing through this thread as I am eager to enroll in Anthropology this coming September as a mature student and was curious to see the attitude and opinions of current students towards the course. Having read the comments from those against, everything you seem to dislike and verbally bash is what intrigues me about the same subject Naturally, those who are enjoying it also give me a more positive feeling towards it.

So to both sides, Thank you! Oh, and if you do not enjoy or understand the course, then clearly you should speak with an academic advisor so you can direct your obvious fiery passion towards another subject instead of slating those who do enjoy it

karaokeman

Sure isn't it reasonably similar to Sociology?

Ostrom

It is similar, but the differences dont become apparent until later in the course. Anthropology as it is today developed from earlier works based on identifying commonalities and universals across human societies - this emphasis, and the largely qualitative methods used to produce its data are what define it. The topics of the first year course (if they are the same as when I took it - I didn't take it to degree level, nor did I particularly enjoy it) are an example of this - common concepts such as language, death etc may be studied comparatively across various social groups. Historically, this research was influenced by the idea that 'primitive' cultures could serve as comparative models of various developmental stages, an approach which has largely been discarded.

Sociology deals with the same basic subject matter (i.e. social order, change, institutions such as family, gender, class) but is somewhat less concerned with cultural comparisons, and uses a wider range of research methods (quantitative research is largely absent in anthropology).

theturinshroud

Rettoc wrote: »

Wow! I have just been browsing through this thread as I am eager to enroll in Anthropology this coming September as a mature student and was curious to see the attitude and opinions of current students towards the course. Having read the comments from those against, everything you seem to dislike and verbally bash is what intrigues me about the same subject Naturally, those who are enjoying it also give me a more positive feeling towards it.

So to both sides, Thank you! Oh, and if you do not enjoy or understand the course, then clearly you should speak with an academic advisor so you can direct your obvious fiery passion towards another subject instead of slating those who do enjoy it

Hi Rettoc. I am a mature student reading anthropology in Maynooth. I am in the first year of my masters now having successfully completed a single honours degree. I came from a non academic background having done my leaving cert. many moons ago, and spent 20 years in the motor trade. As I mentioned in my previous post anthropology is deceptively easy in first year so much so that many get quite a shock when they go on to do it in second year when both the complexity and the work load increase dramatically. However if you pay close attention to whats going on in first year and endeavor to see how the course functions along with the logic of approach for the discipline in general, things are manageable.

From talking to other people who have dealt with different departments in Maynooth and drawing on my own experience I can honestly say that the lecturers and the administration staff of the anthropology dept. are extremely approachable and helpful. The general idea that I have taken from the study of anthropology is that it is an approach searching to see if there are cross cultural generalities whilst exploring how particular cultures work in a comparative context. The fluid nature of how people live in the world does not lend itself to hard factual truths being found and therefore some people find studying anthropology frustrating. For example if one was studying Scheper Hughes "Death Without Weeping" the natural response might be "o my god those terrible mothers who let their poor children die", but studying the effects of how capitalism functions in the region, and the long term effects of USAID on mothering practices, and the pollution and availability of potable water, one begins to unravel the complexities of the interconnected economic and social processes that are in force in the region. With this in mind one might also explore how cultural gender imperatives shape responses to outside forces. So if one was to write a 1500 word essay on "Mother love in the Pernambuco", one has all these things to factor in, and more besides. I haven't looked at that book since first year so I may well have missed out some stuff.

The point is neither your lecturers or your tutors want to write your essay for you, and they do not want you to simply regurgitate either the book or the content of the lectures back in essay form. I realize that this is difficult to grasp but then so are the rationalizing actions of humans. After completing a few essays and getting familiar with the logic of the layout and format one will also become more familiar with the concepts and ideas of published authors in the discipline and begin to become comfortable with positing more personalized accounts of the subject matter. The people who have expressed annoyance and confusion with anthropology may be doing so because the "answers" did not present themselves readily, but surely this is also the case in any nuanced field. I would suggest approaching the discipline in the same manner as one might approach an apprenticeship.

Doing the masters now, I am in a small group of less than 20 people. We get along well and have our own post grad room in the department to study and discuss stuff. The lecturers at this level are on first name terms and more than helpful, when visiting lecturers come there are usually a few glasses of wine before and after the lecture and then we often go to the pub, this is a great opportunity to discuss things and argue points with people at the top of their game, where else in life would one get the same opportunity to do so.

To conclude Rettock, I can heartily recommend studying anthropology, as a mature student you may get even more out of it, but there is a massive reading load and a constant battle with deadlines for assignments, however I believe the right approach is more valuable than a photographic memory or an IQ of mensa proportions. If you are still interested you might drop by the department and speak to the secretary Im sure she can find some students willing to discuss it in more detail with you as indeed I would be happy to if you ask for the Turinshroud.

All the best.

CaoimH_in

I'm sorry, it appears Morgan Freeman is in our Anthropology department?!

http://anthropology.nuim.ie/people

Also, anthropology seems class. Man up and learn something?

Leo Dowling

Morgan Freeman is a scrub compared to Abdullah El-Tom :pac:

He was head of the department when I was there and I absolutely loved his lectures. I liked Steve Coleman's too but they got seriously complex and demanding in third year. I found Gavan MacArthur to be my favorite lecturer there and influenced my areas of study hugely but I think he left a year or two ago.

Ellis Dee

Leo Dowling wrote: »

Morgan Freeman is a scrub compared to Abdullah El-Tom :pac:

He was head of the department when I was there and I absolutely loved his lectures. I liked Steve Coleman's too but they got seriously complex and demanding in third year. I found Gavan MacArthur to be my favorite lecturer there and influenced my areas of study hugely but I think he left a year or two ago.

Happy memories of Abdullahi, and also Steve Coleman. Gavan was one of my more likeable fellow-students. :) And of course there was the delightful and beautiful Eileen Kane --- drool ...;)

I found anthropology a wonderful subject and sailed through all the courses. I suppose it helped that I was a mature student, highly motivated, spoke several languages and had lived abroad for many years before I started at Maynooth.

funky penguin

CaoimH_in wrote: »

Also, anthropology seems class. Man up and learn something?

Thread is a year old.

I wonder what happened with the OP.....

slum dog

don't worry, the op is still around. as for anthropology, i finished with 63% overall at the end of the year but it hasn't changed my opinion on the subject. most of the new posts ive just read are just garbage and reading them reminds me of one of those late night commercials where they try and sell you something practically useless, which in this case would be anthropology.
i think aspiring students should be aware that universities have become more about the money these days and threads like this are useful for marketing purposes.
also, the timing of this post comes at no suprise to me with the cao deadline just around the corner.

but then again, if your genuinely interested in learning for the sake of it, then go ahead, nobodys stopping you

theturinshroud

slum dog wrote: »

don't worry, the op is still around. as for anthropology, i finished with 63% overall at the end of the year but it hasn't changed my opinion on the subject. most of the new posts ive just read are just garbage and reading them reminds me of one of those late night commercials where they try and sell you something practically useless, which in this case would be anthropology.
i think aspiring students should be aware that universities have become more about the money these days and threads like this are useful for marketing purposes.
also, the timing of this post comes at no suprise to me with the cao deadline just around the corner.

but then again, if your genuinely interested in learning for the sake of it, then go ahead, nobodys stopping you

Slumdog you finished up with a reasonable result for your first year, and I can understand that you might not feel that anthropology has much to offer you. Moreover I can vouch that there are many students even in third year who grapple with the subject. There are many very different types of anthropology that you can specialize in, as you may develop an interest in certain areas. In second year you could have got a taste in medical or linguistic anthropology, going forwards you could branch off into such diverse fields as forensic or archeological anthropology, or you could concentrate on areas such as material objects or bio security.

I think its unfair of you to label positive posts as "garbage" just because people are expressing a difference of opinion from yourself, and linking the selling tactics of late night commercials with other positive opinions is simply unfounded and reflects more on your standard of critique than anything else.

You rightly point out that universities are becoming more commercialized these days but to infer that people on this thread are trying to drum up students for the anthropology department is childish, for my own part following Reddoc's post, I wanted to relate my own ongoing personal experiences with the subject as a mature student.

As to whether anthropology is useless, I suppose that would depend on how you view education and what you propose to do with it. As you correctly pointed out, universities are becoming more commercialized, and if such commercial pressure is allowed to dictate the curriculum, then there may come a time when education ceases to be such, and becomes training instead. Perhaps you are ok with this, personally I think its a horrific prospect which relegates learning to a just being a tool to get a job.

Dr. Nguyen Van Falk

karaokeman wrote: »

Sure isn't it reasonably similar to Sociology?

Yes it is, the head of the department Morgan Freeman told me that. i think the main problem hear is that u taught anthropology was going to be a science, when theses days its more of a art.

jimmerc

Just reading these threads with interest. I did anthropology in my first year and found the first semester on Geertz extremely frustrating. Even reading his book would give a person a headache! Our tutor did is best with advice on the assignment but I just decided that I would do my best form of bull**** and got 70% for it!

After that I continued in the same vien and ended the year on a 2.1 which I found hard to believe.

I found that the lecturers and the tutors either believe that this is one of the greatest subjects on earth or they are just taking the piss. I sometimes think that someone is doing a thesis on 1st year Anthropology students and how they deal with the subject. It is obvious that anthropology is just a 'one trick pony' by the amount who vote with their feet after 1st year.

By the way we got the same rubbish lecture on 'Black Metal' last year from a guy that told his students not to bother him as he was 'far too busy' with his thesis.

Just thank the Gods that you can drop this subject at the end.

Norrdeth

Closing thread due to degeneration of argument.