Bulletin Number Three 1986

Department of Anthropology The Department o f Anthropology is in a unique posi tion as the only establishment devoted to the teaching o f anthropology in Hong Kong. Although retaining strong links w ith the Department o f Sociology, in which anthropology was originally taught from 1973 ， the Department o f Anthropology was formally estab lished in September 1980. Today the department offers both major and minor undergraduate options in each o f the four classic sub-divisions o f the disci pline: Cultural (Social) Anthropology, Archaeology, linguistic Anthropology, and Physical Anthropology. The department is well-appointed, being equipped w ith computer, video and other facilities for photo graphing and recording. It possesses a vast collection o f fossil human skulls and bones, a set o f Palaeolithic stone tools, a library o f classic anthropological films, an exhibition collection o f costumes and artifacts o f the m inority nationalities o f China, and an extensive data collection on China and Hong Kong. Much o f these is available for the students. Since 1980, the department has initiated a stimulating series o f research projects on China and contemporary Hong Kong, w ith the active collaboration o f staff and students. As the study o f humankind, anthropology provides important opportunities to students to collect data, to research in the field, and to pursue their own research interests in the form o f library theses and course papers, and the department is particularly well located to provide a sound training in this respect. Now that the department plans to initiate an MPhil programme in 1987 ， there w ill be more emphasis on the techniques and methodology of data collection in the field. The department organizes regular field trips to the Liannan Yao Autonomous County in Northern Guangdong, and besides pro ducing much valuable ethnographic data, this provides many students w ith their first opportunities o f field research. The department hopes to expand its pro gramme o f overseas study tours to Southeast Asia in the future and has actively promoted exchanges and visits w ith international scholars and w ith institutions in France, Britain and China. This year, for example, the Department hosted the First International Colloquium on Yao Studies at the University, which brought together for the first time scholars in Chinese m inority nationalities from China and those from Hong Kong and overseas. Programmes o f Studies The department offers major and minor courses organized around the main areas o f cultural anthro pology, theory and methodology o f anthropology, ethnography, anthropology and the modem world, linguistic anthropology, principles o f anthropology, and a course by thesis which allows students to pursue their own research interests w ith guided instruction from appropriate members o f staff. The MPhil Programme, projected for 1987-88 ， w ill have as its two main theoretical orientations anthropological studies o f Hong Kong, and ethnicity and ethnic relations overseas, and these w ill be organ ized into six major new courses. A t the end o f the first year the student w ill submit a thesis proposal, setting out the topic o f research as well as describing and analysing past work on it, which may form part o f the later thesis. On the department's acceptance of this proposal, the student w ill embark on a further period o f field/library research, leading to the final thesis. The department maintains a steady intake o f students, and is to continue its past emphasis on the field o f socio-cultural anthropology. A further important feature o f the department's programmes is its emphasis on applied anthropology, reflected in such courses as economic anthropology, visual anthropology, and culture and management. In this way the department means to ensure that anthro pology remains relevant to the changing social environment o f Hong Kong and East Asia. Many graduates o f the department have fu r thered their studies abroad, and have successfully entered widely varied fields o f employment, ranging from the Hong Kong Museum o f History to inter national banking. Research Activities Over the years, members o f the Department have actively been engaged in both individual and collaborative research. The research carried out by the five teachers o f the department is briefly described in the following paragraphs. Dr. Chiao Chien (PhD, Cornell) has focused his researches on Chinese strategic behaviour, rituals o f the Hong Kong Chinese, and social organization o f the Pai Yao, and is continuing the work on both RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 9