What is Anthropology?
Anthropology is the study of people, where they came from, how they live differently in different societies across the world, how they interact with their environment.
Anthropologists are interested in people everywhere – in factory workers in Burnley, Muslims in Bradford, tribal Indians in the Amazon, government officials in Papua New Guinea. In all these cases, anthropologists are interested in how society works, how people live, what are their beliefs, customs, ideas, religions, myths, prejudices and aspirations. Anthropologists are also interested in how humans evolved, in the whole history of human development and in the more biological aspects of human society today, for example nutrition, genetic variation, resistance to diseases and adaptation to the environment (this is sometimes called ‘biological’ anthropology as compared to ‘social’ anthropology).
Studying anthropology teaches people to think critically about their own society – to see it in relation to the many other cultures and societies there are in the world and to understand how it has come to be the way it is. It gives people a broad knowledge about the world, about global politics, economic development, cultures and beliefs and an understanding of the realities of life in many countries. This isn’t just useful for becoming a professional anthropologist! People with anthropology degrees have gone on to work in education, in government, advertising, NGOs, charities, museums, TV, art….
Studying anthropology at University
There are 16 university anthropology departments participating in the London Anthropology Day 2007. Go to the participating universities page and follow the links to their anthropology web-pages for information about the courses they offer.
There are many different ways to study anthropology. Some universities teach biological and social anthropology as separate degrees, others don’t distinguish between the two. Anthropology is often taught together with another subject such as archaeology or a language. However, it is even offered in one university as a joint degree with accounting! Below are the names of a few degrees on offer to give you an idea of the different possibilities:
Social anthropology – Biological anthropology – Anthropology and Third World Development – Archaeology and anthropology - Social anthropology with Spanish – Evolutionary anthropology – Anthropology of Religion- Drama/Social Anthropology – Biological Anthropology and Biology – Human Rights and Anthropology – Social Anthropology and Persian – Translation and social anthropology – Sport and Popular culture and anthropology – Applied social sciences (anthropology) – Anthropology and Gender studies – Medical anthropology – Anthropology – Human Sciences – Anthropology and Media- Forensic anthropology – social anthropology and language.
