Welcome to Anthropology





Anthropology is the study of humankind. Of all the human science disciplines, anthropology is best placed to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the diversity and unity that characterises human life on this planet. Its distinctive approach lies in its global, comparative, and multidimensional perspective. While other disciplines are concerned with only one particular segment of human experience at a particular phase of cultural or biological development, anthropologists believe that a true understanding of human kind can only be achieved by studying the distant as well as the near, the ancient as well as the modern.

Anthropology is a growing and exciting discipline well suited for those who have an inquiring mind and an interest in what makes us human. Its understandings help to illuminate the myriad evolutionary, historical and contemporary forces that have shaped and continue to shape our behaviour. As the discipline becomes more applied oriented, graduates with an anthropology background are increasingly in demand both locally as well as internationally.

We currently offer two first-year level courses and four second and third year level courses. All courses have been designed so as to provide an important perspective on the world to students doing a variety of professional qualifications such as Law, Medicine, Architecture, History, Psychology or Development. We study both what people have in common with one another all over the world and the significant differences between them such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age and class. Anthropology covers every facet of social and cultural life from religion to the economy, from health to the workplace, from politics to the family, and in every context from small-scale, traditional societies to the developing and advanced nation states.


You will be able to practice what you learn in these courses in any field where you need to interact with and understand people. Anthropology graduates are particularly known for their understanding of the dynamics of culture. This expertise has come about through doing intensive fieldwork research that often involves living amongst and sharing the daily lives of the people they study. Unlike most other research, this understanding comes from first-hand experience. Students are taught how to plan research work and how to carry it out by observing and participating in what the people they are studying do, as well as by questioning them and listening.

A knowledge of Anthropology is particularly useful in the following areas:

1. Positions that require specialised knowledge of particular cultures, people or parts of the world; eg research posts in national research institutes and development agencies, human resources departments of large organisations and the foreign service.

2. Education at all levels, where pupils and students come from a variety of backgrounds.

3. Development consulting and applied research for bodies as the World Bank, World Health Organisation, United Nations agencies, and other non-government organisations.

4. Museums, radio and television, newspaper journalism, film production or other fields that make use of qualitative research methods.

5. Psychology, social work, town planning, housing, market research, and jobs in the field of race relations, and ethnic minorities.

6. Medical research, designing culturally sensitive health promotion programmes.

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