Anthropology is the study of cultural differences and similarities in a globalised world. As a field of study anthropology is uniquely placed to interpret the widest range of contemporary social phenomena - from migration to religious fundamentalism, online communities and new social movements, contemporary indigenous cultural expression and identity politics, consumption and commodification, and many changing forms of social relationships. The School of Archaeology and Anthropology offers a diverse range of undergraduate courses which cover these themes and more.
The discipline's distinctive methodology, long-term ethnographic fieldwork, provides anthropologists with finely grained and in-depth understandings of complex social phenomena. With a commitment to a comparative and holistic framework, anthropologists' treatment of cultural diversity provides insights into the different ways people comprehend their place in the world and relationships to each other, as well as new ways for us to think about our own relationships and society. It is an ideal foundation for a contemporary liberal-arts degree. Students of non-English languages can find anthropology especially useful.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Due to structural changes in the undergraduate program rules in 2012, the courses that make up the new 2012 majors may be different to the pre-2012 majors, and therefore some courses cannot be counted between majors. Students are advised to contact the CASS Student Office if they are unsure about their Majors.
Learning outcomes
- familiarity with the major dimensions of analysis of societies and cultures (e.g., gender, religion, personhood, identity, violence, emotion, state, nation, globalisation)
- familiarity with directed as well as unintended processes of change (e.g., culture and development, applied anthropology)
- familiarity with the interrelation of technique and theory in the recording and describing of cultures (e.g., film); and
- familiarity with the intersection of bio-social and material dimensions of social life
Requirements
This major requires the completion of 48 units, which must include:
12 units from completion of the following course(s):
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH1002 | Culture and Human Diversity: Introducing Anthropology | 6 |
| ANTH1003 | Global and Local | 6 |
24 units from completion of the following course(s):
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH2004 | Religion, Ritual and Cosmology | 6 |
| ANTH2005 | Indigenous Australian Societies and Cultures | 6 |
| ANTH2006 | Anthropology of New Guinea and Melanesia | 6 |
| ANTH2009 | Culture and Development | 6 |
| ANTH2010 | Anthropology of Art | 6 |
| ANTH2017 | Indigenous Australians and Australian Society Today | 6 |
| ANTH2025 | Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective | 6 |
| ANTH2026 | Medical Anthropology | 6 |
| ANTH2033 | Religion and Society in India | 6 |
| ANTH2049 | Filming Cultures | 6 |
| ANTH2050 | Themes in Anthropology I | 6 |
| ANTH2051 | Themes in Anthropology II | 6 |
| ANTH2056 | Belonging, Identity and Nationalism | 6 |
| ANTH2057 | Culture and Person | 6 |
| ANTH2128 | Media and Modernity | 6 |
| ANTH2129 | Crossing Borders: Diasporas and Transnationalism | 6 |
| ANTH2130 | Violence and Terror | 6 |
| ANTH2132 | Food for Thought: Anthropological theories of food and eating | 6 |
| ANTH3010 | Supervised Research in Anthropology | 6 |
| ANTH3014 | Indonesia Field School: Contemporary Change in Indonesia | 6 |
| ANTH2133 | Social Animals: anthropological perspectives on animal-human relationships | 6 |
| ANTH2135 | Vietnam Field School | 6-12 |
12 units from completion of the following course(s):
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| ASIA3610 | Globalising Southeast Asia: Capitalism, Media, and 21st Century Cultures | 6 |
| ASIA2516 | Indonesia: Politics, Society and Development | 6 |
| ASIA2517 | Indonesia: Language, Media, and Arts in Social Change | 6 |
| ARCH2108 | Animals, Plants and People | 6 |
| BIAN3113 | Human Evolution | 6 |
| BIAN2064 | Anthropology of Environmental Disasters | 6 |
| BIAN2115 | 'Race' and Human Genetic Variation | 6 |
| BIAN2119 | Nutrition, Disease and the Human Environment | 6 |
| BIAN2120 | Culture, Biology and Population Dynamics | 6 |
| BIAN2126 | Primate Evolutionary Biology | 6 |
| BIAN3127 | Primate Ecology and Behaviour | 6 |
| ENVS2017 | Vietnam Field School | 6-12 |
| INDN3107 | Introduction to Southeast Asian Performing Arts: Performance, Genres and Intercultural Translation | 6 |
| LING2015 | Language, Culture, Translation | 6 |
| PASI2001 | Pacific Studies in a Globalizing World | 6 |
| PASI2002 | Australia in Oceania in the 19th and 20th centuries | 6 |
| PASI2003 | Environment, Conflict and Development in the Western Pacific | 6 |
| PASI2005 | Pacific Politics: From Independence to Intervention | 6 |
| PASI3001 | The Contemporary Pacific: Society, Politics and Development | 6 |
| PASI3003 | Spirit Islands: Indigenous and Introduced Religions in the Pacific | 6 |
| PASI3006 | Navigating the Pacific: Mapping the study and research resources | 6 |
| BIAN3124 | Human Society as Animal Society: Sex, Conflict, Co-operation and Human Uniqueness | 6 |
| BIAN2015 | Human Skeletal Analysis | 6 |