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.

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