What is Anthropology?

The study of people around the world - how they behave, adapt to their environments, communicate, socialize, and evolve. Encompasses two branches: social aspects (language, culture, politics, religion, family) and biological features (physiology, genetics, nutrition, evolution). Anthropologists investigate aspects of daily, and traditional lives, of humans and societies in a variety of cultures.

In the U.S. anthropology includes archaeology, the study of peoples and cultures in the past.

In the U.K., anthropology only studies people and cultures in the present; archaeology is considered a separate discipline.

What can one do with a degree in Anthropology?

Anthropology courses train students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking abilities.

Most people who study Anthropology as an undergraduate degree will go on to study further for a post-graduate – Masters, and even PhD degree. Some will enter the field of academia, teaching in universities and conducting further research. Others enter careers, some of which may require a graduate degree, including: international development, cultural resource management, counselling, social work, education, law, public policy, public health, management, psychology,

Some famous Anthropologists

Dian Fossey, author of ‘Gorillas in the Mist’ (made into a movie of the same name, starring Sigourney Weaver) - considered the world’s leading authority on the physiology and behaviour of mountain gorillas; (PhD Cambridge University, U.K.)

Jomo Kenyatta, first Prime Minister & President of the Republic of Kenya; (PhD LSE, U.K.)