What is Anthropology?

Ethnographic research—also called fieldwork—is the core method of anthropology. This is a qualitative social science method of collecting data, often through participant-observation and semi-structured interviews, to gain insight into other ways of being human. For many anthropologists, periods of fieldwork are the defining experiences of their intellectual lives. Spending extended intervals of time living within a community, a neighbourhood, or working in an organisation—sharing other people’s experiences, listening to their perspectives, and navigating unavoidable misunderstandings—produces the kind of knowledge that no targeted survey or tidy dataset can replicate. It is slow, sometimes uncomfortable, and often revelatory.

The ethnographic method elicits the nuanced meanings behind daily practices, decisions, and social relations and how these change. It helps answer questions that other methods struggle to address—not just what people do, but why and what it means to them.

Alongside primary research, anthropologists draw on a wide range of social and cultural theories to make sense of the patterns they observe. These theories help frame questions, guide analysis, and connect individual experiences to broader social, political and historical processes.

Anthropology as a modern scientific discipline started to take shape in the 19th century, and since the early 20th century LSE is a university that has been at the forefront of this development. Bronisław Malinowski—often described as one of the figures who founded modern social anthropology—helped establish the discipline here, shaping the development of ethnographic fieldwork as a central research method. Many influential scholars have since studied or worked at LSE, including Raymond Firth, Olivia Harris, and David Graeber, each of whom discovered new ways of understanding social life and contributed to debates that shaped the discipline’s evolution. You can learn more about some of our ancestors here.

Understanding how anthropology has changed over time is central to the discipline today. Modern anthropology came from a period shaped by colonial expansion, and its early theories and methods were not always free from prejudice or racist assumptions. As a world leader in anthropological research, LSE actively engages with the ongoing project of decolonising the discipline—critically examining where earlier ideas came from, questioning long-standing assumptions, and widening the range of voices and perspectives represented in the field.  This critical self-awareness is one of the things that makes LSE an intellectually exciting place to study anthropology.

Below you will find suggested books, films and podcasts you may find helpful to learn more about anthropology.

Books to read

Think Like an Anthropologist by Matthew Engelke
An accessible and engaging introduction to the key concepts that anthropologists use to make sense of the world—from culture and identity to authority, value, and belief. It’s an ideal starting point for anyone curious about the discipline and its breadth.

Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India by Mukulika Banerjee
Why do people in one of the world's most unequal societies continue to engage so passionately with democracy? Banerjee conducted fieldwork in two villages in West Bengal over many years, and what she found challenges everything we assume about how democracy works. Ordinary people in rural India don't just vote; they experience, debate, and actively shape democratic life in the everyday moments between elections. This book will change the way you think about what democracy means and to whom it belongs.

Anthro-Vision by Gillian Tett
Tett makes the case for what she calls ‘the other AI’, Anthropological Intelligence.  Paying close attention to context, culture, and the unstated assumptions that shape behaviour can help us understand not just business and finance but almost any human situation.  It’s a compelling case for the relevance of thinking like an anthropologist.

Cutting the Mass Line: Water, Politics, and Climate in Southwest China by Andrea Pia
In rural China, climate change is bringing extreme drought and, with it, urgent questions about who controls water and who gets left out. Based on months of immersive fieldwork in Yunnan Province, Pia takes readers inside the complex relationships between state agencies and local communities to show how ordinary people are finding unexpected ways to shape the politics of water and environmental survival.

Navigating Austerity: Currents of Debt along a South Asian River by Laura Bear
How does global financial austerity shape the lives of ordinary workers? Drawing on fieldwork along the Hooghly river in India, Bear follows marine crews, river pilots, boatmen, and shipyard labourers to show how government cuts to public spending are transforming infrastructure, labour, and everyday life. If you are curious about the hidden human costs of economic policy, Navigating Austerity is immersive.

After Servitude: Elusive Property and the Ethics of Kinship in Bolivia by Mareike Winchell
Indigenous communities in Bolivia endured centuries of brutal exploitation under Spanish colonial rule and the independent government, yet many rejected the post-colonial government's offer of land titles as compensation in the 1950s. Winchell unravels the complex relationships between kinship, land, and justice to show how state-led reform, however well-intentioned, can threaten the fragile moral worlds that communities have built in the aftermath of trauma. This ethnography may cause you to question everything you thought you knew about justice, property, and what it means to put things right.

Podcasts to listen

Sapiens: A Podcast for Everything Human
Interviews with anthropologists from across the world about their research.

AnthroPod
Episodes cover anthropological methodology, teaching and concepts.

Documentaries to watch

Last Train Home by Lixin Fan
Explore the dynamics of economic migration in China. The story follows a couple who embark on the annual trip from the city where they work, back to their native village in the countryside. What does this film reveal about culture and family life?

Sweetgrass by Lucien Castaing-Taylor
This film follows modern-day shepherds as they herd the sheep through the Beartooth Mountains for Summer grazing. Reflect on how human-animal relationships form and how they influence culture.

Talking About Trees by Suhab Gasmelbari
Experience the connections between memory, film and politics from the perspective of a group of Sudanese filmmakers trying to restore a cinema. How do media impact our lives?