AN100      One Unit
Being Human: Contemporary Themes in Social Anthropology

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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This course provides a general introduction to Social Anthropology as the comparative study of human societies and cultures. In it, students will be introduced to key themes and debates in the history of the discipline. Ethnographic case studies will be drawn from work on a variety of societies. Drawing on both classical and contemporary work, the course aims to answer the  question: What is Social Anthropology? A second objective is to introduce students to the use of comparative ethnography as evidence.

The first term is organised around three blocks. The first, ‘Anthropology, History and Culture’ introduces the ethnographic method and the concept of culture, whilst historically situating the discipline in its colonial context.  The next block ‘Relatedness, Love and Belonging’ considers work on familial relatedness, romantic love and the relationship between place and belonging. In the final block, we consider ‘Everyday Economies’   Through comparing different ethnographic examples, students will learn to consider key questions through anthropological perspectives. How do we become people and become related to others? What is love, and is it natural?  In what way is our identity bound up with particular places?  Why are gifts and exchange so central to human societies? Does work empower or enslave us?

The Winter Term is also divided into three thematic blocks: 1) Politics and Power, 2) Identity and Belonging, 3) Beliefs and Doubts. Some questions considered during the term include: What is the State? Where is the boundary between the state and society? Do people participate in their own oppression? What enables resistance? Do our identities empower or constrain us? What are the political, personal, and social implications of highlighting the social construction of identities, like race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation? Is religion about beliefs? Is secularism a Western concept? What role do rituals play in our social lives?

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

The contact hours listed above are the minimum expected.

Essay (1500 words)

Essay (1500 words)

Students are expected to prepare discussion material for presentation in the classes.

All students have the opportunity to submit one formative essay of up to 1500 words in the Autumn Term and one formative essay of up to 1500 words in the Winter Term.

Students based in the Department of Anthropology will be informed of their submission deadline by their academic mentor early in term. These students will receive feedback on their formative essays from their academic mentor. 

Students based outside the Department of Anthropology will be informed of their submission deadline by email by the end of Week 3 of term. These students will receive feedback on their formative essays from their class teacher.

M Engelke, Think Like an Anthropologist (2017)

R Astuti et al (eds.), Questions of Anthropology (2007)

MacClancy, J. ed., 2002. Exotic no more: Anthropology on the front lines. University of Chicago press.

Eriksen, T.H., 2015. Small places, large issues: An introduction to social and cultural anthropology. PLUTO press.

Essay (50%, 2500 words) in Winter Term Week 1

Essay (50%, 2500 words) in Spring Term Week 1

The summative assessment for AN100 consists of two essays, each of up to 2500 words in length. Each essay is worth 50% of the overall AN100 course mark.

Essay 1, based on content taught in Autumn Term, is submitted in Week 1 of Winter Term.

Essay 2, based on content taught in in Winter Term, is submitted in Week 1 of Spring Term.