Anthropology is the study of all cultures, animal and human. It combines the study of primate societies, hominid fossil remains and archaeology with the varieties of contemporary human cultures around the world and their components, including everything from their kinship systems to their myths and fairy tales

• Anthropology at UEL will answer some of the big questions of life - what is it to be human, what is culture, what are our origins and what is our future?
• Unusually, we try to answer these questions at UEL by closely comparing animal and human societies - why don't chimps talk, why do we walk upright, is animal dominance a necessary part of human culture?
• And by looking at the variety of human cultures, do all the world's cultures divide us, or do we share properties that can unite the world?
• Is division by gender, race, class or belief inevitable? How are the details of our lives affected by global forces?
• Besides library study, lectures and seminars, at UEL we also ask you to carry out small anthropology field projects throughout your degree. The skills you acquire in observing, listening and interviewing are very important for later professional life.

The three year full-time route is the single honours degree B.Sc.(Hons) Anthropology.

Choice of anthropology modules increases through the degree, and you may specialise for example in either biological or social anthropology. All anthropology students are required to take the field methods and dissertation modules in the final year.

The anthropology programme can be studied as a major or minor subject, or as half a joint degree. The degree can also be studied part-time over a four or five year period.

• Most of the teaching of Anthropology is conducted in lectures and seminars.
• The Carnival module in the first year, unusually, requires you to make a mask and costume appropriate to presenting a carnival performance in a public setting.
• Field project based modules require you to locate settings and informants for observation and interviewing. At first all field work is campus based. But in later years of the degree you negotiate with us safe settings for off-campus field work.
• Information technology is an essential requirement of degree level study. We assume no prior knowledge in this before coming to UEL, and provide computer laboratory based tuition in IT and exploring the web in the first year of the degree.
• There is a very full programme of anthropology field trips including trips to Newgrange in Ireland, the fire society festivals in South Sussex, the Prescelli Hills in SW Wales and Avebury and Stonehenge for summer solstice.
• The anthropology programme initiated the UEL Samba Society. Professional percussion and dance teachers are employed to train people with no previous experience in samba drumming and dancing. Joining the samba society is a useful way of exploring the meaning of carnival.

• Most library-based anthropology modules are assessed by weekly reading tests, an essay and an examination.
• Field and skills based modules like Carnival, Field Methods and Information Technology are assessed by project work alone.
• The Dissertation module is assessed by giving a small presentation and by submitting a written Dissertation.

• You are encouraged to choose a research setting for third year field work relevant to your future professional employment.

Project work is required in all three years of the degree. Topics are chosen by yourself in negotiation with staff. By the final year of the degree, our aim is that you will have become very experienced at observing and listening to people, and able to interpret the hidden meanings of a culture. This is a very useful professional skill for later life and employment.

Our ex-students have told us that they get enormous confidence from studying anthropology at UEL (see our web page for their comments). By 'finding themselves' through degree level study that they find interesting and challenging, this sets them up for a wide variety of future professions.

• People-watching and learning how people live their lives.
• Other cultures - when travelling, or watching TV programmes, do I find myself fascinated by cultures very different from my own?
• Unravelling my own and humanity's history. Do I find myself trying to trace back difficult questions to the origins of things?
• Hearing about the latest fossil discoveries of ancestral humans?
• Watching TV programmes about animal behaviour?
• Fairy tales or myths? Do I love films that have a magical or mythical component?
• Traditional systems of thought and ritual (e.g. possession, sweat lodges, masking etc.).
• Who built Stonehenge and why?

If you answer yes to many of these questions, then anthropology at UEL is for you.

• Getting at the deep meaning of things, otherwise normally hidden.
• Working with staff and students highly committed to studying the world's cultures.
• Meeting new people and getting to know them and their lives.
• Working in groups to collaborate in project work.
• Setting yourself new targets that will stretch you and get you to a new place.
• Working to a high individual standard in presenting evidence and ideas to others.

• A wide range of subjects, in which anthropology integrates animal behaviour, palaeontology, archaeology, social anthropology, cultural studies, myth and folklore analysis.
• The chance to study some subjects in great depth, like: the origins of language; refugees; African cosmologies; stone circles; Amazonian cultures; carnival; divine kingship; the Australian myth of the rainbow-serpent; the varieties of 'racial' identities.
• The chance to bring your own enthusiasms and experience and integrate them into an anthropological interpretation.
• To link anthropology with, for example, development issues, archaeology, psychology or a language. Almost any combination is possible.

Anthropology can provide a route into many professions, some of which are:

Health Officer, Medical Researcher and Advisor, Ecological Protection, Environment Officer, Relief and Refugee Field Officer, Development Planner, Race and Ethnic Relations Officer, Child Protection, Care of the Elderly Officer, Human Rights Officer, Tourism and Media Management, Management and Project Officer (especially in voluntary and minority rights groups), Events Organiser, Research (especially in areas of applied evolutionary theory such as health and in social policy and research), Teaching, including special needs and ESL etc..

As anthropology trains you to deal with cultural difference, it is particularly suited to prepare you for work abroad, or in special cultural settings in this country.

• While at UEL you will have a personal tutor to advise you about your individual engagement with the degree.
• We train you in a wide variety of retrieval systems to obtain up-to-date information and the latest research findings.
• While in your third year we run a careers day school, to assist you in choosing your professional career, preparing your CV, and accelerating the chances of a successful application.
• UEL provides medical, counselling and financial support and advice to all students.
• A wide range of student societies enriches your degree experience.

Strong linkage to the Radical Anthropology Group, and inclusion in their central London evening class programme and other field trips.