What Anthropologists Do

Why should you study anthropology? How will it enable you to understand human behaviour? And what will you learn that will equip you to enter working life?

This book describes what studying anthropology actually means in practice, and explores the many career options available to those trained in anthropology. Anthropology gets under the surface of social and cultural diversity to understand people’s beliefs and values, and how these guide the different lifeways that these create. This accessible book presents a lively introduction to the ways in which anthropology's unique research methods and conceptual frameworks can be employed in a very wide range of fields, from environmental concerns to human rights, through business, social policy, museums and marketing. This updated edition includes an additional chapter on anthropology and interdisciplinarity.

This is an essential primer for undergraduates studying introductory courses to anthropology, and any reader who wants to know what anthropology is about.

Veronica Strang is a Professor of Anthropology and the Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University, and is affiliated to the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at Oxford University. From 2013–2017 she was the Chair of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and the Commonwealth. Her publications include Uncommon Ground: cultural landscapes and environmental values (1997); The Meaning of Water (2004); Gardening the World: agency, identity and the ownership of water (2009); Ownership and Appropriation (2010); Water: nature and culture (2015); and From the Lighthouse: interdisciplinary reflections on light (2018). More information about her work can be found at https://www.veronicastrang.com/