Department of Social Anthropology
About this community
Combines expertise in the central traditional fields of social anthropology with active explorations of new areas of study
The Department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge is a major centre for anthropological research. It combines expertise in the central traditional fields of social anthropology with active explorations of new areas of study. Most of the main anthropological fields of kinship, religion and ritual, economics, law and politics are studied.
Particular current interests in the department include gender relations, comparative sociology, modes of communication, medical anthropology, demographic anthropology, urban studies, philosophy and anthropology, historical anthropology, symbolic systems, economic and development anthropology, ethnicity, history of anthropology, art and aesthetics.
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Sub-communities within this community
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Digital Himalaya
Includes an extensive set of back issues of Himalayan journals, rare manuscripts and books, and numerous maps, alongside visual and audio collections
Collections in this community
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Digital Orient
A programme to understand the cultures of China, Japan, India and South Korea through the integration of multimedia, large data storage, and dynamic interactivity made possible by broadband capacities. -
Film Interviews of Academics and Others
Archival interviews with leading anthropologists, historians,ethno-musicologists, international travellers and others. -
Nepal Materials
Films, photographs and texts describing the peoples of the Nepal Himalayas.
Recent Submissions
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The ‘truth about Ebola’: Insecure epistemologies in post-outbreak Forest Guinea
This dissertation examines the ways in which the ‘truth’ about an outbreak of zoonotic disease stabilises through the labour of sampling animals. While scarcely any case of Ebola had ever been reported in West Africa, the ... -
The three hearths: Custom, church and state as colliding orders of time and space in Asmat, Indonesian Papua
This study examines the intersection of ‘customary’ ritual, Catholic religion, and state-centred politics among the Asmat of Indonesian Papua, and how these processes order time and space. Asmat are famous in anthropological ... -
'You are all my people': building disabled community in Uganda's microentrepreneur economy
In 1995 Uganda adopted a new Constitution mandating parliament and local councils to include disabled members, elected by registered disabled people in each community. Consequently, Uganda has an unusually institutionalised ... -
Becoming Accountable: Jehovah's Witnesses and the responsibilities of evangelism
For Jehovah’s Witnesses, evangelism is of prime importance. It forms the core of their identity and is shaped by an ethics of communication. Witness evangelism is a fundamentally pedagogical process through which one “learns ...
