Anthropology

Even the most anti-social of you will have some interest in your fellow human beings, but the study of anthropology really does take it a few steps further. You may have developed a fascination for the subject by watching the likes of Robert Winston on TV or it may be that you've finally decided that politics, economics, philosophy and sociology have all failed, to some extent, to fully explain the behaviour of the other earthlings. Anthropology may provide you with a few answers to some big questions.

There's no aspect of human life which is not touched on by the subject to some degree - you'll cover language, physiology, art, and the way we (or others) organise (or let our politicians organise) our societies. You'll start by studying all these different areas, before moving on to specialise, usually in one of two areas: social and cultural anthropology (which pretty much covers what most people consider to be the subject anyhow) and biological anthropology (which is based more in science than in social science). Social and cultural anthropology (not too distant from sociology in many ways) looks at the organisation of societies and their politics, economics and religions, and tries to place those in context. Often you'll be studying non-European cultures, but will be trying to keep them within their own local context.

Biological anthropologists, on the other hand, start from the evolution of mankind and the human race's differing genetics and concern themselves with physical differences between people: skin, blood groups, the shape of the head and so on, and, therefore, draw on a different range of disciplines - anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, for starters.

Some courses do lump the two together, but you're more likely to specialise in one side of the subject. You'll start by learning the basic theories that cover the mechanics of human societies, before moving on to specialisations, such as moral and ritual systems, kinship, or ethnography. You'll also be expected to do a certain amount of fieldwork, usually in the nature of your own personal research project, and you'll often have to do this out of term-time, in around 12 weeks' work over a three-year course.

Those projects can play an important part in the assessment process, other-wise it's a case of large amounts of continuous assessment (often in the newer universities) or the traditional end of year exams (the older institutions).

Once you've graduated, outside academe, there are precious few openings for professional anthropologists. Some take their knowledge of human behaviour into the sphere of marketing, while others use those skills in development agencies or helping in the developing world. For those who leave the knowledge behind, there are still the analytical and investigative skills and the understanding of human nature, which go down well in consultancy work and in business. You may not spend the rest of your life studying pygmy tribes in...

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