What is social anthropology
Social anthropology is the study of humanity´s cultural diversity, the social processes that develops within the framework of the global diversity, and the common features underlying the diversity.In other words, any phenomenon can be the object of an anthropological study.
Still, some topics have remained in focus ever since the study emerged 150 years ago; power and leadership, cosmology, rituals and religious conceptions, economy, ecology and kinship. Recent anthropological research has brought sentral contributions to the development of social science theories of ethnic relations, nationalisme, multicultural society, local responses to global processes, gender relations, aid and ecology.
The core in social anthropology is on the one hand the ethnographic fieldwork, that can be carried out anywhere in the world, and on the other hand comparativ method. The field work implies that social anthropologists spends a longer period of time in close contact with people to gather data about their lives, actions, values and world views. The findings are presented in a way that gives insight into a cultural logic, based on the investigated society´s own terms, in an attempt to "explain" peoples lived universe. In comparative research anthropologists compara their data to other ways of life, including the researchers own society.
Hence, on one hand the researcher strives to get as close as possible to the objects of the study to discover what it is that makes them unique. On the other hand it is important to keep enough distance to be able to compare them with a bird`s eye view focusing on the common human traits.
The social anthropology course in India has two major benefits. The cultural contrasts you will experience during your stay will be highlighted and analysed in class as the several of the teachers have focused their work on South-Asia and can include local and regional examples in their lectures. In addition, the close connection you will get to your teachers will offer an excellent opportunity to get an insight into the relationship between the social anthropologists often somewhat chaotic research process and the structured academic texts they end up publishing. This can give you a better ”backstage” understanding of the production of academic articles and books, enabling you to critically analyse presentations of reserach results and teoretical arguments. You really get a quite unique opportunity for insight into the real workings of social anthropology and other social sciences.