How to use this guide

This guide is for those who have an interest in anthropology but would like to know more. You might be a sixth former or access student who is considering taking anthropology at university but who is unclear about the subject's scope or content. You might be a teacher or careers advisor who would like to be better informed about options for students. You might alternatively be a tutor or teacher who would like to introduce some anthropological content into a particular module or course of study but who is not clear how to proceed. Others who might find this Guide useful are those considering studying anthropology as part of their continuing professional development, for instance, social and health care professionals. Finally, you might be someone who is attracted to the study of anthropology and simply wishes to know more, regardless of any future academic qualification. Whatever your background, we hope that this Guide will provide you with an effective map of how you might discover more about a fascinating subject.

The Guide operates at two levels. On the one hand we  provide a good deal of practical information such as the key organisations, important museums and library collections, bibliographies, useful addresses and telephone numbers and details of colleges and universities that teach and research anthropology. On the other hand we provide a basic commentary on the discipline explaining what the study of anthropology entails and its relevance to contemporary life. The Guide can thus be used as a simple source of reference or read, in its own right, as a text which will place the study of anthropology in wider social and intellectual contexts.

Anthropologists use their own technical terms and vocabulary and are apt to forget just how difficult this practice can be for anyone encountering the very idea of anthropology for the first time. To help in this respect we have put all words likely to be unfamiliar to you in bold face. Simple explanations of these terms appear in the glossary.