About The division of Social Anthropology
What is Social Anthropology?
Social Anthropology is one of the major internationally recognized basic research social science disciplines. It was established following the turn of the Twentieth Century. The unifying focus of anthropology is the study of mankind, its history, social structures and cultural forms. In the United States the subject is divided into social and cultural anthropology, archaeology, human biology and linguistics. In Europe this has not been the case and social anthropology has remained a separate subject. In any case the scope of anthropology encompasses issues covered by history, linguistics, archaeology and human biology although the degree to which this occurs is variable from department to department. The field has historically had a major influence on the other social sciences since several major approaches, structural functionalism, structuralism, structural marxism were elaborated very much within social anthropology.
Internationally renowned
The department at Lund university has been a significant contributor to what is referred to as historical anthropology, and it has been the center for the development of global systemic anthropology. Research and teaching in Lund has included the study of global historical processes, the formation and disappearance of particular social and cultural forms, the nature of personhood and social experience, the processes of cultural production, the formation of ontologies and cosmologies.
Social Anthropology at Lund is internationally renowned for the development of that field which is designated today as global systemic anthropology. This approach is based on the necessity of accounting for global processes involved in the constitution of local social organizations: i.e. the way in which social forms, from rituals to institutions, are formed in the interaction between local and global processes. From the mid 70's we have cooperated with researchers from other disciplines such as history, ancient history and archaeology in numerous international publications on the nature and dynamics of world historical processes.
Last updated: 2009-07-03
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