Introduction

Abstract

Social anthropology is one of those fields which many people have vaguely heard of, but few know how to define. Even students of the subject dread that inevitable party-stopping question, ‘just what is it you are doing at university?’ and several rather pat answers have been invented to snuff out the interest. Once started on an explanation, however, an enthusiastic student may be hard to stop, and for many, social anthropology comes to change their lives in a profound and irreversible way. It may still be difficult to say quite why, but they will share an understanding of life with others who have ventured into the same pastures, an understanding which will also stand them in good stead in all kinds of future endeavours, despite the blank looks their employers may give them when they ask about the precise content of their degree.