How to Think Like an Anthropologist

What is anthropology? Why does it matter? How can it help us understand who we are?

For well over a hundred years, social and cultural anthropologists have travelled the world, uncovering patterns and variations in how humans organize their lives and articulate their values.

By weaving together theories and fieldwork examples from Beijing to the City of London, anthropologist Matthew Engelke shows why the study of anthropology still matters in today’s globalized world: not only because it allows us to understand other points of view, but also because in the process, it reveals something about ourselves too.

Learning to think like an anthropologist opens up fresh insights into current social and political debates, from big tech to Brexit. Anthropology, argues Engelke, should be as central to our understanding of the world as Economics and Psychology have become; we are unable to understand identity, cultural values and power without it.