Anthropology

Study human societies across the world, from global cities to nomadic camps.

Choose the University of Reading

• Scored 1st for teaching quality in Archaeology and Forensic Science (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025). 
• Named Sustainable University of the Year in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025.

Anthropology offers a global, cross-cultural perspective that engages with the big questions that concern us all: what it means to be human and to live in society. 

Examine humanity from our evolutionary origins to the crowded twenty-first century:

• learn how societies respond to – and affect – environmental change
• explore the impact of culture, politics and economics on our lives
• discover how social issues develop in the contemporary world.

At Reading, you'll study anthropology with archaeology. Together they unravel the complexities of the past and present, how we evolved, and why we developed such differences and commonalities. Equipped with this knowledge, anthropologists can help to understand how humanity will affect the future – and adapt to it.