Social Anthropology explores the challenges posed by social and cultural diversity in the contemporary world.

Human beings have developed a myriad of ways to meet physical and social needs and desires. Some are effective in promoting social relations, and some, such as War and Environmental Devastation, are not. Anthropology, as a form of disciplined curiosity, seeks ways to understand these.

It carefully examines perspectives, values and experiences of people and communities of divergent backgrounds and interrogates taken-for-granted aspects of social life, eliciting the profound complexity of people’s everyday worlds. Through its comparative approach, the discipline draws creatively on a large body of knowledge about the different ways groups of people live. In doing so, it contributes to innovative understandings of social issues.

Central to Social Anthropology are the concepts of "culture" and "society"... culture? Preconceptions, values, knowledge and norms that structure and give meaning to the life processes of people in social relationships. Society? interdependent sets of Institutions and positions that structure and organize social behaviour... concepts which are inseparable from each other. We are not born with these ideas - we learn them in social settings, and adapt them and modify them creatively throughout our lives.