Anthropology and Language & Linguistics

Anthropology at Aberdeen is the study of the diversity of human communities and cultures around the world. It brings together theories about ‘being human’ from a wide range of Western and non-Western thinkers to understand human action, culture and thought, as studied through long-term international research with the communities themselves. You can study it with Language and Linguistics to give you a unique range of learning and opportunities and careers.

Language & Linguistics will introduce you to, among other things, how human language and speech may have evolved, the complex functions and structures of language in its role as a bridge between sound and meaning. You will study the ways in which we acquire languages as children and adults, the ways in which languages vary and the mechanisms by which they change over time.

Our courses in Anthropology examine the connections among all aspects of life – family and kinship, economic systems, political and religious institutions, human-animal and ecological relations – and the way in which they come together to create whole ways of living within an increasingly global and postcolonial world.

Anthropology at Aberdeen is ranked 1st in the UK for overall student satisfaction in the 2024 National Student Survey.
Ranked 3rd in the UK for Anthropology and Archaeology (Guardian University Guide 2025)
Ranked 4th in the UK for Anthropology (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025)
Global Top 100 for Anthropology (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024)
Ranked 7th in the UK for Languages & Linguistics (Guardian University Guide 2025)