University of Zululand Department of Anthropology

Welcome to the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies

In this department, we offer two disciplines, i.e. Anthropology and Development Studies. Anthropology should be considered by undergraduates and post-graduate students for the following reasons: the material is intellectually exciting, anthropology prepares you for excellent job opportunities and it open doors to various career paths.

The following are some of the areas of anthropological studies.

• Sociocultural Anthropology: Examines social patterns and practices across cultures.
• Archeology: Studies past people and cultures through the analysis of material remains.
• Paleoanthropology: Studies human and non-human primates past and present from ecological and evolutionary perspectives.
• Linguistic Anthropology: Studies the ways in which language reflects and influences social life.
• Medical Anthropology: Seeks to better understand factors that influence people’s health and well-being.
• Forensic Anthropology: Analyzes skeletal, decomposed, unidentified human remains to aid in detection of crime.
• Business Anthropology: Applies anthropological theories and methods to identify and solve business problems.
• Visual Anthropology: Uses images for the description, analysis, communication and interpretation of behavior.
• Environmental Anthropology: Examines how people interact with, respond to, and bring about changes in the environment.
• Museum Anthropology: Studies the history of museums, their role in society, and changes in this role.

The following are some of the career prospects that anthropologists can pursue:

• Academic Careers: On campuses, in Departments of Anthropology, in research laboratories, we teach and conduct research. We must find careers in other departments or university programs, such as schools of medicine, epidemiology, public health, ethnic studies, cultural studies, linguistic, education, ecology, cognitive psychology and neural science.
• Corporate and Business Careers: In most developed countries, many corporations look explicitly for anthropologists. Anthropologists use research skills to talk to consumers and users of technology to find out how products and services could be improved to better meet the needs of consumers.
• Government Careers: Government use anthropologists in planning, research and as managers. For instance, archaeology is used to assess cultural resources affected by government funded projects. Forensic anthropologists, not only work with police departments to help identify mysterious or unknown remains, but also work university and museum settings.
• Non-Profit Organisations: NPO’s such as international health organizations and development banks employ anthropologists to help design and implement a wide variety of programs.
• Working For Yourself: An anthropologist can easily work on their own as consultant. There are companies who will require your services for independent research. You can also be hired as a trainer and offer different types of training to motivates employees or test their capabilities based on their background.

Development Studies

Development studies is a growing multidisciplinary social science discipline. The following are some of the areas of specialization that you can pursue in Development Studies:

Civil Society and Development focus on the role of civil society organisations and their role in development. People who choose this aspect of Development Studies work in local, national, regional and international NGOs and other agencies.

Gender and Development focus on mainstreaming gender in development initiatives and people who specialize in this area of development work in Chapter 9 institutions such as Gender Commission, governmental and non-governmental agencies.

Monitoring and Evaluation focus on conducting evaluation of programmes and projects and specialists in this field work in private, NGO, and government agencies.

Project Management focus on various stages of project planning and management and specialist work in different field including banking, government and intergovernmental agencies.

Economic of Development focus on economic theories, trade issues, environmental management, population studies, health and education etc. that are relevant and influences development and specialists in this field work in state, international agencies and even non-state agencies focusing on economic planning, analysis etc.

Rural Development focus rurality and interventions focusing on driving development in rural areas and specialists in this field work in government, land banks, and international agencies.

Urban Studies focus on broad areas such as informal settlements, informal economy and planning and most of the specialists in this field work in government, the banking sector, civil society organisations and international agencies.

Environmental Management focus on water supply, sanitation, energy and green economy and specialist in this field work in government, regional and international bodies.

There are other cross cutting areas of specialization such as ICT, globalization, political economy which form part of either rural development, urban studies and other areas, and people who specialize in these fields work in most of the institutions highlighted above