Social and Cultural Anthropology

Social and cultural Anthropology is about how people live, think, and create meaning across cultures through context-based research.

Meaning, Methods, and Global Insights

Social and Cultural anthropology is the study of human societies and cultures, focusing on how people live, think, and create meaning in their everyday lives. In most cases, this type of anthropology explores beliefs, rituals, language, social structures, and practices across the planet. Using methods like participant observation and ethnographic fieldwork, social and cultural anthropologists immerse themselves in communities to understand life from within. They focus on critical "cultural relativism", seeking to interpret practices in context rather than judge them by outside standards, while examining their sociopolitical implications. Social and Cultural anthropology gives us insights into identity, inequality, power, religion, gender, health, and globalization by examining both differences and shared concerns among diverse communities and societies. In turn, the field reveals how humans adapt, connect, and make sense of the world around them, with their human and nonhuman companions, in terms of their relations to animals, plants, atmospheres, elements, and imagined worlds and beings.

Power, Memory, and Justice

Cultural anthropology (an academic tradition in the US) reveals how history, memory, and power shape public spaces. For example, Dr. Kaniqua Robinson’s work on "Stone Mountain" shows how cultural narratives can marginalize Black and Indigenous voices. Her research focuses on the importance of inclusive dialogue and reimagining monuments to reflect diverse histories, fostering justice and collective healing.

Video: Featuring Dr. Kaniqua Robinson

Dr. Kaniqua Robinson, a cultural anthropologist, explores how collective memory—shared recollections shaped by power—can marginalize certain voices. Using "Stone Mountain" as a case study, she traces its transformation into the largest Confederate monument in the U.S., highlighting its roots in white supremacy, the KKK, and exclusion of Black and Indigenous perspectives. Though now seen by many as a family park, its history reveals a legacy of racial oppression. Dr. Robinson calls for inclusive, critical dialogue about its future, suggesting options from removal to reimagining it with cultural icons like Outkast, and prioritizing the Muskogee Nation’s input.

Breathing Hearts

Anthropology can make us question topics large and small. For instance, in "Breathing Hearts," I explore how Sufi practices in Berlin intersect with issues of race, religion, and healing. Through my ethnographic research, I examine how these practices address both secular and religious suffering, particularly in the face of anti-Muslim racism. I trace the Desire Lines of immigrants and white Germans to show how Sufi healing challenges the post-secular imagination in Germany. My work in that book connects medical anthropology, global healing, and the anthropology of Islam to present a nuanced understanding of how spiritual practices navigate sociocultural and political landscapes. It’s an exploration of how healing can be both a personal and collective process.

Dr. Nasima Selim is an interdisciplinary scholar trained in medicine, public health and anthropology. She is a breathworker, writer, researcher, and educator. Her books include “Breathing Hearts” (Berghahn 2024), an open-access ethnography, and "Ways of Breathing and Knowing" (Routledge, forthcoming), a volume of 12 interdisciplinary essays she co-edited with Dr. Judith Albrecht.