100 Anthropology Essay Topics for College Students

When it comes to writing a good essay in anthropology, the process is quite similar to other disciplines. When it comes to arguing, the only thing that differs is the type of evidence you offer to support your position. You could use textual evidence from novels or literary theory to support your assertions in an English essay; in an anthropology essay, you would most likely use textual evidence from ethnographies together with artifactual evidence, or other support from anthropological theories to support your ideas.

In this article, let us look at multiple examples of titles and topic ideas for your upcoming research projects for anthropology thesis projects, including both quantitative and qualitative studies, as well as case studies.

Researching human people, their forebears, and how they connect to phenomena is part of writing about anthropological issues. The environment, physical characteristics, culture, and social interactions are all examples of phenomena. Anthropology is widely regarded as a science in modern culture. In addition, there is a wealth of knowledge on many anthropological issues.

Anthropology, on the other hand, is a complicated subject. And writing on any issue in this field necessitates familiarity with many societies, traditions, and cultures. Furthermore, issues in social anthropology integrate sociology and history.

As a result, researching and writing about some anthropology-related topics might be difficult. Nonetheless, this topic encompasses nearly every element of human life. Our client writing service has compiled a list of some of the greatest anthropology themes.

Anthropology Research Topics

  1. What role has art played in the advancement of anthropology in the modern era?
  2. How might cultural values be used to research religion?
  3. What is the evolution of an ideology?
  4. What methods do anthropologists use to investigate the effects of ideology on human society?
  5. What does nationalism look like from an anthropological standpoint? How can a leader integrate nationalism into his or her current culture?
  6. What are the advantages and disadvantages of theoretical anthropology?
  7. What role does anthropology play in poverty alleviation?
  8. What is anthropology’s scientific approach to the development of human rights?
  9. How do anthropologist organizations guarantee that human rights are respected and that international law is translated into local legislation in order to reduce gender violence in society?
  10. What role does culture play in superpower politics?
  11. How do you classify the factors that shape modern global culture?
  12. Adapting to environment and maladaptation’s health consequences
  13. Various physiological processes are interpreted differently in different places.
  14. Major shifts in the body’s projects and the qualities that we value as humans

Here are a few more topics to pick from.

Medical Anthropology Essay Topics

  1. Assessment of the political ecology of both infectious and vector-borne diseases. 
  2. How do chronic illnesses, violence, and malnutrition all connect to one other?
  3. The political component of healthcare supply, as well as the financial aspect
  4. In terms of healthcare and sickness, people’s views of vulnerability, risk, and responsibility are all important.
  5. Cultural norms, human behavior, and social structures have both protective and risky aspects.
  6. Preventive healthcare approaches and harm reduction
  7. Illness experience and disease-related social relationships
  8. Transitions in diet, health, and healthcare and how they are influenced by a number of factors.
  9. Interactions between clinicians and members of a social organization
  10. In a therapeutic process, pluralistic and ethnomedicine techniques are used.
  11. Medical policies and practices are shaped by historical and cultural factors.
  12. Biotechnology and medicines and how they are interpreted differently.
  13. Medical practices in the contexts of colonialism, postcolonialism, and modernity
  14. How society has commodified and commercialized medicine and healthcare.
  15. Disparities in health and disease distributions across North America.
  16. Describe how biological anthropology differs from other scientific disciplines.
  17. In what ways does biological anthropology try to understand and interpret human evolution?
  18. Explain how primatologists utilize biological anthropology to better understand evolutionary processes in monkeys.
  19. Investigating the use of fossils in paleoanthropology.
  20. How biological anthropologists elaborate the evolution of human behaviour and social structures
  21. Explain how, from the perspective of biological anthropology, observing modern people allows scientists to derive conclusions and insights.
  22. Determine the main geographical locations that biological anthropologists investigate.
  23. What role does geography play in understanding human evolution?
  24. Choose one of these themes and conduct comprehensive research before writing your article.

Other General Anthropology Essay Topics

Examples of titles and topics for an anthropology thesis include the following:

  1. The advancement of anthropology during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
  2. What lessons can we draw about ourselves as a species from anthropological studies?
  3. Similarities and differences between physical and biological anthropology.
  4. What contribution does cultural anthropology play in assisting us gain a better understanding of ourselves?
  5. How is the link between the concepts gathered and the field of social anthropology demonstrated?
  6. Is there any proof that the human species has evolved within the previous two millennia?
  7. An investigation on the language preferences of diverse groups of individuals living in the same country.
  8. Investigating a contrast between verbal communication and sign language.
  9. In what ways may anthropologists who work in the subject of linguistic anthropology benefit from the discipline of semiotics?
  10. An investigation and comparison of various art forms in an anthropological setting in both Western and non-Western cultures.
  11. What have been the most significant repercussions of globalization in regard to nutritional anthropology?
  12. Evaluating the potential influence of political systems on particular cultures, using anthropological study.
  13. Highlighting the implications of trust in the physician-patient relationship and how it may be built.
  14. 14 .By employing appropriate case studies, explain how kinship is anthropologically defined.
  15. Compare and contrast economic anthropological concerns in pre- and post-capitalist civilizations, as well as their respective historical periods.
  16. The application of anthropological study in order to assess the influence of various political systems
  17. Identify, compare, and contrast medical therapies that are comparable yet were discovered and developed separately in various nations
  18. Describe the significance of medical anthropology in connection to the theme of anthropology as a whole, and provide examples.
  19. What cognitive abilities can be observed and examined during an anthropological psychological examination?
  20. The utilization of case studies involving altered states of consciousness in order to provide a more thorough explanation of the study of transpersonal anthropology.
  21. Examine the application of human rights to persons who have been convicted of crimes.
  22. When it comes to legal anthropology, the relevance of concepts relating to the law is the most essential factor to consider. 
  23. Is it a generalization to say that anthropologists are mostly anti-urban in their outlook?
  24. Exploring the meaning of paleontology.
  25. What are the most significant organizations in the field of anthropology when it comes to furthering the study of the subject?
  26. Looking at how indigenous people in Ecuador have formed and fragmented their identities based on gender and race.
  27. Investigating the dialectic of a Future Feminist
  28. The significance of a movement called Lesbians Against the Law between 1987 and 2014 in India.
  29. Pornography and Sexual Communication in Public and Private. 
  30. How wars are fought, and also said: 9/11 and the War on Terrorism as depicted in United States history books
  31. Writing on the Sidelines: The Theory of Young Women Reading Science-Fictional Fiction
  32. Exploring images of female empowerment appeared in popular culture throughout the 1990s.
  33. The Debate on Sex, Science, and Politics in Sociobiology
  34. The Consent Policy in the Context of Compulsory Sex-Positivity Education
  35. The ‘Impossible’ of the Legacy of Slavery in Jamaica during 1753-1786.
  36. How have humans Survived Plagues since the 1800s?

How to Write Anthropology Essay

Some suggestions for tackling your anthropological writing projects are as follows:

  • Double-check that you understand what the prompt or question is asking you to accomplish before you proceed. If you are unsure about a prompt, it is a good idea to check with your teacher or teaching assistant for clarification. For more information on what many college professors look for in a typical paper, see our handouts on arguments and handout on college writing.
  • Go over the resources that you will be working with and about, giving them a critical attention. Putting aside any readings or lecture notes that are not related to the point you will make in your paper is a good place to start. This will assist you in narrowing your attention to the most relevant arguments, concerns, and behavioral and/or material facts that you will be evaluating critically.
    • It is possible that you may want to hold a brainstorming session once you have gone through your evidence and course materials. We think you’ll find our handouts on reading in readiness for writing and brainstorming beneficial at this time.

Build a rough draft of your working thesis and begin organizing your supporting evidence (lectures from class or readings from books or articles). We have handouts on how to construct thesis statements and how to develop paragraphs that will assist you in generating a thesis and developing your ideas and arguments into clear and concise paragraphs.

How to Cite Your Sources in Your Anthropology Essay

The sources that you examine to create and convey your ideas are extremely essential in anthropology, as they are in all other disciplines of study. In order to prevent plagiarizing, please refer to your course handout or Purdue guidelines on plagiarism for more details. When it comes to documenting their sources, anthropologists adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style. According to the AAA Style Guide (American Anthropological Association), there are a few fundamental principles to follow when citing anthropological sources. It’s important to remember that anthropologists often utilize in-text citations rather than footnotes in their work.

When you are utilizing someone else’s ideas (whether it is a direct quotation or something you have rewritten), you must mention the author’s last name and the date the original material was published in parentheses at the end of the sentence, as in the following example: (Author, 2021.)

In case your anthropology or archaeology instructor advises you to structure your citations in accordance with the style standards of a specific academic journal, the publication’s website should include all of the information you will need to organize your citations correctly. Journals such as The American Journal of Physical Anthropology and American Antiquity are examples of this type of publication. Although some journals may not clearly indicate their style requirements, many teachers will be happy if you regularly utilize the citation style of your choosing, even if the journal is not expressly specified.

Topics in Cultural Anthropology

The science of social behavior and patterns, and also why and how they vary in modern civilizations, is referred to as cultural ethnography. Ethnohistory, ethnography, and cross-cultural studies are examples of cultural anthropological study subjects. Here is a list of probable paper topics to consider.

  1. Forced marriages among young females in Northern Nigeria are influenced by underlying religious beliefs.
  2. The difficult tasks that women perform in contemporary Africa
  3. Examining the impact of religious ideas on African civilizations
  4. What impact do superstitions have on the African way of life?
  5. Evaluating the progression of sexual discrimination in recent times.
  6. The impact of homosexual marriage on cultural and socioeconomic origins
  7. Explain why racism still exists in today’s world.
  8. Examine the reasons of homelessness among Indians.
  9. How can India address the issue of homelessness?
  10. The impact of homosexuality on the cultural and social landscape
  11. The impact of homosexuality on African social views
  12. Culture’s impact on human civilization
  13. The relationship between political science and cultural anthropology
  14. Contemporary media and its role in shaping cultural imperialism
  15. Explain cultural shock and how to deal with it.
  16. Strategies to reduce overall cultural baggage.
  17. The most important aspects of any culture
  18. How do religious views influence culture?
  19. The impact of language learning on people’s cultural practices.