Anthropology is an academic discipline devoted to the study of humanity (the Greek anthropos means ‘human being’). It is a very wide-ranging discipline, made up of a variety of sub-divisions. The kind of anthropology taught at the University of Canterbury is known as social and cultural anthropology. This branch of anthropology has close ties to a number of other academic disciplines, especially sociology, philosophy, religious studies, Mâori and indigenous studies, linguistics, gender studies, Pacific studies, Asian languages, fine arts, theatre studies, geography and history