Anthropology is the systematic study of human beings: past, present and future; body, mind, and spirit. Socio-cultural anthropology, the main focus of anthropology at Rhodes, is chiefly concerned with relationships between people in particular social and cultural contexts. Traditionally, anthropologists have studied small, isolated communities a long way from their own homes, where all aspects of the local society and culture could be investigated by a single researcher. Today, anthropologists' interests include a much wider range of contexts from families to classrooms, congregations to boardrooms, neighbourhoods to workplaces and they take account of the widest influences including the impact of globalisation - on their particular context of study. Whether traditional or postmodern, local or global in orientation, anthropology has always provided students with new ways of looking at their own social situations and of understanding those of others.