LSE Anthropology and Law 2023

Hi, I want to know what kind of things students at lse learn in this course. Do topics you learn about link with moral and political philosophy or perhaps the media? Is it similar to sociology?

hey, I'm a first year. In first year, you do two law modules and two anthropology modules. For all of these modules, you're with the straight law/anthro students in all your classes and lectures. It's kind of like doing half a degree in each, so there's not necessarily much explicit combining of the two subjects. In law, we have been doing criminal and contract this year. In anthro, we do an introductory course called Being Human and another module on anthropology throughout history. Anthro is extremely broad so there definitely are parts that link to sociology/political philosophy. For example, in Being Human we do a week on the concept of 'slow death' and capitalism, where we study some Marx-inspired thinkers who claim that work in capitalist society drains people over time and leads to them losing their identity. In our other module on the history of anthropology, we have had quite a few weeks on schools of political thought. We've had a week on how anarchism links to anthropology, Marxism and anthropology, feminism and anthropology, as well as far-right movements and anthro. Even outside of these topics, class discussions usually touch on morality. For example, one of our readings in history of anthro module was on teenage girls in a southeast Asian region becoming s3x workers. In this region, you were thought to be an adult from much younger than 18, so the society saw them as consenting to this. We discussed the morality of this and if the West had the right to force these countries to ban such practices when it provided the girls with a living.
In general, anthropology is quite similar to sociology. I like to think of anthropology as sociology but on a global scale. Anthropology also tends to explore smaller, more niche communities compared to sociology. If you like sociology, I imagine you'd like anthro too as it has lots of shared themes but is just more varied. LSE's curriculum for criminal law also has some links to sociology. We've talked about issues surrounding gender-based and sexuality-based crime, alongside racial profiling and how working class people are disproportionately imprisoned. In these instances we primarily focus on the actual law but social factors are usually acknowledged and there's space to discuss them in class.

Thank you so much for the help. This sounds so so interesting. I do sociology at alevel and find it very interesting. Do you guys happen to also look at institutions in society, for example the media, and how this shapes social reality.

No problem I can't think of any times it has been a specific topic, but it has overlapped with other topics we've done. For example, in Being Human we did a week on care/caregiving and talked about the Gen Z social media self-care movement and how it focuses on superficial things and can actually set unrealistic standards. Another example is when we did a week relating to love/relationships and once again considered the harm in social media's idea of a perfect relationship. The great thing about anthropology is that there's so much flexibility in what you cover. This is the case in classes, which allow plenty of time for class discussion, meaning you can steer the conversation onto the influence of the media if you wish. Essays are also quite flexible. For Being Human, we do two 2500 coursework essays over the year. You have to consider the readings from two/three weeks of the term, but are also encouraged to go beyond the reading list and find your own anthropological texts. This means that there's usually the opportunity to bring anthropological texts relating to the media into your essays and get credit on it. Assuming you're in year 12, if you need any help with application/personal statement stuff feel free to direct message me

This sounds like an amazing course. Would you be able to tell me what you touched upon in your personal statement very broadly and what you would say was roughly the percentage of law to anthropology in your personal statement?

Hii, I want to apply for this course but really don't know how to balance my personal statement. Does political correctness in law link to anthropology at all? Or perhaps if i discuss equality and positive social change do you think that links to anthropology? Thank you for the help.

Hi, I'm a first year A&L student. I'll copy my response to someone else on what my personal statement covered:
So my intro was on my dual heritage, talking about how the law is perceived in each country.
My next para was on my experience watching a criminal trial and after examining this from a legal perspective, I talked about how people's upbringing impacts their likelihood to commit crime, and also racial profiling. Even though I'd say this was more linked to sociology, they are quite flexible when reading your PS. They mainly just want to know you have a genuine interest in anthro and all that it encompasses. As I said in a previous post, anthro overlaps with politics, sociology, international relations, history and even philosophy at times so briefly touching on these subjects can count towards your 'anthro percentage points' if relevant
My final para was on a very famous cannibalism case called R v Dudley and Stephens and also on free speech. I had a sentence about cultural relativism in this para but mainly focused on law.
Overall, it's not about having a 50/50 split as much as it is about them being confident that you didn't just apply to anthro&law because it had lower grade requirements or you thought it would be less competitive, but actually have a decent understanding of what anthro is. Therefore, your PS statement shouldn't give them the impression that anthro was just an afterthought
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Another tip that I didn't mention above is that as opposed to discussing anthropology and law completely separately, try and find areas of law that you can link to anthropology. So you can first discuss that area of law from a legal perspective, then look at it from an anthropological lens. I think the idea you've come up with of political correctness is actually a great topic for this:
Political correctness definitely could link to anthro if done right. I'd say you should consider this from a global perspective, e.g. perhaps you could think about some areas of law in the UK that other countries don't see in the same light. For example, the UK's Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination on the basis of gender/race/disability etc which ties into society's ideas of political correctness. Maybe you could read some articles/books/listen to a podcast on a developing country where women have less rights than men and are seen as inferior/countries where there is a caste system that discriminates on the basis of skin colour. You could then consider this from the perspective of cultural relativism - the idea that all cultures are equally valid - and think about whether this is applicable to the denial of rights for certain groups in certain countries.
Let me know if you need any more help/have any more questions!

Thank you, that makes a lot of sense and is very helpful. On a previous post I saw someone talk about topics such as same sex marriage and income distribution. If i mention topics similar to this and how it leads to equality does that link more with anthropolgy or more to law?

I would say it can link to both depending on how you frame it. Also, you ideally want it to link to both so perhaps you could consider those topics from both disciplines' perspectives

Great! So these topics do link to anthropology?