Department of Anthropology
The Department of Cultural Anthropology has taught and conducted research at the South Asia Institute since 1964. With the appointment of Professor William S. Sax (Chicago) as head of the department in 2000, the substantive focus shifted to Medical Anthropology, and Heidelberg came to be Europe’s leading center for the Medical Anthropology of South Asia.
We pursue research in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Central Asia.
In addition to Medical Anthropology, we also conduct teaching and research on the following topics:
- Social and cultural theory
- Caste and Subaltern Studies
- Oral traditions
- Anthropology of performance
- Religion and pilgrimage
- Ritual healing
- Statehood and Borders
- South Asian medical systems
- Transcultural Psychology
- Environment and development
- Political Anthropology
- Migration
Anthropology at the South Asia Institute administers the Master of Arts Health and Society in South Asia (MAHASSA) program and is part of the B.A. and M.A. in Ethnology as well as the B.A. and M.A. in South Asian studies. We especially value long-term ethnological field research: the closest possible participation in the life and work of other people with the aim of experiencing, describing and comparing their view of the world. Language is an absolute prerequisite for such research, and the South Asia Institute teaches more South Asian languages than any comparable institute in the world.
