Through fieldwork, laboratory work, and close study, faculty in the Department of Anthropology guide students in the examination and analysis of the global varieties of human thought and activity, as well as the evolutionary origins of the human biology. Anthropologists at BU are experts in issues relating to religion in the modern world, the effects of religion on politics and society, grassroots civil societies, democratic transitions, and evolutionary biology. The department offers two tracks of study between social anthropology and biological anthropology.