Could you suggest some active research topic in Anthropology?

Question

I am applying to grad program and they require a research proposal. Not having majored in anthropology before, I don't know what are active areas of research in social anthropology today

Answer 1

There are countless active areas of research in social anthropology. You need to be focusing on what you are actually interested in, not picking from a list of so-called active areas of research. (That is what makes it worth doing in the first place:)

You should be applying to schools that have faculty members that share your general research interests within the field of social anthropology (for a very broad example, a certain geographic region or a particular religion). Surely it is more narrowed than simply social anthropology in general- in that case you would not be ready for grad school. You are probably being asked to name at least one faculty member you want to work with; hopefully you are selecting them on the basis of your shared interests. If you haven't already, you should be getting in touch with such potential supervisors and discussing possible research ideas.

Think about different questions you might ask regarding your general research interests. Is the research proposal supposed to be the starting ground for developing your thesis or dissertation? I'd suggest looking at previous theses and dissertation topics to see the nature of the research questions people ask in general, some of which you might be able to adapt for your own research interests. Use an academic database if you have access to one to use the key words related to this interest to search for recently published articles. As you read you might find some aspect you're  interested in knowing more about, or perhaps find there is some question you have wondered that no one has properly addressed. That is how research topics are born.

Best of luck with your apps! :)

Answer 2

I would suggest looking at the research areas of some of the faculty members at the universities you are applying to.  Most faculty are well aware that research objectives will change over the course of a graduate education, but what is important is that you share some areas of interest with potential faculty advisors.

Once you have an idea of what areas you might write your statement of purpose about, you can check the journal "Annual Review of Anthropology" for review articles on related topics, so that you can quickly get a good idea about what kind of research has already been done in your areas of interest.