From 1977, the Anthropology Section of the Sociology Department began to offer a minor programme. Anthropology was officially established as a department in 1980, offering both major and minor programmes to undergraduates. In 1987, an M.Phil. programme in Anthropology was introduced, and in 1992 a full-fledged Ph.D. programme was started. The M.A. taught programme in Anthropology was introduced in
1998, and an M.A. in the Anthropology of Chinese Societies was introduced in 2000. The Department continues to develop new courses, to address the issues of cultural contact, ethnic conflict, and cultural identity, particularly as related to Hong Kong and the contemporary world as a whole. The Department also invites senior anthropologists of international reputation to visit the Department for seminars and to teach regular courses. Over the last several years, distinguished anthropologists who have taught in the department include Prof. Sidney W. Mintz from Johns Hopkins University, Prof. Edward M. Bruner from the University of Illinois, Professors James L. and Rubie S. Watson from Harvard University, Prof. Helen F. Siu from Yale University, and Prof. Morikawa Makio from Doshisha University in Kyoto. Each year, many distinguished anthropologists visit the department to give lectures and meet with students and faculty; in 2000-2001, these visitors came from institutions such as Harvard, the Australian National University, the University of Tokyo, the Sorbonne, Copenhagen, Stanford, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Japanese National Museum of Ethnology. Faculty and student interests cover a range of anthropological fields, from gender to economic development to ethnicity. Current faculty and student research includes cultural identity, urban neighborhoods, women and the construction of gender identity, Chinese popular religion, China's minorities, food culture in Asia, culture and tourism, and the prehistoric cultures in South China. Asia's economic development and urbanization, the increase in migration and resulting contact of different cultures, and the emergence of a global culture all point to the growing need for anthropology's cross-cultural, holistic approach to understanding human behavior. CUHK offers a particularly stimulating environment for the study of anthropology: it has a cosmopolitan department in a dynamic global city. The department is committed to comparative research that seeks to explain the enormous complexity and diversity of human life in today's world. The Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes in anthropology at CUHK are especially designed to use Hong Kong's advantageous geographic position and CUHK's excellent academic environment for cultivating an anthropological way of seeing and understanding the world. Through consultation with teachers, students acquire systematic training in the field and develop the ability to conduct independent research on current sociocultural issues. The programme offers annual summer field trips; recent trips have been to Japan, Inner Mongolia, Taiwan, Yunnan, and Guangxi. The programme also has collaborative research and exchange programmes with overseas universities. In addition, there is an interdisciplinary Gender Studies Programme housed in the department. Some graduates of the department choose to stay on for postgraduate studies, while others have pursued further training abroad. Many successfully enter widely varied fields of employment, including museum curating, journalism, government service, teaching, and international trade.
香港中文大學人類學系成立於一九八零年，現已發展為一個國際認可的社會文化教研中心，尤其著重研究華南、香港、臺灣、東亞和東南亞地區在快速經濟發展之中所出現的族群、區域和國家認同的問題。
一九七三年，中大開始開設人類學課程，隸屬於社會學教務委員會。一九七七年，人類學分部開始提供副修課程。人類學系於一九八零年正式設立，提供本科生主修及副修課程。一九八七年，學系開辦了人類學碩士課程(M.Phil.)，並於一九九二年設立博士課程。人類學文學碩士（修讀）課程 (M.A.)於一九九八年設立。
進入二十一世紀，本系不斷發展新課程，探討文化接觸、族群衝突以及身份認同等與香港社會以及全球息息相關的課題。本系經常邀請國際知名的資深人類學家到本系執教或主持座談會，如約翰．霍普金斯大學Sidney W. Mintz 教授、伊利諾大學Edward M. Bruner 教授、哈佛大學James L. Watson 教授和Rubie S. Watson教授、及澳洲國立大學Andrew Kipnis教授等。近年，任教本系暑期課程的包括三藩市州立大學的Bernard Wong 教授及華盛頓大學的Ann Anagnost教授。
每年亦有不少傑出的人類學者到訪本系，與師生進行學術交流及演講。多年來，本系接待的到訪學者來自不同院校與研究所，當中包括哈佛大學、澳洲國立大學、東京大學、巴黎大學、哥本哈根大學、史丹福大學、加州大學聖塔芭芭拉分校、倫敦大學、匹茲堡大學、大阪大學、北京大學、清華大學、中國社會科學院、美國自然歷史博物館及日本國立民族學博物館等。
本系老師和學生的興趣涵蓋多個人類學領域，從性別、經濟發展到族群性等，而目前的研究課題包括文化認同、環境問題、婦女與性別認同的建構、中國民間宗教、中國少數民族、亞洲飲食文化，文化與旅遊，及華南地區的史前文化等。
