The Department of Sociology and Anthropology is a unit of the School of Social Sciences, Loyola Schools, Ateneo de Manila University. It was founded in 1960 by a Jesuit anthropologist, Fr. Frank X. Lynch, S.J. The other early members of the faculty were Fr. John F. Doherty, S.J., who became Chairperson, Mary Racelis, and Fr. John J. Carroll, S.J., Most of the Department’s present senior faculty were former students of these founders. In turn, several members of the junior faculty were former students or research associates of these senior faculty members.

Through its training research and action programs, the Department instills in its students a critical understanding of mutual dependence between structure and human agency in a globalized society, as well as the ability to apply this understanding to transformation of cultural practices, especially those found in Third World societies like the Philippines.

These academic skills, coupled with the value formation acquired through the University's core curriculum, are believed to be prerequisites for interpreting and acting on contemporary social forces such as the dialectic between globalization and national integration, the gross inequalities in access to power and resources among different groups, the relentless degradation of the physical environmental, the growing rationalization of modern life, and the deconstructive ethos of a highly technological postmodern age. The consequences of these forces on genders, age groups, social classes and ethnic communities, specifically on how these groups and individuals confront and accommodate to these contexts, also occupy an important place in the Department's training, research and action agenda.

To sustain this academic commitment, the Department deems it imperative to maintain a responsive program of studies run by a set of faculty members whose unassailable professional competence, or sapientia, and superior teaching skills, or eloquentia, are matched by a great concern for human welfare, communitas, and a nurturing attitude or cura personalis towards their students and staffs.