Program Overview

Anthropology is a scientific discipline that studies human beings from a biological and cultural (bio-cultural) perspective using data, methodology and research results from biological science and social science and behavioral science disciplines under the paradigm of evolution. Physical (biological) anthropology studies humans and their animal relatives, both living and extinct, primarily as species originating in the natural world. Cultural (socialcultural) anthropology compliments physical anthropology through the observation and recording of the broad range of human diversity using ethnographic data collected from participant observer field studies and ethnohistorical accounts. Archaeology, the study of human life ways in the past, adopts a strategy similar to cultural anthropology but relies mainly on evidence from the material culture of a people as well as on the use of specialized field, laboratory and preservation methods rather than upon ethnographic information provided by informants. Students who complete introductory courses in anthropology are equipped to understand those complex interactions between human biology, culture, technology and language that have enabled our species to evolve and adapt to the natural world, a foundation important for their future success as upper-division and graduate level university students. Anthropology majors with B.A. degrees are well prepared to enter specific fields as diverse as teaching and bilingual education, art, law and paralegal studies, medicine and health treatment, library and information science, translating and interpreting, publishing and media, journalism, photography, documentary film-making, travel, leisure and culinary arts, cultural and historic preservation, business and management, government and industry, as well as more directly related jobs in archaeology, applied anthropology, biological sciences and environmental studies. An associate degree in Anthropology is not offered.