Requirements

Anthropology Major

The major in anthropology consists of ten courses. 

a

Students are strongly encouraged to take this course as sophomores or juniors.

b

One 1000-level course (1000–1999), in addition to the required ANTH 1100 course, may be counted as an elective toward the major (e.g. a First-Year Writing Seminar).

Anthropology Minor

The minor in anthropology consists of five courses.

c

One 1000-level course (1000–1999), in addition to the required ANTH 1100 course, may be counted as an elective toward the minor (e.g. a First-Year Writing Seminar).

Additional Information and Department Policies

• For a course to fulfill major or minor requirements, a grade of C- or above must be earned in that course.
• Courses that count toward the major or minor must be taken for regular letter grades (not Credit/D/Fail).
• First-year writing seminars count toward the major or minor.
• There is no limit on how many courses a major or minor in anthropology can double-count with another department or program major.
• Eight of the ten courses required for the major must be Bowdoin anthropology courses. Up to two independent study or honors level courses advised by department faculty may be included in the eight Bowdoin courses required for the major.
• With the approval of the the student’s anthropology major advisor or the department chair, majors may count up to two elective courses from among off-campus study courses and/or Bowdoin courses in other departments that complement or enhance the student's academic program in anthropology.
• One of the five courses required for the minor, with department approval, may be from off-campus study.
• Up to two 1000-level courses (1000–1999) may be counted toward major or minor.

Departmental Honors

Honors projects enable students who have sustained interests in certain topics to engage in independent research under the guidance of an anthropology faculty member who serves as an advisor and at least one additional faculty member who serves as a second-reader. Students seeking to graduate with honors in anthropology will have successfully completed an honors project in their senior year and distinguished themselves in their coursework in the anthropology major.

To pursue honors, students are encouraged to consult with an anthropology faculty member early in the spring of their junior year about their proposed research project. Many students conduct research during the summer between their junior and senior years. Students submit a written honors project proposal to the department early in the first semester of their senior year. Once the department has approved the honors project and assigned an honors committee, students then prepare an honors project, which ordinarily is a research paper written over the course of two semesters under the mentorship of a faculty advisor and a second faculty reader. Determination of honors is based on grades attained in major courses, an honors project that is approved by the department, and demonstration of the ability to work independently and creatively synthesize theoretical, methodological, archaeological, and/or ethnographic material.

Off-Campus Study

Off-campus study may contribute substantially to a major in anthropology, and the department encourages students to consider academic work in another location, cultural context, and/or language. Students are advised to plan study away for their junior year and to complete ANTH 2010 Anthropological Research: Methods and Ethics in Practice—which focuses on research design, methods, and ethics—before studying away. Students must obtain provisional approval for their study-away courses in writing by department faculty before they leave, and then, to receive credit toward their major or minor, students must seek final approval from their advisor upon their return to Bowdoin. With departmental approval, students may count up to two off-campus study courses toward their major requirements and up to one off-campus study course toward their minor requirements. 

Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate

For information on credit for International Baccalaureate tests, please see the department. No credit is given for Advanced Placement. To receive credit for International Baccalaureate work, students must have their scores officially reported to the Office of the Registrar by the end of their sophomore year at Bowdoin. 

Information for Incoming Students

Anthropology explores the incredible diversity and complexity of human life across the globe. It challenges students to think critically about the assumptions we make about the world and the power hierarchies that shape our everyday lives. Anthropology examines past and contemporary cultures to understand how and why social, economic, ideological, environmental, and political relationships are reproduced or transformed. We integrate the specifics of individual experience, local particularities of landscapes and communities, and broad regional and global contexts to better understand human actions and meanings, including relations of power, identity, and inequality. In our courses in cultural anthropology and anthropological archaeology, students learn how to “make the strange familiar, and the familiar strange” through analysis of material, visual, oral, sonic, and textual data.

The department of anthropology welcomes first-year students into several of our courses. In the fall 2026, we will be offering two sections of our introductory course, ANTH 1100 Introducing Anthropology: What Makes Us Human?. The department of anthropology also will offer two First Year Writing Seminars: ANTH 1022 Fiction and Fraud in Archaeology: Debunking Modern Myths about Ancient Cultures and ANTH 1031 Inscribing Lives: Reading and Writing About Others. First year students may also enroll in ANTH 2117 Turtle Island: The Archaeology of Indigenous North America and  ANTH 2100 Archaeology and the Human Experience, an introductory course in anthropological archaeology.

None of these courses assume any prior work in anthropology. All these courses contribute to the major or minor in anthropology, and all but the first-year seminars fulfill some of the college distribution requirements (DPI and/or IP). We encourage students who may want to major or minor in anthropology to take ANTH 1100 Introducing Anthropology: What Makes Us Human? as early as possible. Some 2000-level courses in anthropology require ANTH 1100 as a pre-requisite.