Overview and Learning Goals

Overview

Anthropology explores what it means to be human, offering a broad comparative framework for understanding the complexities of human life and the diverse experiences of individuals and groups throughout the world, in the past and the present. Anthropology illuminates the everyday activities and perspectives of individuals, the relationships of power and inequity that shape peoples’ lives, and the broader cultural and historical contexts in which people everywhere are embedded. Anthropology offers tools for investigating past and contemporary cultures and the dynamics of local and global processes to understand how and why social, economic, ideological, environmental, and political relationships are reproduced or transformed. As a foundational part of a liberal arts education, anthropology challenges students to think critically about the world, gain a deeper understanding of the astonishing range and variability of human practices, and develop skills and capacities in ethical reasoning, empirical analysis, and creative interpretation.

Through the subdisciplines of cultural anthropology and anthropological archaeology, students develop holistic knowledge of local cultural practices and processes of change in regions including Africa, the Arctic and North Atlantic, Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania. Students deepen their understanding of intersecting relationships of power and inequity (including gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and age). They study cultures from various perspectives, considering the social textures of everyday life, long-term processes of adaptation and innovation, and the global circulation of people, ideas, and goods. Throughout the curriculum, students are exposed to the discipline’s concepts, theories, and methods, including field-based qualitative and quantitative research.

Anthropology promotes intellectual curiosity, creative and interdisciplinary thinking, empirical and ethical scholarship, and respect for our common humanity. Our students develop sophisticated understandings of cultural differences and the dynamics of social and historical transformation and become skilled communicators and collaborative and critical thinkers.  Graduates mobilize these capacities and in a variety of fields, such as education, medicine and public health, environmental stewardship, research and consulting, international and non-governmental policy, cultural heritage, journalism, law, media and technology, museum administration, public policy, humanitarianism, and social advocacy and justice, as well as in graduate and professional studies. 

Learning Goals

• To develop understanding of human cultures and diverse ways of life across time and space
• To gain familiarity with anthropological concepts, methods, theories, and ethical frameworks (within and across the subdisciplines) and to utilize these to understand past and present issues, relationships, and systems 
• To develop the skills to collect and analyze various types of information (including material, visual, oral, sonic, and textual) and to evaluate their use in ethnographic and archaeological research and scholarship
• To develop critical perspectives on relations of power and inequality as they manifest in specific cultural contexts, global connections, and historical trajectories
• To communicate effectively using various forms of communication, with emphasis on clear writing

Options for Majoring or Minoring in the Department

Students may elect to major or minor in anthropology. Many students double major in anthropology and another discipline. Students may also pursue a coordinate major in anthropology with digital and computational studies, education, or environmental studies. Students pursuing a coordinate major may not normally elect a second major. 

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