Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology

Anthropology is a holistic science dedicated to the study of human cultural and biological diversity. Its five sub-fields are: cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, linguistic anthropology, applied anthropology, and archaeology. Anthropologists study human beings in all times and places from their biological make-up and material cultural adaptations to their institutions, behaviors and understanding about the world. Anthropologists investigate human variation and its biological basis by exploring modern human adaptations, our nonhuman primate relatives and the fossil evidence for human evolution. Anthropologists also examine human culture and the relationships between language and culture and, through the discovery of archaeological artifacts, interpret the development of cultures from their earliest origins to the present.

At Humboldt, students acquire a solid foundation in anthropology and are well prepared to enter and succeed in advanced degree programs. Some topics that our classes cover include colonization and post-colonial reality, the cultural construction of race and ethnicity, ritual and religion, gender and sexuality, economic anthropology, anthropology of development, cultural resource management, environmental archaeology, North American and Mesoamerican archaeology, evolution, nonhuman primate behavior and ecology, human biology, paleoanthropology, forensic anthropology, and evolutionary medicine. Students have the opportunity to participate in summer field schools and in internships as part of the major. The regional areas we cover include Asia (China, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), Africa, Oceania (Australia and the Pacific), North America and Latin America.