Welcome

Anthropology is a holistic science dedicated to the study of human biological and cultural diversity and evolution. It seeks to understand how people live in and respond to their environments.

Anthropology includes the intersecting subfields of archaeology, biological anthropology, sociocultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. The subfield of applied anthropology overlays the others. Read more...

Anthropologists integrate methods and theories from across the sciences, arts, and humanities to study the many intriguing facets of humanity across space and time – from the earliest fossil humans to the more recent archaeological record and present-day cultures.

Anthropology majors develop useful and marketable life skills that are broadly applicable to multiple career trajectories.

Check out our multiple labs and other facilities!

Programs

People looking through a mapping station on a tripod

Archaeology seeks to better understand cultures through investigating things that people leave behind, including artifacts (tools, vessels...), features (hearths, buildings...) and ecofacts (animal bones, plant remains...). 

Tent and table with computers with hills and forest in the background

The Cultural Resources Facility (CRF) offers students hands-on training opportunities in cultural resources management, a major career area in applied archaeology.

Mona monkey

Biological anthropology studies human biology and evolution across diverse fields including primatology, paleoanthropology, forensic anthropology, and evolutionary health. It looks at relationships between behavior, ecology & biology.

Looking through a window at people at desks and tables. On the window are Chinese characters

Linguistic anthropology is the dynamic study of language, addressing topics like language formation and spread, how and why languages change over time, and what happens when multiple languages meet.

Person holding woven plant materials

Sociocultural anthropology investigates ways humans organize themselves, cultural practices, belief systems, what constitutes meaning and value, and how material and intellectual resources are allocated both within and across cultures.

Person in a lab coat sitting at a table with scientific equipment

Applied anthropology overlays the other fields of anthropology and aims to apply anthropological methods, theories, and practices to contemporary issues.