Departmental Learning Goals
Anthropology Learning Goals
Anthropology studies the human condition as it has been evolutionarily, historically, and culturally conditioned, ranging from sociocultural and linguistic anthropology, which focus on social, political, and cultural dynamics in contemporary contexts, to biological anthropology and anthropological archaeology, which focus on human evolution and past cultural change.
The Four Fields of Anthropology
Anthropology is unique among the social and natural science disciplines in that it approaches the study of humanity from four distinct but deeply interconnected perspectives. Our department is one of only a few Anthropology departments at small, liberal arts colleges to offer coursework across all four fields of US anthropology. Each of the four fields brings its own distinctive questions and methods to the study of humanity, while remaining in constant conversation with the others. Together, the four fields provide a curriculum that encourages students to see the human condition from multiple perspectives and to gain experience in utilizing different modes of inquiry, ranging from quantitative methods used in the natural sciences to qualitative methods used in the humanistic social sciences:
Anthropological Archaeology explores the human past through the material traces people have left behind 鈥 settlements, landscapes, and artifacts 鈥 to reconstruct patterns of prehistoric migration, social organization, and interaction with the environment across vastly different times and places.
Biological Anthropology investigates human evolution, variation, and socioecology, situating our species within the broader context of primate biology and examining how genetics, environment, and behavior have shaped the human body, mind, and health over millions of years.
Cultural Anthropology studies the extraordinary diversity of present-day human societies, examining social organization, belief systems, health and medicine, economic practices, and conflict to understand how people make meaning and build communities across cultures.
Linguistic Anthropology examines language and other forms of symbolic and expressive culture 鈥 from speech and storytelling to ritual and art 鈥 and explores how the ways we communicate shape and are shaped by our social worlds.
| Anthropology Departmental Learning Goal | 色色研究所 Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|
| 1. To grasp the relevance of contemporary debates and issues in anthropology for understanding and critiquing imbalances of power and crises of our present-day world. | Critical thinking; ability to view problems from multiple perspectives Introductory and elective courses emphasize the value of grounded anthropological approaches for addressing 鈥渂ig鈥 problems such as gender and racial discrimination and other forms of inequality, political instability, health disparities, environmental degradation and climate change, migration, etc. Most of our courses focus on or include significant amounts of material on the Global South, providing a crucial perspective distinct from that of Euro-American contexts. |
| 2. To understand how contemporary anthropology reconstructs the outlines and patterns of human biological evolution and prehistoric cultural change. | Ability to view problems from multiple perspectives; quantitative skills Courses in Anthropological Archaeology and Biological Anthropology introduce students to the ways evidence from different sources can be put together, combining theory and method the social and natural sciences. Studies in these fields often involve quantitative methods and the modalities of scientific inquiry. |
| 3. To develop knowledge of, respect for, and interest in cultural and societal differences. | Critical thinking; research skills Anthropology promotes awareness and understanding of difference within and between cultures and societies as a basic ethical component of a 21st century education. Many of our courses require students to think and research comparatively across different geographical and temporal contexts. |
| 4. To develop an informed and critical perspective on the history of anthropological thought and the production of knowledge more broadly. | Critical thinking; writing skills All students are required to take a course in the history of anthropological theory in which they learn to develop their own theoretical discussion and writing skills. More generally, all our elective courses train students to critically consider the relationship between data and theory in the production of knowledge. |
| 5. To gain first-hand experience of data collection methods used in one or more subfields of anthropology through class projects and designing and carrying out an independent senior thesis research project. | Research skills; quantitative skills Many elective courses give students hands-on experience with different research methods such as: ethnographic observation and interviewing; detailed linguistic analysis; analysis of pottery and lithics; bioarchaeology and forensics; analysis of geospatial data. The capstone experience, a year-long senior thesis, provides each student the opportunity to design and carry out their own independent research project, giving them in-depth experience with at least one kind of data collection method. |
| 6. To gain crucial professional skills, including the ability to write a grant proposal for anthropological research and to present research questions, results, and analysis in oral and written form | Writing skills; oral communication skills; research skills In the capstone, all students learn the writing and communication skills involved in putting together a professional grant proposal for research. Senior Conference class meetings provide a forum for students to practice their oral communication skills in regularly presenting their own research ideas and giving feedback to others. Students are guided through the process of organizing and writing a 40鈥60-page thesis. |
Contact Us
Department of Anthropology
Dalton Hall
色色研究所
101 N. Merion Avenue
色色研究所, PA 19010
Phone: 610-526-5030
Fax: 610-526-5655