Anthropology - Macalester College

Anthropology from Macalester College is a Campus Bachelor Anthropology degree that prepares you for a Science career. Anthropology is the study of humankind in all of its aspects, cultural and biological, across both space and time. The discipline consists of four sub-fields: cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology , archaeology, and biological (or physical) anthropology, which studies human physical variation and the evolution of the genus homo. This holistic approach to understanding human beings is a distinctive attribute of the discipline and places it at the nexus of the social sciences, the natural sciences and the humanities. Anthropology thus provides a broad, comparative perspective on what it means to be human. The anthropology program offers courses in both cultural and biological anthropology , and stresses training in anthropological methods. Anthropologists see culture not as a collection of practices or behaviors but as the knowledge, values and systems of beliefs and morality that shape human actions and the interpretations human beings make of the world they live in. We believe that culture may best be discovered by intensive ethnographic research (fieldwork) among the people concerned, conducted in their language. Anthropology takes culture to be a process, not a thing. We impart to our students this processual understanding of culture, linking it to training in the methods and techniques anthropologists use to conduct research. The history of the human species is not complete without understanding how it changed over time, and such an understanding will help put to rest popularly held misconceptions regarding the nature of biological difference among human populations. The emergence of a capacity for culture (the ability to symbolize and engage in learned, shared behavior) in an ancient population of hominoids, some 7 to 10 million years ago, was the catalyst that drove human evolution forward. Natural selection operated on those biological traits that were linked to the human ability to symbolize and use tools, particularly the evolution of the neo-cortex and of a musculoskeletal structure facilitating bipedalism. Culture and biology therefore are the two parts of a double helix that accounts for why humans evolved, and the department provides a broad range of courses that address this relationship. The aim of the anthropology program is to train students to think anthropologically, that is, to think holistically and critically about the human condition and the values, assumption and premises they may encounter in a culturally complex and socially diverse world that is being knit ever more closely together by the processes of globalization. We seek to educate our students broadly in the wide-ranging field of anthropology, to give them the theoretical training they need to understand why we frame questions the way we do, and to train them in the methods of anthropological inquiry. More narrowly, we prepare students for graduate work in the discipline and in related fields, and provide them with practical ethnographic skills that will be of value to them professionally. To that end the department requires study abroad and emphasizes courses in theory and in methods. An anthropology major will prepare students for careers in law, business, government, medicine, public health, humanitarian and development work, museum administration, and any other occupation that requires a knowledge of and appreciation for cultural diversity and an understanding of symbolic meaning and social relations. We encourage students to plan summer work, internships, and course work in light of their general career objectives. Because of this need to plan, students should choose course work carefully in consultation with their advisors. View more details on Macalester College . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Anthropology courses.