Anthropology - Marshall University

Anthropology from Marshall University is a Campus Bachelor Anthropology degree that prepares you for a Science career. Despite its relatively small size, the Anthropology Program at Marshall University incorporates a number of resources typically expected of much larger departments. These include an Archaeological Laboratory, where materials from the annual summer field school are stored and analyzed. The program also owns an extensive collection of ethnographic artifacts from all over the world (formerly of the Sunrise Museum in Charleston, WV). We are part of the work of the Oral History of Appalachia Collection, a vast oral history archive comprised of thousands of interviews conducted in Appalachia over the last 40 years. No other anthropology program in West Virginia has such resources, available for research to both students and faculty, in and out of state. Anthropology is the systematic study of humans, their practices, and the myriad ways they experience these practices. Anthropologists study humanity in its diverse cultural, social, physical, and linguistic forms. As an academic discipline, anthropology bridges the humanities and social sciences in addressing fundamental questions having to do not only with how the human world works and how people negotiate their social and cultural realities but also with what it means to be human. Anthropology draws from pre-historical, historical, and contemporary cases and is distinct in addressing all levels of sociopolitical organization and subsistence strategies ranging from foraging bands and horticultural tribes to modern industrialized states and the globalized realities of the world today. Anthropology is, by its nature, interdisciplinary and international in both theory and practice. Our program offers students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to thoroughly and creatively explore the world and peoples around them. Anthropology classes stress the exchange of ideas and build strength in critical thinking, communication, and intellectual exploration. An anthropological perspective will become increasingly important in the 21st century. There is today a growing demand for sensitivity to the values, beliefs, and cultural structures of other groups that might be different from one's own. In all parts of society, people progressively need the ability to live, work, and appreciate diversity while simultaneously becoming more aware of the relations that connect various groups and the commonalities they share. As reported by the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology, demand for graduates with degrees in anthropology is high. Anthropology graduates work in many fields in which research on humans and their behavior is needed, including private corporations, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. Anthropology majors commonly find employment in state and federal governments, non-governmental and other international aid organizations, education, business, human resources, social work, historical resource management/field-technicians in archaeology, and, increasingly, health care. Many anthropology majors continue to graduate school in such fields as: anthropology , history, law, geography, or medicine. The anthropology program at Marshall University seeks to ensure that each student develops a solid foundation in the basic principles, theories and techniques of analysis within the discipline. The curriculum ensures that students are introduced to all four disciplinary subfields: social-cultural anthropology , physical-biological anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. Since students majoring in anthropology vary in their interests and career goals, the curriculum allows for flexibility in developing individual courses of study, including opportunities for involvement in faculty research through course offerings and independent study. Program Mission Statement The Anthropology Program at Marshall University has a mission to provide students with an understanding of the nature and role of varied cultural forms throughout human history as well as the intellectual skills that can enable them to think critically about a similarly wide range of contemporary issues. A corollary of this primary element of our mission is our intent to help students see the relevance of anthropological theory and methods within different contexts as well as apply these approaches in their lives as individuals, members of families and local communities, and as creative citizens of different nations and the world. We maintain that our mission is best fulfilled by a curriculum in which human cultural diversity is approached from the complementary perspectives of sociocultural anthropology , archaeological anthropology, physical anthropology , and linguistic anthropology. The program is designed to provide each major a solid and systematic foundation in the basic principles, theories, and techniques of analysis within these four disciplinary subfields. Since students majoring in anthropology vary in their interests and career goals, the curriculum allows for flexibility in developing individual courses of study, including opportunities for elective course offerings and independent study. Majors who successfully complete the program will be able to understand and apply core anthropological concepts (such as culture, social organization and social structure, and adaptation), and formulate reasonable arguments and defensible positions on the fundamental questions addressed by the discipline at large ? such as the past, present and future of human diversity and the evolutionary basis of human cultural and biological variation. Consistent with our mission, we stress the application of knowledge in each of these areas. Finally, because many areas of inquiry within the discipline are subject to ongoing investigation and debate, we prepare our majors to continue their own pursuit of anthropological and other forms of knowledge after they graduate and assume various roles in their communities. Program Objectives The primary objectives of the Anthropology Program are to provide learning opportunities that: 1. introduce students to the various theoretical perspectives of anthropology and historical development of the discipline as a social science 2. enable students to understand the interrelationships among the cultural, social, and biological bases of human behavior 3. help students achieve competence in understanding, critically assessing, and applying core anthropological concepts 4. equip students with a knowledge of research methods appropriate to the four fields of anthropology 5. provide students with the means to consider the nature and consequences for varied forms of discrimination and inequality and to explore social alternatives View more details on Marshall University . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Anthropology courses.