Anthropology Major/Minor Requirements

Anthropology is the study of humanity in all its cultural, biological, linguistic, and historical diversity. A synthesis of scientific and humanistic concerns and methods, it attempts to distinguish universal human characteristics from those unique to individual social groups, and to understand the reasons for differences between individuals and groups.

The insights of anthropology are essential for a critical understanding of the problems of the contemporary world. Anthropology informs a public confronted with choices to be made with respect to changing value systems; competing social goals; ethnic, religious, class, gender, and race relations; new and emerging technologies, including applications of data science; environmental and cultural resources management; changing paradigms of health, wellness, and disease; linguistic diversity; international relations; and inequality.

Anthropology offers both unique theoretical perspectives and a particular set of methodological approaches. The faculty considers it essential that we educate our students in both. Students should take away from their studies a substantive knowledge of the commonalities and differences in human experiences and an understanding of how that knowledge is obtained and evaluated.

The anthropology major thus prepares students for successful entry into any number of careers, as well as professional and graduate programs, in sectors including business, education, health care, law, museums, public health, research, and much more. Our mission is to represent anthropology appropriately at Lawrence and in the wider communities within which we live and work, and to educate others wherever and whenever possible with the insights that anthropology has to offer.

The anthropology department at Lawrence includes a range of courses and opportunities for guided independent study from the complementary perspectives of archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and cultural anthropology. Faculty members provide expertise in a number of ethnographic areas, including North Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, and North and South America. Topical interests include human-environment interactions, gender and sexuality, refugee communities, inequality, medical anthropology, aging, disability, nutritional ecology, and forensic anthropology. The department maintains a well-equipped laboratory, as well as collections of archaeological and ethnographic materials from many culture areas. The department holds a full suite of geophysical equipment for non-invasive archaeology, provides equipment for audio and video data collection and transcription to support ethnographic research, and maintains equipment for nutritional assessment.

Students who complete the major will be able to describe the diversity of the human experience through a holistic anthropological lens, inclusive of culture, evolutionary biology, history/pre-history, and language/cognition.  They will be able to explain how anthropological theories offer insights to problems of the past, present, and/or future and will learn to apply appropriate and ethical methodological skills to explore anthropological questions of interest to scholars and/or diverse communities.  As they proceed through the major, they will gain the further ability to evaluate the application of anthropological data and theory to solve complex problems.  The culmination of the anthropology major is the senior experience in which students will synthesize anthropological data and theory across at least two subfields of anthropology to advance our knowledge of and/or suggest solutions to a timely problem.

1. The following introductory courses:
   1. ANTH 110: Cultural Anthropology
   2. ANTH 120: World Prehistory
   3. ANTH 140: Biological Anthropology, ANTH 141: Primates, Humans, and Evolution, or ANTH 142: Human Evolution
2. ANTH 201: Library Research and Career Readiness in Anthropology (Students are expected to complete this course during their sophomore year and no later than the end of their junior year.)
3. Six additional six-unit courses in Anthropology which must include:
   1. At least two of the following courses designated as methods in action courses: ANTH 207, ANTH 210, ANTH 222, ANTH 305, ANTH 319, ANTH 327, ANTH 330, ANTH 344, ANTH 347, ANTH  372, ANTH 374, ANTH 375, ANTH 377, ANTH 378, ANTH 422, ANTH 505, ANTH 525, ANTH 527, ANTH 575
   2. At least two of the following courses designated as theory in action courses: ANTH 200, ANTH 303, ANTH 306, ANTH 320, ANTH 340, ANTH 342, ANTH 358, ANTH 364, ANTH 366, ANTH 503, ANTH 512, ANTH 542, ANTH 551, ANTH 552
   3. At least one course numbered 500 or above
   4. No more than two courses numbered below 300
4. ANTH 610: Senior Experience in Anthropology

The Department of Anthropology's Senior Experience is designed to help students consolidate, deepen, and communicate what they have learned in the Anthropology major.  Students will 1) generate a portfolio of evidence and reflection defending their development as an anthropologist and 2) revise or complete a research or analysis project from their courses in the major and communicate its findings and significance to the Anthropology Department and others.  Successful students will showcase their ability to analyze humanity through a holistic anthropological lens, inclusive of methods and theories from at least two of anthropology’s four fields – archaeological anthropology, biological anthropology, linguistic or cognitive anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology. 

1. Two of the following courses:
   • ANTH 110: Cultural Anthropology
   • ANTH 120: World Prehistory
   • ANTH 140: Biological Anthropology, ANTH 141: Primates, Humans, and Evolution, or ANTH 142: Human Evolution
2. Three six-unit electives in anthropology, selected from courses numbered 200 and above, except ANTH 401
3. One six-unit upper-division seminar (courses numbered in the 500s)

Anthropology majors can seek certification to teach social studies at the secondary level. For certification in broad-field social studies, students must complete the major and a minimum of two courses each in two other social studies (economics, government/political science, history, or psychology) and at least one course in each of the remaining social studies. Students are strongly encouraged to take a course in U.S. history and a course in global history. A course in environmental studies is also required. Students can seek endorsement to teach English as a second language by completing the Teaching ESL minor in linguistics. Students who plan to seek teacher certification should review the requirements in the Education section of the catalog and meet with the director of teacher education, preferably before the end of the sophomore year.