Sociology and Anthropology Department

Program Opportunities

Students in the Anthropology program can focus on one of four main areas of the discipline, including:

Cultural Anthropology

Focuses on culture, ethnocentrism, cultural aspects of language and communication, subsistence and other economic patterns, kinship, sex and marriage, socialization, so­cial control, political organization, class, eth­nicity, gender, religion, and culture change.

Physical Anthropology

Focuses on mechanisms of biological evolu­tion, genetic inheritance, human adaptability and variation, primatology, and the fossil record of human evolution.

Archaeology

Focuses on prehistory and early history of cultures around the world; major trends in cultural evolution; and techniques for finding, excavating, dating, and analyzing material remains of past societies.

Linguistic Anthropology

Is concerned with the human communication process, focusing on the importance of socio-cultural influences; nonverbal communica­tion; and the structure, function, and history of languages, dialects, pidgins, and Creoles.

Course Requirements

For a major in anthropology, students need to complete the following courses:

• ANTH-A 104 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (3 cr.)
• ANTH-A 105 Human Origins and Prehistory (3 cr.)
• ANTH-A 201 Survey of Applied Anthropology (3 cr.)
• ANTH-A 360 Development of Anthropological Thought (3 cr.), capstone requirement
  
  
• One research methods course:
  • ANTH-E 404 Field Methods in Ethnography (3 cr.)
  • ANTH-E 423 Life Histories (3 cr.)
    
    
• One 400-level seminar, such as, but not limited to:
  • ANTH-B 400 Undergraduate Seminar in Biological Anthropology (3 cr.)
  • ANTH-B 466 The Primates (3 cr.)
  • ANTH-E 400 Undergraduate Seminar in Cultural Anthropology (3 cr.)
  • ANTH-E 445 Medical Anthropology (3 cr.)
    
    
• Any five additional courses in anthropology to bring total to 33 credit hours with 15 of those credit hours at or above the 300 level. In these electives, students must have three of the four sub-disciplines of anthropology represented at the 300 level or above (biological anthropology ANTH-B 300+, cultural anthropology ANTH-E 300+, linguistic anthropology ANTH-L 300+, or archaeology ANTH-P 300+)

Total (33 cr.)

Degree Requirements

Completion of a B.A. in sociology requires 120 credit hours and a minimum of a 2.0 grade point average.

Completion of a B.A. in anthropology requires 120 credit hours and a minimum of a 2.0 grade point average.

Both majors must meet the general education requirements as estab­lished by the College of Arts and Sciences.  Students should consult with the depart­ment for additional information concerning prerequisites, course content and academic counseling

For more information visit the Sociology and Anthropology page on the IU Northwest Bulletin.