Bachelor of Anthropology Shorelight Group - Austin College, USA

Anthropology, the study of human cultural diversity, incorporates four distinct sub-fields: sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, physical/biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. All four sub-fields explore how culture gives shape to the human experience, the forces and processes that have shaped both human biology and society over time, and the ways in which human societies are similar to and different from each other. Socio-cultural anthropology investigates human experience within different cultural settings by actually entering into those cultures and studying those groups from their own perspectives; it is the subdiscipline that we emphasize at Austin College, but we also offer courses in archaeology and linguistic anthropology.

The courses offered in anthropology explore a wide range of societies and communities, from gatherers and hunters to tribal groups, native peoples in different geopolitical and environmental settings, slum dwellers in the third world, ethnic groups, and migrants, refugees and other stateless peoples in the United States and around the world. Courses deal comparatively with contemporary topics such as the culturally-based notions of sex and gender, race and ethnicity, the debates about the biological and cultural origins of war, human rights, globalization, colonialism and the shaping of the world system, politics and the exercise of power, the relationships of society to the environment, and others. As an integrative science, anthropology has links to other disciplines and programs including sociology, history, biology, religion, environmental studies, gender studies, area studies programs, and the other social sciences. Students who have majored and minored in anthropology at Austin College have gone on to study and teach anthropology at the college level, have studied law, medicine and dentistry, public health, counseling and social psychology, theology and religious studies, public administration and policy advocacy, Native American and Latin American studies, international relations, social work, environmental science and policy, and other related fields. Our former majors and minors today work in public administration, the Peace Corps, education, law, public health, medical services, ministry, immigration services, and other related fields.