Academic Catalog

Anthropology

About Our Department  

Students may complete a major or a minor in Anthropology.

Anthropology asks some of the most fundamental and urgent questions of our time: How and where did humankind originate? How have environment, culture, and biology shaped who we are? How are human societies adapting to the rapid changes of the modern world? The Department of Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College is one of only a handful of departments at small, liberal arts colleges in the US that offers a four-field Anthropology curriculum, which connects the past to the present through Anthropological Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, and Linguistic Anthropology. This rare breadth and depth means that our students explore what it means to be human from the deep past of human evolution and prehistoric societies, to the diversity of present-day cultures, social systems, and modes of expression. Our department is committed to bringing anthropology to life beyond the classroom. We actively support our students in pursuing hands-on research, fieldwork, praxis, internships, and other experiential learning opportunities.  

Anthropology Learning Goals  

Anthropology studies the human condition as it has been evolutionarily, historically, and culturally conditioned, ranging from sociocultural and linguistic anthropology, which focus on social, political, and cultural dynamics in contemporary contexts, to biological anthropology and anthropological archaeology, which focus on human evolution and past cultural change.  

The Four Fields of Anthropology  

Anthropology is unique among the social and natural science disciplines in that it approaches the study of humanity from four distinct but deeply interconnected perspectives. Our department is one of only a few Anthropology departments at small, liberal arts colleges to offer coursework across all four fields of US anthropology. Each of the four fields brings its own distinctive questions and methods to the study of humanity, while remaining in constant conversation with the others. Together, the four fields provide a curriculum that encourages students to see the human condition from multiple perspectives and to gain experience in utilizing different modes of inquiry, ranging from quantitative methods used in the natural sciences to qualitative methods used in the humanistic social sciences:  

  • Anthropological Archaeology explores the human past through the material traces people have left behind — settlements, landscapes, and artifacts — to reconstruct patterns of prehistoric migration, social organization, and interaction with the environment across vastly different times and places.  
  • Biological Anthropology investigates human evolution, variation, and socioecology, situating our species within the broader context of primate biology and examining how genetics, environment, and behavior have shaped the human body, mind, and health over millions of years.  
  • Cultural Anthropology studies the extraordinary diversity of present-day human societies, examining social organization, belief systems, health and medicine, economic practices, and conflict to understand how people make meaning and build communities across cultures.  
  • Linguistic Anthropology examines language and other forms of symbolic and expressive culture — from speech and storytelling to ritual and art — and explores how the ways we communicate shape and are shaped by our social worlds.  

Study Abroad 

We fully support our majors studying abroad and encourage them to pursue their interests and anthropology coursework that goes beyond what we offer in our department. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of Anthropology, the flexibility of the major, and the wide range of student interests we support, we evaluate courses taken abroad for major credit on a case-by-case basis. We ask that the students submit the syllabus/i to their major advisor, so that we can evaluate the syllabi as a department during or after the student has returned from study abroad. There are no requirements that have to be completed before an Anthropology major can study abroad, as long as the student and their major advisor have developed a workable Major Work Plan and major requirements can be completed upon the major's return. We will consider study abroad courses for credit towards the major that are equivalent to one 200- or 300-level Anthropology elective. 

Interdisciplinary Connections 

The Anthropology major curriculum is flexible and pairs well with other majors, minors, and concentrations across the Tri-Co. 

In recent years, Anthropology has offered courses that count toward Africana Studies; Biology; Child and Family Studies; Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology; Environmental Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Growth and Structure of Cities; Health Studies; History of Art; International Studies; MECANA; and Peace and Conflict Studies. Selected courses from other departments and programs also count toward Anthropology, including Africana Studies; Biology; Growth and Structure of Cities; History; International Studies; and Museum Studies.