Anthropology and Sociology

Major and Minor

Faculty and professional interests

Nancy Eberhardt, chair
Psychological anthropology, Southeast Asia, religion, gender, rural economies
David Amor
Media and social change, political economy of media
Lawrence Breitborde
Anthropological linguistics, language and identity, sociolinguistics, Africa
Maureen Mullinax
Sociology of culture, community participation research, community-based art
Young-a Park
East Asia, anthropology of media, globalization, transnational migration
Amy Singer
Sociology of gender, popular culture, social inequality
Jon Wagner
North America, contemporary mythology, human evolution and adaptation

Distinguished Research Affiliates in Anthropology
James L. Watson
Social anthropology, migration and diasporas, food systems
Rubie S. Watson
Family and kinship, gender, history and anthropology

Cooperating faculty from other programs
Diana Beck, Educational Studies
Jason Helfer, Educational Studies
Frederick Hord, Black Studies
Duane Oldfield, Political Science

Lecturers
Wendel Hunigan
Carol St. Amant

Anthropology and Sociology provide a comparative framework for interpreting and explaining human social behavior. Traditionally, sociologists have investigated the structure and dynamics of industrialized societies, often employing survey research techniques and quantitative analysis. In contrast, anthropologists have researched non-industrial societies and small communities within industrialized states using the characteristic methodology of participant observation, in which the investigator lives with a group and becomes familiar with its customs, language, and view of the world.

Despite these differences in emphasis and method, the two disciplines draw from a common body of theory, and the distinction between them is breaking down in contemporary social science. Since bureaucratic, industrialized societies have touched the lives of nearly every human group on this planet, the two disciplines have increasingly come to deal with a common, unifying theme: the nature of industrial society, its antecedents, and its impact upon the traditional societies of the Third World. The two disciplines also share a common concern with more fundamental theoretical issues: What is human society? How did it arise? How have people made meaning out of their environment and of their experience? What is the extent of variability in human experience and social organization? For these reasons, the department presents the two fields as interdependent.

Courses in the department focus on the problems of contemporary industrial society, on the nature of non-industrial societies, on the impact of technological and administrative change on the traditional societies of the Third World, and on the methodological and theoretical issues that arise in the study of these topics.

Students majoring in the department should call upon the faculty to assist them in designing a personalized program of study, emphasizing relevant courses in allied disciplines and independent study or research as required. Those contemplating the major are urged to take courses in allied departments (particularly economics, political science, psychology, black studies, gender and women's studies and history, as well as in philosophy and mathematics).

The departmental curriculum contributes to the College's Key Competency Requirements as follows:

• Writing Key Competency - ANSO 399 serves as a writing-intensive course for majors
• Speaking Key Competency - ANSO 399 serves as a speaking-intensive course for majors
• Information Literacy and Informed Use of Technology - The following skills are developed in various departmental courses through a combination of relevant assignments, tutorial guidance, classroom presentation, and formal workshops.
  1. Ability to assess reliability of sources on the World Wide Web
  2. Use of bibliographic databases
  3. Effective use of PowerPoint presentation software
  4. Ability to prepare and format academic research for submission in digital form

Students are required to culminate and demonstrate each of these skills in the core course sequence required of all majors: Theories, Methodologies, Research Design, and Research Seminar.

Anthropology and Sociology Course Descriptions
Requirements for the Major and Minor