College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Harvard University
• Yale University
• Princeton University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Columbia University in the City of New York

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of California—Berkeley
• University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
• University of Virginia
• University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

Classes in the Major

Cultural Anthropology: Understanding people is a lot easier when you understand their culture. If you don't know that stone castles weren't a thing in nineteenth century America, you're in for quite the ridiculing. On top of being relevant, you've got to have context for anything you might discover. For example, if you find bronze tools with a culture that was in the Stone Age, something's not right.

World Cultures: World culture classes are specific and aplenty. After all, humans have been very busy these past couple hundred thousand years. These courses are similar to cultural anthropology courses, but they'll cover a lot more. For example, Japan's culture is different from ours now, but think of how different it was two hundred years ago, pre-Westernization. America was just a baby back then. This is the type of cultural background knowledge you'll need to have as an anthropology major.

Biological Anthropology: From saying hello to legs and goodbye to gills, it has been a wild ride for us humans. In a biological anthropology class, you'll soon become besties with Mr. Darwin and learn exactly how non-human non-human primates are. Make no mistake—you'll need to know all about human anatomy, ecology, and evolution in order to be accurate in your studies. So if you think a primitive human culture had flat teeth for more effective bacon mastication, then you're in for a rude awakening—and you might need to retake high school biology. Don't worry, Shmoop's got you covered.

Field Methods: If you're the Indiana Jones type we mentioned earlier, you can bet your sable fedora that you'll be taking a field methods class. Here, you'll learn why you're supposed to use the brush before the hammer, and why your tool of choice will rarely be a backhoe. Dig sites are tricky and you need to understand the basics before trying to embark on one of your own. No one wants to be known as the person who compromised the entire expedition with a rookie mistake. Stay safe, take field methods.

Environmental Archaeology: You don't just study people if you go into anthropology—you'll also need to understand how people interact with their environment. Whether people lived in adobe huts or brick homes can show you something very important about that group of people. Similarly, if two totally different people used the same sort of homes, you'll be able to connect them somehow. Different environments can also mean different diets, which can account for a lot of the variation of physical features and cultural norms.