Anthropology

Undergraduate Programs

The Anthropology Department at Western Michigan University fully embraces a holistic vision for understanding the human condition and our "four-field" department provides students with all of the tools necessary to explore and understand our multicultural world. Our faculty specializes in cultural and linguistic anthropology, archaeology and biological anthropology and our courses explore a range of questions that help students to examine our global world both historically and contemporaneously.

Our program offers courses in the fundamentals of the "anthropological" approach as well as a broad range of topic courses that address a wide range of interests. Students can take classes in Museum Anthropology, Rock Art of India, Historical Archaeology, Race, Biology and Culture, Primate Behavior and Ecology, Early Technologies, Food and Eating, Spirits and Medicine, Ethnographic Fiction, Paleopathology, Language and Identity and Central Asian, African, Asian and Latin American Cultures to name just a few.

Through class work, field experiences and mentoring, the Anthropology department prides itself on preparing student to think critically and to communicate effectively about the complexities of what it means to be human.