NOTE: To learn more about the Undergraduate Program in Biological Anthropology or Human Evolutionary Biology, please visit the Harvard University Life Sciences website.

Archaeology focuses on the past records of human societies and particularly on the material remains that individual humans and their communities have produced over time. These remains are recovered, analyzed, and interpreted within various intellectual frameworks in order to create understandings of how peoples lived and interacted with one another over more than a million years. Of particular interest are the nature of past social, economic, political, and cultural practices and how those have changed through time into the multi-facetted behaviors and institutions that we now often take for granted. Archaeological research and teaching in the Anthropology department at Harvard currently emphasize the prehistoric and historic cultures of North, Central, and South America and of West, Central, South and East Asia.

Social Anthropology focuses on contemporary societies and cultures, in terms of both local understandings of what, for example, Japanese, Italian, Senegalese, Filipino, Yemeni, Pakistani, French, Thai, Indonesian, Peruvian, American, or Chinese communities, cultures, and societies experience in everyday life, as well as how global interconnectivity shapes myriad features of life, across issues of gender, popular culture, ethnicity, personal identity, health and illness, religion, consumption, human rights, nationalism, and the environment. Research and teaching in Social Anthropology includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Mediterranean Europe, North America, Central America, and South America.

The Department of Anthropology maintains very close ties to many other fields in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. The Department has special programs in Medical Anthropology (with the Harvard Medical School) and in Visual Anthropology (with the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies). Many of the Department’s faculty are active in the programs of Harvard’s diverse Centers and Institutes (for example, the Center for the Environment, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Center for World Religions, the Program on Women’s and Gender Studies, the Program on Folklore and Myth, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Asia Center, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.)

Undergraduate concentrators are encouraged to undertake original and independent research projects for Senior Theses, with guidance from faculty members.

Contacts:

	Steve Caton - Director of Undergraduate Studies - Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies - Social Anthropology Program William James Hall 318 (617) 495-1886 caton [at] wjh.harvard.edu | website
	Richard H. Meadow, Senior Lecturer - Archaeology Program Head Tutor Peabody Museum 35 B 617 495-3354 archtut [at] fas.harvard.edu | website

The concentration in Anthropology is open to all students and does not require an application for admission. 10 half-courses (including tutorials) are required for the non-honors concentration. An additional 3 half-courses (including the senior thesis tutorial) are required for thesis honors. A non-thesis honors degree is also possible in Social Anthropology but not in Archaeology. A combined concentration in Archaeology and Social Anthropology is also possible.

Courses suggested for freshmen and first semester sophomores considering a concentration in Anthropology with a focus on Archaeology:

FALL 2011:
Anthropology 1010* The Fundamentals of Archaeological Methods and Reasoning
Anthropology 1086 Alternative Archaeology: Hoaxes, Frauds and Mysteries
Anthropology 1130 Archaeology of Harvard Yard
Societies of the World 30 Moctezuma’s Mexico: Then and Now
Societies of the World 38 Pyramid Schemes: The Archaeological History of Ancient Egypt
*A1010 also fulfills General Education requirement for Empirical & Mathematical Reasoning

SPRING 2012:
Freshman Sem. 44j The Aztecs and Maya [seminar for freshmen only]
Anthropology 1040 Origins of the Food We Eat
Anthropology 1095 Urban Revolutions: Archaeology and the Investigations of Early States
Anthropology 1202 Forensic Archaeology
Culture and Belief 21 Pathways Through the Andes

Courses suggested for freshmen and first semester sophomores considering a concentration in Anthropology with a focus on Social Anthropology:

FALL 2011:
Anthropology 1640 Language and Culture
Anthropology 1758 Globalization and Popular Culture
Anthropology 1995 Food, Culture, and Society
Societies of the World 25 Case Studies in Global Health: Biosocial Perspectives
Societies of the World 46 The Anthropology of Arabia

SPRING 2012:
Freshman Sem. 45g Humans, Animals, and Cyborgs [seminar for freshmen only]
Anthropology 1600 The Ethnographic Encounter: An Introduction to Social Anthropology
Anthropology 1755 Creole Pop Iconographies
Anthropology 1820 Japan in the Ethnographic Gaze: Seminar
Anthropology 1948 Historical Anthropology of Israel/Palestine
Anthropology 1996 Angels, Ghosts, and Hustlers: Bangkok Live