What is Anthropology?

[jessicamed]

I am deciding on a major and would like to know more about this major. Can someone pelase give me a description of what it is. I would like to know more specific stuff like how are the tests and are there lots of writing for this major? I am very interested in learning about human and stuff. Or should I stick with Biology to be safe? Thanks in advance.

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[hb2998]

Its a nice major. I'm doing a minor in anthro, and my bro is a full blown anthro major. Here is what I recommend. If you haven't finished your GEs yet, take an anthro class to fulfill your GE requirements. The major is as scientific as psychology. There is science, just not in a test tube. [more stats, observations, field studies, predictions... blah blah blah]. Tests are usually essay format. If you take a GE class, you'll definetly see if you like it, or hate it. Some people can't stand it. Some people love it. There is a lot of about the theory of evolution. You can usually get a BA or a BS in anthro. BS (biological anthropology) actually requires Chem/Physics/OChem!!!.. [which I think is a waste of time for a BS in anthro! but gets your med school stuff out of the way.] Its closely related to a couple of fields... namely archeology, and primateology.

Ps. Usually an easy A. but there is a lot of reading assigned in most classes. Professors tend to be cool and adventurous, rather than boring. If you decide to do a BS, most of your professors have probebly spent much of their lifetime with monkeys/apes in the wild.. so they have a lot of interesting stories to share. [I'm not generalizing, you'd be suprized how many of my professors fit this "generalization"]. Overall, take a GE... see if you like it... Bio is definetly not for everbody.. it wasn't for me.. But I still wanted to get some exposure, and biological anthropology does help make ecology more interesting.

[keep in mind i'm doing a minor in biological anthro, so there is a lot of talk about bio related topics and primates in my classes.... regular anthro you'd talk more about early humans.......... waaaayy early.. around 15 million years ago early!]

 

[jessicamed]

Thank you for responding, that helped alot. Can I ask you what you meant by taking "GE" I'm sorry i don't know that abbreviation. Also what are you majoring in now? Sorry just curious

 

[Kazema]

General Ed

 

[OSUdoc08]

My major was in Forensic Science, which is majorly Forensic Anthropology. This is in the division of Physical Anthropology.

One can specialize in Physical, Cultural, Linguistic, Archaeology or other areas of Anthropology.

Physical Anthropology provides extensive training in human bones, as well as the evoluntionary development. Forensic Anthropology includes the use of skeletal remains to solve crimes.

 

[Kazema]

?

I was saying GE = Gen Ed. Unless that's what I'm wrong about.

 

[hb2998]

I'm majoring in Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Genetics (mimg) minoring in biological anthropology. I find anthro to be a lot of fun because you get to read a textbook rather than (read.... stop... highlight.. reread.. ).. There is a lot of premeds doing anthro major. It is pretty high in the list of most "accepted majors..." (I don't have a link to the stats page.. but I remember it being way up there)

Kazema is right by the way.. i meant General Education by GE. GE refers classes you take in university to fulfill minimum education requirements that state/university feels that anybody graduating from college should be exposed to.... or you can think about it as a way of gettin you to stay around an extra 2 years.. Of course, they are very helpful in picking out what you're interested in. Schools usually make you take classes in a variety of fields.. you may find interests in subjects you never taught you would have an interest in. [I personally became a big fan of theater, opera, and anthropology after randomly taking some classes].

 

[synapse lapse]

Since noone actually said what Anthropology is, I wil take a stab at it (though I am a philosophy major). Anthropology is technically "The scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans." so basically it is just the study of the "human culture." There are many different fields within anthropology, some of them being Archaeology, Linguistics, cultural, and otehr areas. Se OSUdocs post. Hope that helps, I recommend taking a few courses first and seeing how you like them before declaring a major. Luck!

 

[fateema368]

I know this is off topic , but I'm looking to transfer from a smaller college to one with a more diverse anthropology department-have any one of you had really good experiences at your school or maybe could recommend some schools with really good programs?

 

[OneLove]

anthropology is a very diverse field. it goes from linguistic studies to archaeology. I'm actually minoring in it, and for the most part I love it. I think the difficulty of the classes depends on where you take the classes but it isn't nuclear physics.

as for teh question about different anthro programs, i think it would be best if you specified what kind of school you want to attend (ie public? private? in state? out of state? etc)

 

[bidster]

To add to what everyone else said, medical anthropology is a very hot field right now and VERY applicable to anything you might encounter as a doctor.

 

[Law2Doc]

Ps. Usually an easy A.

I second this part of the post -- where I went to undergrad, introductory anthropology (and fine arts) was where premeds snagged their easy As to pad the GPA. But it looked like a fun major if you wanted to delve further into it than I did...

 

[akanene]

I am deciding on a major and would like to know more about this major. Can someone pelase give me a description of what it is. I would like to know more specific stuff like how are the tests and are there lots of writing for this major? I am very interested in learning about human and stuff. Or should I stick with Biology to be safe? Thanks in advance.

i actually majored in anthro and loved it... i wanted to major in something besides the sciences because i knew in med school that was the only thing i would be taking and really was happy about my decision.. as for an easy A, i cannot say i agree there, but i was taking all the upper level major requirements (and if youre in it for the grade you wont be putting in enough time or effort to get anything really valuable out of it, so what would be the point right?!?!)... it is a very reading and writing intensive major and at least at my school the profs expected that you read everything and be really prepared for class... im not saying the classes were insanly difficult (although some were), but you had to put in a lot of time, so at time it was difficult to juggle like when you had a 10 pager in anthro and then a bio test as well, but definitely do-able. a lot of what yuo will be studying depends on how the major is set up at your particular school. i was really interested in social cultural anthro and was able to take a lot of these types of classes, some of which were more or less geared towards health related fields or crosslisted with other majors of similar interest, for instance i took "Evoluntionary Medicine," "Cultral Aspects of Clinical Medicine," and "Psychology and Medicine" which were really interesting to be also being a pre-med. Most schools make you take the core requirements, which for the most part will involve classes like primate behavior or theory or whatever and i wasnt too excited about this, but i found at least part of it to be really interesting (like i did research on sickle cell in connection with malaria in one of my core classes or reseach on AIDS too). i would definitely recommend setting up a meeting with the department, so they could give you a better idea of what the major entails at your particular school and if they offer things that would be of interest to you specifically, because the field is so broad.. and definitely take an intro class to get your feet wet to see if you would even like it... i thought i was going to be a psychology major, but after taking one class i loved it and changed, although you could also consider some other majors in the social sciences like psych or sociology. PM me if you have an more questions, hope any of this helps.