Department of Anthropology

About

Contact Us

Laura C. Segura

Senior Office Assistant

Department of Anthropology

laura.segura01@utrgv.edu

(956) 665-7393

Anthropology is a broad-based discipline because it is the study of everything about human beings--past civilizations, living people throughout the world, human biology and behavior, and language. The major subfields of anthropology reflect these topics: archaeology, cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology. Specific areas of interest that are explored in depth within our program include topics such as border health issues, food, folk healing, sexuality, race, prehistoric archaeology and Spanish colonial archaeology.

The anthropology faculty members welcome all students to our Department of Anthropology at UTRGV. This program offers three majors and three minors in anthropology as well as an interdisciplinary masters degree through the Master of Arts Interdisciplinary Studies program (M.A.I.S.). View to all of the degree programs here.

Students trained in our program will acquire oral and written communication skills, research skills, and "people" skills which qualify them well for careers in international business, government, politics, criminal justice, social work, and medicine or other health-related professions.

Student Organizations

The UTRGV Department of Anthropology also supports an active Anthropology Club as well as a chapter of Lambda Alpha, the Anthropology Honor Society.

“What could I do with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology?”

A major or minor anthropology is especially appropriate for professionals closely involved with people. Our graduates acquire skills useful in many careers rather than skills applicable to one job. Our program is strong in health, especially involving the US-Mexico border, and archaeology. Several of our faculty members are actively engaged in research projects on border issues such as politics, health, cultural heritage, and archaeology. Collaboration with other faculty members in the university who have similar interests makes this research particularly timely and important. Students are exposed to these issues through their classes and also by their inclusion in the research projects themselves. Through their participation in classes and research projects, students are uniquely qualified and well trained to help businesses flourish in the rapidly changing demography of the US where Mexican-origin populations are becoming increasingly important both in terms of economics and politics.

See the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook for Anthropologists and Archeologists for more information. It is an excellent resource.

Anthropology Specialties

Sociocultural anthropologists examine social patterns and practices across cultures, with a special interest in how people live in particular places and how they organize, govern, and create meaning. A hallmark of sociocultural anthropology is its concern with similarities and differences, both within and among societies, and its attention to race, sexuality, class, gender, and nationality. Research in sociocultural anthropology is distinguished by its emphasis on participant observation, which involves placing oneself in the research context for extended periods of time to gain a first-hand sense of how local knowledge is put to work in grappling with practical problems of everyday life and with basic philosophical problems of knowledge, truth, power, and justice. Topics of concern to sociocultural anthropologists include such areas as health, work, ecology and environment, education, agriculture and development, and social change.

Biological anthropologists seek to understand how humans adapt to diverse environments, how biological and cultural processes work together to shape growth, development and behavior, and what causes disease and early death. In addition, they are interested in human biological origins, evolution and variation. They give primary attention to investigating questions having to do with evolutionary theory, our place in nature, adaptation and human biological variation. To understand these processes, biological anthropologists study other primates (primatology), the fossil record (paleoanthropology), prehistoric people (bioarchaeology), and the biology (e.g., health, cognition, hormones, growth and development) and genetics of living populations.

Archaeologists study past peoples and cultures, from the deepest prehistory to the recent past, through the analysis of material remains, ranging from artifacts and evidence of past environments to architecture and landscapes. Material evidence, such as pottery, stone tools, animal bone, and remains of structures, is examined within the context of theoretical paradigms, to address such topics as the formation of social groupings, ideologies, subsistence patterns, and interaction with the environment. Like other areas of anthropology, archaeology is a comparative discipline; it assumes basic human continuities over time and place, but also recognizes that every society is the product of its own particular history and that within every society there are commonalities as well as variation.

Linguistic anthropology is the comparative study of ways in which language reflects and influences social life. It explores the many ways in which language practices define patterns of communication, formulate categories of social identity and group membership, organize large-scale cultural beliefs and ideologies, and, in conjunction with other forms of meaning-making, equip people with common cultural representations of their natural and social worlds. Linguistic anthropology shares with anthropology in general a concern to understand power, inequality, and social change, particularly as these are constructed and represented through language and discourse.

About

Department of Anthropology Menu

Contact Us

Laura C. Segura

Student Organizations

Anthropology Specialties

Contact College of Liberal Arts

Brownsville

Edinburg

Find us on Social Media

LIKE. FOLLOW. SUBSCRIBE. ADD.