Anthropology is unique among the social sciences in considering humankind from a holistic perspective that aims for an understanding of how culture, biology, history, and language intersect. We have a rigorous well-balanced four-field (biological, archaeological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology) undergraduate program. Our faculty ably covers a range of substantive, methodological, and theoretical areas in courses that provide students with a solid grounding in anthropological perspectives. Undergraduates have an opportunity for training in archaeological, osteological, ethnographic, and primatological methods. All these and other topics help students understand ideas and issues that they confront as citizens and in their careers. We encourage hands-on experiences through study abroad, archaeological field schools, internships, and service learning at Purdue and elsewhere.
Points of Pride
- Anthropologists at Purdue work in a wide variety of field sites in Europe, Mexico, Central America, Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, Canada, and in the United States.
- Faculty have gained national and international reputations for their research in archaeology, economic and political anthropology, semiotics and non-verbal language, primatology, conservation and development, religion, transnational movements, and gender and sexuality.
- The anthropology honors program provides an optional capstone experience for students. The year-long program enables students to focus on a particular empirical issue in an anthropological sub-discipline and to write an honors thesis based on that research.
- Purdue offers an anthropology student club, P.A.S.T (Purdue Anthropology Society).