BA in Cultural Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of the human as at once an individual, a product of society, and a maker of history and culture. It’s the nature of the human condition to live within structures of symbol, belief, and power of our own fashioning: religion, art, gender, war, ecosystems, race relations, embodiment, kinship, science, colonialism, language, nations and states, play, subsistence strategies, mass media, illness, pain, and pleasure. In a word, culture. And anthropologists study all this and more. Educational Objectives Our central objective in the classroom is to help students develop their intellectual skills, cross-cultural fluency, and sense of civic and moral engagement. We hope that our majors leave the program with greater analytical and critical skills with which to think about the world. Every major will gain knowledge of the most important theories and debates within contemporary anthropological scholarship on subjects ranging from globalization and its effects, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, mass culture and mass media, and class inequality and conflict. We also seek to school majors in the intellectual history of the discipline through exposure to founding mothers and fathers of anthropology. At the same time, the major aims to inculcate knowledge of the key issues facing societies across the globe. More particularly, this involves an understanding of how cultural beliefs, social structures, systems of value, and notions of identity vary from place to place and over time. Majors will also come away with a greater awareness of the challenges and rewards of civic engagement. Although we do not want our students to imagine that there are any simple or neatly agreed upon solutions, Cultural Anthropology does encourage active engagement in the various communities in which we live. To this end, classroom work will emphasizes patterns of injustices and inequality of all kinds in a global framework. Career Options Cultural anthropology prepares students for a variety of successful professional careers. Many graduates go on to professional school in law, medicine, public policy, social work, or business. Others go directly into journalism, teaching, advertising, and non-profit organizations, often with an international or multicultural focus. All of these fields place a high premium on issues of cultural understanding and diversity, and a Cultural Anthropology degree offers a unique set of resources and perspectives to bring to a professional career. Some majors from the Duke Cultural Anthropology Department have pursued masters or doctoral degrees in anthropology, and have been accepted into some of the finest graduate programs in the country. Because it offers a critical understanding of vital questions of identity and society, the major serves as a valuable foundation for graduate study in other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including economics, literature, history, political science, psychology, and sociology. Cultural anthropology majors are encouraged to browse through the Anthropology Alumni folder available in the departmental office. It includes responses received from anthropology alumni to a letter sent by the department inquiring about their post-graduation experiences in the job market and the relevance of their degree in anthropology in current or past professions.