Anthropology is a broadly based discipline concerned with the dynamics and diversity of humankind. Subjects of study include social relations, political organization, economics, religion, medicine and disease, human biology and evolution, languages, aesthetics, and ancient societies. This diversity of topics is linked by the common thread of "culture," a concept which is at the heart of anthropological studies. Anthropology considers why and how people from every part of the world and with diverse cultures are different and the same, how the human species has evolved over millions of years, and the ways people make sense of and order their lives. The Department of Anthropology offers courses covering the discipline's four major subfields: sociocultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. The major is structured to provide an introduction to the key concepts, methodologies, and theoretical issues of anthropology, while permitting each student sufficient latitude to pursue her or his own special interests. Anthropology explores the dynamics and diversity of humankind. It asks a most difficult and most important question: What does it mean to be human? The discipline ranges from the study of culture and social relations, to human biology and evolution, to economics and politics, to religion and world views, to languages and the connections between language and social dynamics, to visual cultures and architecture, to medicine and disease, and to what we can learn about past societies mostly through the study of material culture and organic remains. The Department of Anthropology offers courses in social-cultural, archaeological, biological and linguistic anthropology. The major is structured to provide an introduction to anthropology’s core concepts, methodologies, and theoretical issues, while permitting each student sufficient latitude to pursue his or her own special interests. Archaeology Focus: Digging into Material Culture The goal of archaeology is to provide an anthropological perspective on societies from the appearance of human beings through to the present mostly via the study of material culture and organic remains. Archaeologists recover, document, analyze and interpret materials including architecture, landscapes, pottery, stone tools, inscriptions, funerary goods, plant remains, and human and faunal skeletons. Patterns in and of material culture provide insight into the nature of political orders, social arrangements, belief systems, the shift from foraging to agricultural economies, the inception of urban life, environmental transformations, and the rise and collapse of ancient polities among many other subjects. Archaeologists often make use of materials science studies, remote imagery (as from satellites), and geographic information systems (GIS), among other tools to facilitate anthropological interpretation. The archaeology curriculum is particularly recommended to those students considering the study of archaeology at the graduate level, as well as careers in conservation, heritage and museum studies, and cultural resource management.