Fall 2005 Course Offerings

Big Oak Island

Contact us:

Department of Anthropology

University of New Orleans

New Orleans, LA 70148

Phone: (504) 280-6294

Fax: (504) 280-1123

Email: dberiss@uno.edu

Literally defined, anthropology means the science of humanity. Anthropology is the field that studies the whole range of human behavior and society in all parts of the world, from the most ancient or simple of which we have any trace to the most complex customs of advanced, contemporary nations. A great 19th-century anthropologist said an anthropologist "seeks to understand how mankind came to be as they are and live as the do." That is, anthropology examines human societies as they have developed in many times and places, and indeed even the lives of our biological relatives, the primates (apes and monkeys), in order to learn which of our social characteristics are caused by local circumstances and which reflect universal human nature. By doing this, anthropologists can apply to the understanding of the contemporary world their insights drawn from comparisons of many peoples, ancient and modern, and their specialized techniques for first-hand investigation of group behavior.

Thus, while anthropology's endeavor to develop the broadest possible perspective on humanity has given it its well-known interest in the ancient and exotic, anthropologists also have always maintained a concern with practical issues that face modern, industrialized nations. Anthropologists have increasingly extended their activities beyond their traditional academic setting into such applied areas as public health, medical and forensic anthropology, community development, bilingual and minority-group education, ethnic relations, industrial anthropology, marketing research, urban anthropology, architectural and neighborhood rehabilitation, cultural resource management, and international service for businesses and public agencies.

Anthropology's unique contribution comes from the fact that, in contrast to academic fields that concentrate on only one aspect of society -- for example, technology, economics, politics, philosophy, or the arts -- it focuses on the way all these and other areas of human life combine to make up the distinctive culture of each people. Moreover, anthropologists apply the attitudes and techniques of the natural sciences to the study of characteristic achievements and problems of human groups that occupy or have occupied our planet. Consequently, anthropology has been called "both the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences."