The Program Anthropology combines the biological, historical, and social sciences in a unique study of humankind. It is the only discipline that examines and attempts to understand humankind as a whole and to study the human being as animal, social creature, and literate being. The University at Buffalo's undergraduate program includes physical anthropology, archaeology, and cultural anthropology. Physical anthropology studies the origins, adaptations, and evolution of our own species and of our primate relatives. Archaeology studies the historical development of human cultures by analyzing cultural remains.
Cultural anthropology studies the innate, shared, and transmitted products of social groups.
Its approach is descriptive, historical, and comparative. Students have the option of specializing in one of the three subfields. Detailed descriptive materials concerning departmental programs, as well as information regarding job opportunities, are available in the departmental office. This choice provides students with an alternate major field should they not be accepted into a medical or dental school.