Linguistic anthropologists study languages and other aspects of human communication. This work may be contemporary, or it may involve reconstructing the history of a language no longer spoken. Davis linguistic anthropologists study language as it is used to create and maintain gender and ethnic identities, the effects of linguistic diversity on communication between groups, the connections between language and worldview, and the origins and use of non-alphabetic writing systems of the world. Archaeologists study the material remains of present and past cultural systems to understand the technical, social, and political organization of those systems and the larger culture evolutionary process that stand behind them. The Davis program in archaeology emphasizes research in California and the Great Basin, but also supports the study of hunter-gatherer systems in and settings generally, and is currently engaged in such research in Australia and Asia.
Biological anthropologists study a variety of aspects of human evolutionary biology.
Undergraduates at UC Davis may major in anthropology in two ways. The Bachelor of Arts gives a background in all four subfields, with an emphasis in sociocultural anthropology. The Bachelor of Science program has much in common with a major in zoology or other biological sciences, and is appropriate for students interested in biology or applications of the natural sciences in archaeology.