Primary areas of interest offered in the department include the anthropology of religion and complex societies. Cognate courses are available in Religious Studies, Latin American Studies, Women's Studies, and other fields. Courses in anthropological linguistics integrate traditional anthropological concerns with the relations among language, culture, and meaning. Lecture courses center upon the phonological, syntactic, and semantic components of the languages used by widely separated speech communities. Courses and seminars which stress the social correlates of language and the suspected link between linguistic labeling practices, abstract forms of thought, and human behavior are available to the interested student.
Cognate courses are available in logic, philosophy of science, and speech.
The curriculum in archaeology is designed to give the student background in world prehistory, principles of field research, and competence in archaeological method and theory. Lecture courses examine cultural chronologies, the reconstruction of past lifeways, and the environmental, economic, technological, social, and cultural forces that shaped past human activity. Courses and seminars are available treating regional studies, the origin and development of complex societies, current issues in archaeological theory, and the history of the archaeological discipline. Individual study is offered involving directed field and laboratory research. In addition to the traditional four subdisciplines of anthropology, the department has three areas of specialization which crosscut subdisciplinary lines.