Anthropology includes four broad sub-fields, all of which are well represented at Temple. Cultural Anthropology is the comparative study of the customs, beliefs and traditions of different communities of people. Physical Anthropology includes the study of human evolution, of population genetics and of human adaptation to different environments. Linguistic Anthropology is the study of the interaction between language, culture, thought processes and social structure. Archaeology is the study of cultures of the past based on their material remains, including artifacts and skeletal remains.
Anthropologists do fieldwork.
Cultural anthropologists and linguists often live with the people they are studying with the goal of observing and participating as much as possible in the everyday life of that culture. Archaeologists and physical anthropologists also do fieldwork which they supplement with laboratory procedures to analyze human and material remains . See some recent and ongoing research projects by Temple faculty and students. Return to Undergraduate Home Page.