Anthropology, BS
Anthropology takes a broad approach to understanding the varied aspects of what makes us human. To help students understand the complexity of culture across human history, our department offers courses in four fields—archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics, and sociocultural anthropology.
Our faculty encourage students to pursue thematic areas that bridge the traditional fields of anthropology in order to address the complex challenges facing contemporary societies.
These thematic areas include:
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Body, Health, and Medicine
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Critical Perspectives on Race, Gender, and Sexuality
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Ecology and Environment
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Indigeneity, and Colonialism, and Language
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Religion, Urban Economy, and Politics of the State
We aim to educate students to address real-world problems through a combination of classroom learning, seminars, and hands-on field and laboratory research opportunities. Examples of these opportunities include studying primates at the zoo or in a tropical forest, interning at the Middle American Research Institute (MARI), developing language preservation tools, examining fossils and other articles, and conducting ethnographic research at home and around the world.
Requirements
Thirty-seven credit hours of approved coursework are required for a major in anthropology. Typically, this requirement can be satisfied by ten anthropology courses and two mathematics courses. Within the 37 credit hours required for a bachelor of science major in anthropology, students must fulfill the following requirements:
- At least one course above the 1000 level in each of the four major subdivisions of anthropology: archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics, and socio-cultural anthropology.
- Students may take no more than two 1000-level courses (six credit hours) as electives to be counted towards the 30 credit hours required for degrees in anthropology.
- Five or six elective courses (18 credits) in anthropology. Among the elective courses, a maximum of one general 3-credit internship course (ANTH 4560 Internship Studies (1-3 c.h.)) is permitted to count in the major. Students who qualify may complete the 3-credit MARI internship course (ANTH 4570 Internship (1-3 c.h.)) to satisfy an additional elective credit in the major.
- Student who choose to receive the B.S. degree must have credit for two mathematics courses.
- Newcomb-Tulane College requires all undergraduates to take two tiers of writing to fulfill its undergraduate writing requirement. Anthropology courses that carry the SLA Tier-2 Writing attribute are four-credit hours, but the additional credit hour earned through writing-intensive courses is not counted towards the 30 hours necessary for degrees in anthropology.
Four Major Subdivisions
Archaeology
| Course ID | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH 2340 | Introduction to Archaeology | 3 |
| ANTH 2350 | Architecture and Power in the Ancient World | 3 |
| ANTH 2360 | Ancient Trade and Commerce | 3 |
| ANTH 3030 | Climate Change and Human Evolution | 3 |
| ANTH 3240 | Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica | 3 |
| ANTH 3320 | Archaeology of Gender | 3 |
| ANTH 3430 | Archaeology of Cultural Landscapes | 3 |
| ANTH 3435 | Disasters and Past Societies | 3 |
| ANTH 3560 | Environmental Archaeology | 3 |
| ANTH 4120 | Conquest and Colonialism | 3 |
| ANTH 4130 | North American Prehistory | 3 |
| ANTH 4150 | African Prehistory | 3 |
| ANTH 4410 | Olmec and Maya Civilization | 3 |
| ANTH 4610 | Ceramic Analysis | 3 |
| ANTH 4620 | Lithic Analysis | 3 |
| ANTH 6100 | South American Archaeology | 3 |
| ANTH 6130 | Southeastern U.S. Prehistory | 3 |
| ANTH 6220 | Material Culture | 3 |
| ANTH 6230 | Archaeological Theory | 3 |
| ANTH 6430 | Archaeology of Cultural Landscapes | 3 |
| ANTH 6435 | Disasters and Past Societies | 3 |
| ANTH 6810 | Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs | 3 |
Biological Anthropology
| Course ID | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH 3120 | Anthropology of Sex and Reproduction | 3 |
| ANTH 3140 | Primate Ecology and Behavior | 3,4 |
| ANTH 3450 | Methods of Observation in Behavioral Research | 3 |
| ANTH 3720 | Adaptation and Human Variability | 3 |
| ANTH 3725 | Menstruation: Biology and Culture | 3 |
| ANTH 3730 | Principles of Forensic Anthropology | 3 |
| ANTH 3735 | Bioarchaeology of Human Sacrifice | 3 |
| ANTH 3745 | Bioarchaeology of Mummies | 3,4 |
| ANTH 3750 | Bones, Bodies and Disease | 3 |
| ANTH 3755 | Human Osteology | 3 |
| ANTH 3760 | Primate Evolution and Adaptation | 3 |
| ANTH 4510 | Species Concepts in Human Paleontology | 3 |
| ANTH 6020 | The Neandertal Enigma | 3 |
| ANTH 6120 | Anthropology of Sex and Reproduction | 3 |
| ANTH 6140 | Primate Ecology and Behavior | 3,4 |
| ANTH 6480 | Human Functional Morphology | 3 |
| ANTH 6500 | Human Evolution | 3 |
| ANTH 6725 | Menstruation: Biology and Culture | 3 |
| ANTH 6745 | Bioarchaeology of Mummies | 3 |
Linguistics
| Course ID | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH 3290 | The Nature of Language | 3 |
| ANTH 3300 | History of Writing | 3,4 |
| ANTH 3310 | Historical Linguistics | 3,4 |
| ANTH 3385 | Creoles & Creolization | 3 |
| ANTH 3400 | Language and Culture | 3 |
| ANTH 3420 | Semantics: Linguistic Approaches to Meaning | 3 |
| ANTH 3440 | Dialect in America | 3 |
| ANTH 3441 | Lexicography | 3 |
| ANTH 3520 | Diaspora Yoruba | 3 |
| ANTH 3535 | Native American Language and Linguistics | 3 |
| ANTH 3590 | Introduction To Syntax | 3 |
| ANTH 3640 | Phonology | 3 |
| ANTH 3650 | Morphology | 3 |
| ANTH 3660 | Discourse Analysis | 3,4 |
| ANTH 3670 | Language & Acquisition | 3 |
| ANTH 3680 | Language and Power | 3 |
| ANTH 3690 | Language and Gender | 3,4 |
| ANTH 3780 | Language Death | 3 |
| ANTH 4930 | Languages of Louisiana | 3,4 |
| ANTH 6385 | Creoles & Creolization | 3 |
| ANTH 6400 | Language and Culture | 3 |
| ANTH 6415 | Pidgins and Creoles | 3 |
| ANTH 6420 | Linguistic Field Methods | 3 |
| ANTH 6700 | Spoken Nahuatl | 3 |
| ANTH 6720 | Spoken Yoruba | 3 |
| ANTH 6800 | Spoken Yucatecan Maya | 3 |
| ANTH 6840 | Beginning Kaqchikel (Maya) Language | 3,4 |
Socio-cultural Anthropology
| Course ID | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ANTH 2370 | Anthropology and Global Health | 3 |
| ANTH 3010 | Hunters and Gatherers | 3 |
| ANTH 3020 | Ethnobiology | 3 |
| ANTH 3035 | Race and Migration | 3 |
| ANTH 3060 | Ethnology of South America | 3 |
| ANTH 3110 | Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa | 3 |
| ANTH 3170 | Anthropology of Violence | 3 |
| ANTH 3190 | Economic Anthropology | 3 |
| ANTH 3195 | Financial Lives | 3,4 |
| ANTH 3200 | Magic, Witchcraft and Religion | 3 |
| ANTH 3330 | Anthropology of Gender | 3 |
| ANTH 3340 | Social Life and South Asia | 3 |
| ANTH 3350 | Culture and Religion | 3 |
| ANTH 3360 | Anthropology of Cities | 3 |
| ANTH 3365 | The Anthropology of Sex Work | 3 |
| ANTH 3370 | Locating Southeast Asia | 3 |
| ANTH 3395 | Ethnography of Performance and Identity in New Orleans and French Louisiana | 3 |
| ANTH 3470 | Many Faces of Islam | 3 |
| ANTH 3480 | African Modernities | 3 |
| ANTH 3545 | Urban Music: Race Class and Sexuality | 3 |
| ANTH 3550 | Social Change, Sustainability, and Postcolonial Identity in the Caribbean | 3 |
| ANTH 3570 | Indigenous Movements in Latin America | 3 |
| ANTH 3580 | The Politics of Fieldwork | 3 |
| ANTH 3700 | Environmental Anthropology | 3 |
| ANTH 3710 | Historical Ecology of Amazonia | 3 |
| ANTH 3770 | Global Vietnam | 3 |
| ANTH 3850 | The Four-Field Model | 3 |
| ANTH 4210 | Seminar in Historical Ecology | 3 |
| ANTH 6060 | Ethnology of South America | 3 |
| ANTH 6210 | Development of Anthropological Theory | 3 |
| ANTH 6340 | Medical Anthropology | 3 |
| ANTH 6350 | Culture and Religion | 3 |
| ANTH 6395 | Ethnography of Performance and Identity in New Orleans and French Louisiana | 3 |
| ANTH 6520 | Ethnographic Methods | 3 |
| ANTH 6545 | Urban Music: Race Class and Sexuality | 3 |
| ANTH 6570 | Indigenous Movements in Latin America | 3 |
| ANTH 6580 | The Politics of Fieldwork | 3 |
| ANTH 6710 | Historical Ecology of Amazonia | 3 |
| ANTH 6770 | Global Vietnam | 3 |
| ANTH 6870 | Kaqchikel Maya Culture | 3 |
Additional Information
Given the diversity of topics of interest to anthropologists, anthropology majors are encouraged to take a variety of courses in the different anthropological subfields and in related disciplines, and they are encouraged to integrate anthropology coursework within pre-professional programs of study. Upon consultation with anthropology faculty advisors, students may count up to six credits (two courses) as electives towards the anthropology major from approved courses in other departments.
The subject matter of anthropology is such that most of the curriculum is not an explicitly ordered sequence. Few anthropology courses at Tulane have specific prerequisites (exceptions, mostly linguistic courses, are noted in the catalog), and anthropology majors are expected to choose their courses from among all those with numbers less than 7000. The 6000-level courses are specifically designed for undergraduate as well as graduate students, and all junior and senior majors should choose freely from among these offerings.
Anthropology majors are eligible to apply for the 4+1 program in anthropology, based on consultation with advisors and other mentors. Students in the 4+1 program can earn B.A. or B.S. degrees in anthropology within four years, and M.A. degrees in anthropology based on an additional year of graduate coursework in anthropology taken during their fourth and fifth years. Requirements for this program are outlined on the departmental web site and in the anthropology majors handbook.
The anthropology department administers the Kenneth J. Opat Fund in Anthropology, reserved for the support of undergraduate research in anthropology. Students majoring in anthropology are encouraged to seek further information from their anthropology advisors about the use of this research fund.
Program String and Field of Study: LABS_UG, ANTH
Catalog addenda note: Minor edits were made to this program on 6/11/2025 for clarity and to reflect updated course options.
For more information, contact the School of Liberal Arts.