Anthropology at Holy Cross

Cultural anthropology is the comparative, social scientific study of human cultural worlds. The discipline examines cultural worlds holistically, taking such domains as religion, kinship, economic exchange, and political systems as interlocking and considering these domains in relation to world systems of communication flow, economic control, and political power. Cultural anthropologists generally address large issues of human life (for instance, how are gender hierarchies organized in relation to other systems of perceived human difference? How do conceptions of political power relate to ideas of the sacred?) via focussed, small-scale community studies. The core methodology consists of long-term, intensive, ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the local language or languages, in settings such as Indonesian villages, Bolivian urban neighborhoods, and Vietnamese street markets. Cultural anthropologists typically concentrate on one of several topical areas (for instance, political anthropology, anthropology of religion, economic anthropology) and investigate their research questions over the course of their careers in a specific area of the world, such as Southeast Asia or Latin America. Indeed, most cultural anthropological research has been done far from the industrialized precincts of Europe and the U.S.

Undergraduate students majoring in cultural anthropology can use their coursework to prepare for graduate study in anthropology or as a stepping stone toward careers in public service, social service work overseas or in the U.S., diplomacy, journalism, law, medicine, international business, and several other fields.