Anthropology

Purpose: The Department of Anthropology offers courses leading to a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology. Research and instruction is performed in four major subfields, including archaeology, bioanthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics. Graduate study emphasizes three tracks: archaeology, social/cultural anthropology, and evolutionary anthropology. The Department of Anthropology also offers training programs in evolutionary modeling, ethnobiology, and psychological/medical anthropology.

Anthropology students also rely on interdisciplinary resources related to other departments, including Biological Sciences (human evolution and race); Comparative Ethnic Cultures (native peoples, cultural change and conflict, prehistory of native peoples, etc.); Communication (media in global perspective, speech); Human Development (study of infant, child, and adolescent development); Economic Sciences (international development and the economic systems of aboriginal peoples); Environmental Science and Regional Planning (human ecology and past environments); Fine Arts (the arts and crafts of aboriginal peoples); Geology (quaternary environments, geoarchaeology, and stratigraphy); History (American Indians since the fifteenth century, evolution of societies, historical ethnography, world archaeology, etc.); Music (ethnomusicology); Psychology (human nature, the effects of culture on personality); Religious Studies (ancient and minor religions); Sociology (sexuality, social organization, cross-cultural influences, kinship); and Women's Studies (gender issues, Native American women, feminism, etc.).

This statement excludes anthropological linguistics because it is treated in the Linguistics policy.

Please note: Some links below are only accessible in the WSU Library or by WSU Faculty, Staff, and Students.

1. Languages: English is the primary language of the collection. Works written in other languages are ordinarily purchased only in English translations. Collecting of works in American Indian languages is treated in the Linguistics policy.
2. Chronological Guidelines: Interest begins with prehistory, as exemplified in archaeology and physical anthropology, and continues through the present time, as exemplified in contemporary examples of social and cultural anthropology.
3. Geographical Guidelines: Primary emphasis is on North America (particularly western North America), Mesoamerica, South America, the Arctic, the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.
4. Treatment of the Subject: Titles on methodology, models and simulation, and theory are collected on a broad basis. Biographies are purchased when the subject is an anthropologist or when the subject illustrates ethnological context (e.g. the biography of any member of an aboriginal group). Legal and ethical aspects of anthropology (e.g., the rights of native peoples and ethnic minorities) are collected.
5. Types of Material: Books and periodicals are the major types of materials collected in both print and/or electronic format, subject to general collection guidelines. Anthropological society, university, and museum publications are purchased, as well as publications from international organizations and national and state governments. Videotapes, slides, and audio materials are purchased when funds are available. Upper-level textbooks may be selectively purchased.
6. Date of Publication: Emphasis is primarily on current publications. Older materials are acquired chiefly as reprints or microform, but resources pertaining to the geographic areas of specialization and the works of major anthropologists are purchased whenever available.
7. Other General Considerations: Other campus libraries whose holdings supplement those of Holland and Terrell Libraries are the Education Library and the Owen Science and Engineering Library. In addition, the Libraries’ Media Materials and Reserve unit contains many relevant films and other video resources appropriate for classroom support. The Libraries also have depository arrangements to receive relevant federal and state government publications. The Department of Anthropology provides specialized laboratories for physical anthropology, lithic analysis, paleoecology, geoarchaeology, and zooarchaeology study and research. The Museum of Anthropology, housed in College Hall, is a federal archaeological repository and contains both ethnographical and archaeological research collections.

   The WSU Libraries also provide electronic access through the online catalog, WSU WorldCat, to the holdings of university libraries throughout the United States and the world. Books and articles can be requested through WSU WorldCat, as well as through Illiad. Articles can also be requested through Article Reach. The WSU Libraries pay inter-library loan fees for WSU researchers, making resources outside of the Libraries’ collections available to these researchers at no cost to them.