Anthropology is an unusually broad discipline that embraces biological, historical and cross-cultural study. Anthropology courses at Kenyon reflect these three distinct but interrelated areas.
Biological anthropology studies the complex connections between our biological and cultural existence, investigating how humans have evolved in the past and how we are continuing to evolve in the present. More advanced courses focus on such topics as human skeletal anatomy, human paleontology, the anthropology of food, and human adaptation to changing environmental conditions.
Courses in archaeology allow students to learn about prehistoric peoples of the New World (Aztecs, Maya, Inkas, Moundbuilders, and Puebloans) as well as the Old World (Egypt, Mesopotamia, and European megalith builders). Methods of investigation are also covered.
In cultural anthropology courses, students can study native North Americans and the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as such topics as media, race, ethnomedicine, sexuality and gender, ethnomusicology, politics, and development.
All anthropology courses deal with diversity, helping us to appreciate the varied ways of being human in the past and present and what links all of us despite those differences.