Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans and non-primates using comparative, evolutionary, and historical perspectives. Because we study all aspects of humans, anthropology is said to be holistic and inter-disciplinary, that is anthropologists work hand-in-hand with other sciences (such as biology, physiology, sociology and psychology), as well as the humanities (such as history, world languages & cultures, and religious studies).

At the University of Utah, the Anthropology Department is organized into four main divisions: Cultural, Biological, Evolutionary Ecology, and Archaeology. Cultural anthropology focuses on understanding the differences and similarities between groups of people over time, space, and scale - this includes how we think and behave, to how cultures evolved from the smallest family groups 200,000 years ago, to world's largest nation states today. Biological anthropology focuses on ancient and modern human anatomical, physiological, and biological variability. Biological anthropology also concerns itself with non-human primates like chimpanzees and gorillas—by studying them, we hope to learn more about ourselves. Archaeology is the excavation and interpretation of what humans leave behind in order to infer how and why humans have evolved. Evolutionary ecology (sometimes known as behavioral ecology) examines human (and non-human primate) behavior and life-history—why did human beings evolve the way they did?