Anthropology, the broadest of the social sciences, is the study of humankind. One of the strengths of anthropology as a discipline is its "holistic" or integrative approach; it links the life sciences and the humanities and has strong ties with disciplines ranging from biology and psychology to linguistics, political science, and the fine arts. Anthropological study is appropriate for people with a wide variety of interests: human cultures and civilizations both present and past, human and animal behavior, particular regions of the world such as Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, etc.
The department recognizes the following four fields in anthropology:
Archaeology is diverse in both methodology and geographic coverage. The greatest strengths within the department lie in the study of cultural evolution, complex societies, hunters/gatherers, iconography, craft specialization, quantitative analysis, and political economy and include major programs focused on Western North America, the high cultures of Mesoamerica and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean.
Biological anthropology is a comprehensive program on evolutionary anthropology, with emphasis on the behavioral and reproductive ecology of humans and other primates. It includes training in evolutionary theory, behavioral ecology, human ethology, reproductive physiology and ecology, paleoanthropology, primate behavior and evolution, and mathematical modeling. Faculty members have engaged in fieldwork on several continents, particularly Africa, where ongoing projects include work on human reproductive ecology, dietary and subsistence ecology, human ethology, and primate behavior.
Linguistic anthropology is an interdisciplinary field which addresses the manifold ways in which communication and culture mutually define one another in different communities worldwide. Linguistic anthropologists at UCLA have a variety of backgrounds and research interests which include the ethnography of face-to-face communication, language contact and change, verbal art and performance, and language and education. Courses are offered in ethnographic approaches to discourse analysis, field methods, conversation analysis, and urban sociolinguistics, as well as in cross-cultural pragmatics (including visual aspects of communication).
Sociocultural anthropology concerns the examination and understanding of social systems and cultural perceptions, and the human capacities which have enabled them. Its goal is to understand their operation in specific settings and to understand the experience of individuals who live in these diverse systems. Faculty members have engaged in fieldwork in almost every area of the world, but most notably in Africa, South America, East and Southeast Asia, and Oceania. They have also engaged in ethnographic research among Americans with diverse ethnic identities and in various institutional settings.
Cutting across the four fields are three other categories of course offerings: applied anthropology, regional cultures, and history, theory, and method.
The department offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in Anthropology for undergraduates; the graduate program leads to the Master of Arts and Ph.D. degrees. Studies in anthropology are particularly valuable for students planning careers in which an understanding of human behavior and cultural diversity is desirable, such as business, education, law, medicine, nursing, public health, social welfare, and urban planning. Because of its breadth of outlook, anthropology also offers an ideal basis for those seeking a general education in our increasingly interdependent world.