Undergraduate Studies
We offer either a B.A. and a B.S. degree for undergraduate students in anthropology. Either degree may be obtained with honors and can be used to gain certification to teach social sciences at the junior and senior high school levels.
We also offer a minor in anthropology, which should be of special interest to students in art history, biological sciences, business management, foreign languages and literature, geology, humanities, social sciences and visual communications.
We participate in the interdisciplinary minors in Black studies, Latino/Latin American studies, linguistics, Southeast Asian studies and women's studies.
Degree Requirements
Requirements in Department
- ANTH 210: Exploring Archaeology
- ANTH 220: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- ANTH 230: Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology
- ANTH 240: Becoming Human: Discovering Human Origins
Four additional courses, optionally selected from one of the three emphasis areas:
How and why do social inequalities and hierarchies develop in societies? How can we understand cooperation and competition as traits of human and non-human primates? These questions are at the heart of the Social Complexity and Inequality emphasis. In cultural anthropology and archaeology, courses address the evolution of social complexity and inequality, global issues of development, disaster relief, ethnic and religious conflict, resource conflict, social inequities, and multiculturalism in contemporary, historic and prehistoric societies. In biological anthropology, courses examine social behavior because of natural selection and sexual selection, and consider how behaviors affect reproductive success.
- 301 American Culture
- 302 Asian American Cultures
- 313 Archaeology through Fiction
- 326X Survey of World Music
- 328 Anthropology of Religion
- 329 Anthropology and Contemporary World Problems
- 331 Language and Culture
- 361 Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women
- 404 Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean
- 409 Cultures and Societies of the Middle East
- 413 Illinois Archaeology
- 414 Archaeology of Mesoamerica
- 415 Archaeology of the American Southwest
- 417 Archaeology of South America
- 421 Social Organization
- 422 Gender in Southeast Asia
- 426 Political Anthropology
- 429X International NGOS and Globalization
- 441 Sexual Selection in Primates
- 469 Archaeology of Empires
How can we use lessons from past and present groups of humans and non-human primates to understand issues like climate change, food sovereignty, conservation, and environmental justice? This emphasis focuses on the ways in which humans and other primates have evolved and how we interact with our environments. Biological anthropology classes in this emphasis area focus on how primates adapted and continue to adapt to changing environmental conditions and habitats. Archaeology classes examine how current global environmental changes are situated in the broader framework of our historic and prehistoric past. Cultural and linguistic anthropology classes consider how environmental factors influence societies and vice versa and examine environmental degradation, disaster relief and resource conflicts in contemporary societies.
- 313 Archaeology through Fiction
- 341 Primatology
- 343 Extinction: Where the Wild Things Were
- 412 Ancient North America
- 413 Illinois Archaeology
- 414 Archaeology of Mesoamerica
- 415 Archaeology of the American Southwest
- 417 Archaeology of South America
- 423 Environmental Anthropology of the Middle East: Cultural and Political Ecologies
- 425 Environment and Anthropology
- 432 Nature and the Environment Across Cultures
- 440 Fossil Humans
- 441 Sexual Selection in Primates
- 443 Human Adaptation and Variation
- 444 Primate Ecology and Conservation
- 454 Uses and Abuses of Evolutionary Theory
- 464 Disasters without Borders
How can we understand how language, culture and anatomy influence people’s perceptions of the world? This emphasis focuses on the interaction between language, culture and cognitive structures. Classes focus on the interaction of culture and the environment or examine the evolution of culture from a biological perspective. Some of the classes in this emphasis area are also part of NIU’s interdisciplinary cognitive science program.
- 261 Language, Mind and Thought
- 331 Language and Culture
- 421 Social Organization
- 425 Environment and Anthropology
- 432 Nature and Environment Across Cultures
- 433 Fundamentals of Cognitive Anthropology
- 435 Space in Language and Culture
- 438 Cultural Models: The Language of Culture
- 454 Uses and Abuses of Evolutionary Theory
- 460 Methods in Ethnography
- 467 Applied Anthropology
Other Requirements
Nine semester hours of coursework at the 200 level or above in a single discipline outside of anthropology. This can facilitate the completion of a minor in programs like environmental studies, Southeast Asian studies, Latino studies, nonprofit and NGO studies or a certificate in programs like geographic information systems or women and gender studies.
