4229 Social Science Plaza B; (949) 824-7602
James G. Ferguson, Department Chair
Anthropology is the comparative study of past and present human societies and cultures. The Department of Anthropology emphasizes contemporary theory, field research, and a variety of methods for analyzing anthropological data. The Department has a strong interdisciplinary bent, with research and teaching interests in economic anthropology, political economy, social history and social change, culture and health, identity and ethnicity, gender and feminist studies, cognitive anthropology, social networks, modernity and development, religion, and the arts and expressive culture. The Department also has a strong emphasis on the study of contemporary issues and modern problems, such as international flows of goods, peoples, images, and ideas; the relationship between global processes and local practices; immigration, citizenship, and refugees; population politics; violence and political conflict; ethnicity and nationalism; gender and family; medicine; law; development and economic transformation; urban studies; and environmental issues. While the program gives students a breadth of knowledge in traditional anthropology, the faculty do not merely pursue research on the traditional subjects of anthropological study, but bring anthropological analyses to bear on pressing contemporary social issues. Geographic regions of expertise include Latin America, southern Africa, east Africa, Micronesia and Oceania, the Caribbean, China, South Asia, and diasporic and transnational communities in the United States and abroad.
University Requirements: See pages 54-59.
School Requirements: See page 346.
Departmental Requirements for the Major
School requirements must be met and must include 12 courses (48 units) as specified below:
A. Anthropology 2A.
B. Anthropology 2B, 2C, or 2D.
C. Anthropology 30A or 30B.
D. Three topical courses (12 units) from Anthropology 120-159, 170-179).
E. Two courses (eight units) on a geographical area, from Anthropology 160-169.
F. Four additional elective courses (16 units) from Anthropology 30A, 30B, 40-179, 180A.
Students are strongly encouraged to take Anthropology 180A after they have had at least three courses beyond Anthropology 2A and 2B, 2C, or 2D. Students are also strongly encouraged to take both Anthropology 30A and 30B.
The faculty encourages Anthropology majors or minors to study abroad and experience a different culture while making progress toward degree objectives. The Center for International Education, which includes the Education Abroad Program (EAP) and the International Opportunities Program (IOP), assists students in taking advantage of many worldwide opportunities. For example, EAP offers excellent opportunities to study anthropology at many universities abroad and courses taken for departmental requirement C, D, and E would be excellent choices to take. Study abroad also can provide opportunities for cross-cultural experience, field research, and foreign language training. See the Center for International Education section of the Catalogue for additional information.
Honors Program in Anthropology
The Honors Program in Anthropology is designed to allow undergraduates to pursue field research and write an honors thesis on topics of their choice under the guidance of Department of Anthropology faculty members. Research projects typically involve a combination of library research, exploratory ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and systematic data collection and analysis. The program is open to all senior Anthropology majors with a grade point average of 3.3 or better overall, with 3.5 in Anthropology courses (at least five courses). Successful completion of the Honors Program and the honors thesis satisfies the upper-division writing requirement.
Although course work for the Honors Program does not start until the senior year, it is highly recommended that during the spring quarter of the junior year, students find a professor willing to serve as their research project advisor on the basis of a mutually acceptable abstract that indicates the goal and significance of their project. If extensive research is to be undertaken at this time, students enroll in Anthropology 199.
During the fall quarter of the senior year, students enroll in Anthropology H190A and write a proposal describing their research question, the relevant background literature, and the method of data collection and analysis. Field work for the project may begin during this quarter.
In the winter quarter of the senior year, students begin or continue enthnographic field research by enrolling in Anthropology H190B. Field research typically combines exploratory field research with fixed format data collection methods.
In the spring of the senior year, students enroll in Anthropology H191 and complete a senior honor thesis that is typically 40 to 80 pages long. Honor theses are read and evaluated by the advisor and a second faculty member chosen by the chair of the undergraduate committee in consultation with the advisor.
Anthropology Minor Requirements
Requirements for the minor in Anthropology are met by taking seven anthropology courses (28 units) as specified below:
A. Anthropology 2A.
B. Anthropology 2B, 2C, or 2D.
C. Anthropology 30A or 30B.
D. Two topical courses (eight units) from Anthropology 120-159, 170-179).
E. Two courses (eight units) on a geographical area, from Anthropology 160-169.
Participating Faculty
Duran Bell: Economics, economic anthropology
Victoria Bernal: Economic development, peasants, gender, political economy; Africa, muslim societies
John P. Boyd: Kinship, social networks, mathematical anthropology
Michael Burton: Economic anthropology, ecological anthropology, psychological anthropology, gender; Africa, Micronesia
Teresa Caldeira: Urban violence; spatial segregation and urban changes in multicultural societies; citizenship, individual rights, and conceptions of the body; racism; gender, critical urban studies, and contemporary developments in social theory; Brazil
Frank Cancian: Economic anthropology, inequality, peasants; Mexico
Leo R. Chávez: International migration, Latin American immigrants, medical anthropology, transnational communities
Benjamin Colby: Culture theory and cultural pathology, content analysis, psychological anthropology, cognition, narrative structures, psychoneuroimmunology; Japan, Mesoamerica, women's health and well-being in Orange County
James Ferguson: Political economy, "development," migration and culture; Southern Africa
Robert Garfias: Ethnomusicology, ethnicity
Susan Greenhalgh: Political economy, transnational studies, feminism/gender, politics of reproduction, critical demography, disciplinarity, China, Taiwan, Pacific Rim
Karen Leonard: Social history of India, caste, ethnicity and gender, Asian-Americans in the United States
Liisa Malkki: Historical anthropology, nations and nationalism, refugees and exile, ethnicity and transnational identity; East and Central Africa
William M. Maurer: Anthropology of law, globalization, transnationalism, citizenship and nationalism, finance capital, identity, Caribbean
A. Kimball Romney: Experimental and psychological anthropology, quantitative and cognitive anthropology
Douglas White: Cross-cultural research, mathematical anthropology, social networks, longitudinal analysis, development and social change
Affiliated Faculty
Chungmoo Choi: Modern Korean culture, colonialism, popular culture and culture theory, anthropology
Jonathon E. Ericson: Archaeological chemistry, environmental quality and health, earth sciences
Paula Garb: Anthropology of conflict and conflict resolution, ethnic and environmental conflict in the former U.S.S.R.
Joseph G. Jorgensen: Mathematical comparative ethnology; Native American language and culture; explanations, theory, and method in social inquiry
Arthur J. Rubel: Medical anthropology, peasants
The Department of Anthropology offers a program of study leading to a Ph.D. in Social Science with a concentration in Anthropology. The program focuses on social and cultural anthropology, with emphases in political economy and economic anthropology, cognitive anthropology, ethnography, and medical anthropology, and has multiple faculty interested in ethnicity, gender, historical anthropology, international migration, and social networks. The program also provides rigorous methodological training, with special strengths in quantitative and formal analysis and in the methodology of ethnographic fieldwork. The Department is committed to exploring new and innovative approaches to culture and society in a pluralistic and intellectually open academic environment. Program faculty take diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to a variety of substantive issues. They are united, however, in a willingness to question taken-for-granted theoretical premises and analytic frames, and to engage in good-faith intellectual dialogue about alternative models and approaches.
Students are admitted to the concentration based on their application materials and evidence of scholarly potential, including grade point average, GRE scores, and letters of recommendation.
Students must complete a one-year Proseminar in Anthropology during their first year and one course in Anthropological Fieldwork during their second year. In addition, students are required to complete two quarters of Statistics, one course in Research Design, and six elective courses in Anthropology, which are selected in consultation with their advisor and which normally cover a coherent area of specialization within the field. All course work must be completed before a student is advanced to candidacy. Students must demonstrate competence to read one foreign language, in accordance with the requirements of the Ph.D. degree in Social Science.
At the end of the first year, students must pass a formal evaluation which is made by the Department of the basis of (1) the first-year course work and (2) examinations to be taken as part of the Proseminar. Students should advance to candidacy by the end of the third year; the advancement to candidacy examination is based on a research proposal, a review of relevant literature, and an annotated bibliography. The fourth (and, in many cases, some or all of the fifth) year is normally devoted to extended anthropological fieldwork. The sixth year (in some cases, also part of the fifth) is devoted to writing the dissertation, in close consultation with the advisor.
Feminist Studies Emphasis
A graduate emphasis in Feminist Studies also is available. Refer to the Women's Studies section of the Catalogue for information.
Social Networks Track
A track in Social Networks within Anthropology may be completed by taking any three Social Networks seminars. This includes the core Network seminars Social Science 241A (Interaction Models), 241B (Network Theories of Social Structure), and 241C (Analysis of Relational Data), as well as other courses listed in the Social Networks section of the Catalogue. Those seminars taught by members of the Anthropology Department count as Anthropology electives, and other seminars as outside electives.
