Graduate
Program and Procedures
Graduate Program
The Department of Anthropology offers a broad range of graduate studies in theoretical and methodological areas of anthropology in the subfields of archaeology, cultural anthropology, and physical anthropology. Subfield studies can be combined or complemented with work in other disciplines. The purpose of our program is to provide students with the critical skills necessary for successful professional careers as anthropologists. From the first year, students combine required course offerings with research and coursework tailored to their needs. The Department of Anthropology is housed on the North Campus of the University at Buffalo. Our facilities provide extensive laboratory, office, classroom, and museum space in support of the graduate program.
Archaeology
The archaeology program offers research opportunities oriented toward a broad range of issues in a variety of field and laboratory settings. Theoretical pursuits of the faculty include demographic growth and decline, the meaning of art and iconographic images, the organization of technology and production systems, cultural constructions of the past, and the origins and evolution of complex societies. Faculty research experience encompasses North and Middle America, Northern and Eastern Europe, and the Pacific. Currently, students are incorporated into field research programs in New York, the North American Southeast, central Mexico, Guatemala, England, Denmark, Finland, Eastern Europe and Mongolia. In addition, a variety of laboratory resources are available, including a GIS laboratory, an archaeometry laboratory, a Cultural Resource Management division, and a Research Museum housing extensive collections from Western New York and central Mexico. Methodological strengths of the faculty include archaeometry, spatial analysis, dermatoglyphics, and technological and stylistic analyses of artifacts. Strong connections are maintained with the Departments of Geology, Geography, and Classics, as well as with the Buffalo Museum of Science and the New York State Archaological Association.
Cultural Anthropology
The cultural anthropology
program offers comprehensive training in a variety of major theoretical
perspectives and research methodological approaches. Cultural anthropologists
in this department are actively involved in research on cognition, symbolism,
psychology, ethnopsychiatry and ethnomedicine, kinship, law, politics,
ecology, astronomy, religion, witchcraft, folklore, and art. One major
faculty group is interested in the latest developments in semantics, semiotics,
and interpretive theory, as well as issues of representation, including
narrative ethnography and visual anthropology. Another major faculty group
is concerned with problems arising in complex societies: education, social
justice, warfare, government, health care, pluralism, and minority relations.
A third focus of major faculty interest is medical anthropology, including
applied medical anthropology, ethnomedicine, and ethnopsychiatry.
Geographically, our faculty have research experience in the Americas (urban
United States, Native American communities, Canada, Guatemala, Peru, Chile,
and Brazil), the Caribbean (Bahamas, Grenada, and Belize), Europe (Greece
and Britain), Middle East (Jordan), West Africa (Nigeria), Asia (China,
Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines), and the Pacific. The cultural
anthropology program encourages graduate students to use summers to gain
research experience at an early stage in their training, and has been
very successful in helping graduate students locate such opportunities
in a variety of local and cross-cultural settings. The cultural faculty
have extensive formal ties and research connections with the School of
Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (Department of Social and Preventive
Medicine, Geographical Medicine, and local hospitals), the Law School,
the Program in Folklore, Mythology and Film, the Center for Cognitive
Science, and the Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities.
Physical Anthropology
Physical anthropology provides a solid grounding in evolutionary theory. Within the broad field of primatology, faculty interests focus on primate social behavior, descriptive and functional anatomy of nonhuman primates, and population genetics. Other faculty interests focus on adaptive human biology, including factors affecting growth and health, and work capacity in contemporary populations. Methodologically, strengths include anthropometry, ethological methods, osteological analysis, comparative primate anatomy, and methods of population genetics. Current research is being conducted in China and Chautauqua County, New York (human biology, medical anthropology); Sulawesi, Indonesia (evolutionary ecology); and Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico (primate behavior). Other sources available include an extensive nonhuman primate skeletal collection and a serology laboratory. In addition, the department is the repository for a nineteenth-century cemetery skeletal collection.