Undergraduate Program
What do all the different manifestations of the human species have in common? How did this common core of humanity come into being? What forces shaped it? Given our shared humanity, how are we to understand the diversity of ways that we have of being human? Is there such a thing as human nature, or is human nature really a product of culture and a justification for social injustice? Can our knowledge of the human species help us to better the human condition? What are the underlying causes and mechanisms of racial, gender, and class inequality?
Those are the questions that lie at the heart of anthropology. Anthropology takes a broad approach to these core concerns. It sees humankind in terms of the interaction of biological, social, cultural, and historical processes--in short, it looks at our species holistically, i.e., as a whole. These perspectives give us the subfields of anthropology, listed below.
For additional information, feel free to contact the Undergraduate Advisor at gabby@mail.utexas.edu.