Welcome to Anthropology
Program Description
The study of Anthropology is the study of humanity - all aspects of humanity - and as such covers a hugely diverse range of seemingly disparate topics. Anthropologists look not just at one particularsociety, culture or religion, but rather they look athow seemingly divergent cultures, pasts, individualsand social trends are related to one another and toall of humankind as a whole. With this knowledge,anthropologists believe is possible for us to gain abetter understanding of who we are, where we havecome from, and where we may be heading in thefuture.
Anthropology itself is so broad a topic that it mustreally be broken down into several sub-disciplines,amongst which are Cultural Anthropology, PhysicalAnthropology, Archaeology, Linguistic Anthropologyand Applied Anthropology (though the final discipline,Applied Anthropology, really includes the application ofthe other disciplines' methods and theories to modernday problems, and is not always included as its ownsub-discipline). Through these sub-disciplines, all ofhuman existence can be examined and brought into agreater understanding.
The goal of the Anthropology Program at SantaBarbara City College is to prepare students to useanthropology's wide range of studies, researchmethods, applications and areas of interest to gaina greater understanding of people in general andthe world as a whole. The program aims to educate students as to the various forms that Anthropologycan take, how some of the more specializedtechnological fields (such as Archaeology and PhysicalAnthropology) apply their research methods, givestudents the tools necessary to examine and evaluatethe world and cultures around them, show them wherewe, as a species, have come from, and enable themto competently and confidently effect a change in thesociety and culture of which they are a part.
Students majoring in Anthropology have beensuccessful in transferring to four-year universityprograms in Anthropology and other disciplines, andhave acquired employment in a range of fields andfor a variety of employers. Examples include heritageresource managers for the National Park Serviceand other state and federal agencies, museum curators, forensic anthropologists for city and countylaw enforcement, marine salvage specialists, andc orporate cultural sensitivity trainers.
Department Offices
Division: Social Sciences
Department Chair: Jill Stein (IDC-369, ext. 3051)
Dean: Alice Scharper (A-118, ext. 2354)
Faculty & Offices
Phyllisa Eisentraut IDC-362, ext. 4745
e-mail: eisentraut@sbcc.edu
