Anthropology

Overview 

Anthropology is the integrated study of what it means to be human in the broadest possible sense. Anthropologists are interested in the findings of all fields pertaining to humans and the processes of social and cultural life in human societies past and present, near and far. It connects the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. 

Anthropologists tend to specialize in one of four major subfields: cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, anthropological archaeology, and biological anthropology. UBC Okanagan offers courses in three of these subfields: cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and anthropological archaeology.

At UBC Okanagan, you can complete a Bachelor of Arts (B.A) with a major or minor in anthropology.

Program Learning Outcomes 

Upon successful completion of this program, students will demonstrate:

Content, knowledge and skills (theories, concepts, & terms):

• Distinguish anthropological perspectives on how societies are formed and organized and how cultures and/or human-environmental relations continue and change across time and space.
• Identify the significance of diversity in culture, language and material culture — past, present, and future.
• Describe and explain processes of colonialism, racialization, and globalization and capitalism—both past and present—and how such power dynamics shape cultural practices, heteronormativity and patriarchy, institutional structures, and individual lives.

Critical thinking: skill in analysis, synthesis, and use of evidence; problem solving (reflective & analytical): 

• Critique ethnocentrism and identify power asymmetries, structural inequalities, and their social, political, cultural, economic, and embodied consequences locally, nationally, transnationally, and globally and at the scale of communities and other social units.
• Demonstrate reflexivity about one’s own positionality, including gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion, language, ability, age, and other intersectional points of privilege and oppression.
• Critically evaluate colonialism, racialization, globalization, and capitalism within the discipline of anthropology and the world at large.

Communication and Collaboration: speaking and writing skills; technology literacy; research skills; team work skills; informed participation in multiple levels of community applying academic studies to the workplace and professional environments:

• Formulate and present strategies for removing barriers for historically and systematically excluded groups, such as decolonization and forms of social justice.
• Conduct analysis and interpretation using anthropological methods and methodologies.
• Use abilities and collaborative skills for working with diverse communities, cultural institutions and/or private or government agencies.
• Effectively communicate in a range of digital, oral, visual, multimodal and/or written forms for various audiences.

Major in Anthropology

Degree Requirements
 

Note: Some program requirements may be applied to Foundational and Distribution requirements; see B.A. requirements.

Program Requirements 
 

Minor in Anthropology

To complete a Minor in Anthropology, students must accumulate no fewer than 30 credits in Anthropology out of the 120 credits required for the B.A. degree. At least 18 of these credits must be numbered 300 or above.