Anthropology Department

Feed your fascination with our anthropology programs

Humans are complicated and fascinating. We are diverse individuals with a need to connect and organize into families, communities, and societies. The unparalleled human ability to modify and create environments has resulted in an incredibly flexible and adaptable species.

As a student of Anthropology, you’ll study the biocultural evolution and diversity of humans. You’ll do this at the intersection of the natural and social sciences, the individual and the collective, the past and the present and learn how to apply anthropological methods to solving real-world problems.

FLC Anthropology student Jon Fox holding an artifact from a site in Southwest Colorado

A rare place to live

An uncommon way to learn

Recovering History in Disappointment Valley

Center of Southwest Studies

Our department is housed in The Center of Southwest Studies (CSWS), a place to learn about the dynamic relationship between the people and the landscape of the American Southwest. CSWS’s facilities include a museum, a research library, and historic archives. That's right, your classes are held in a museum. This grants you ready access to artifacts and opportunities to explore heritage and museum studies.

Get your hands dirty

Anthropology is a holistic field that combines humanistic methods with techniques rooted in the natural sciences to inquire into our evolutionary history and our rich tapestry of cultures. Our program embraces all the subfields of Anthropology, with an applied focus. Our comprehensive, integrated approach positions our graduates well for a wide range of work or graduate studies in any of the subfields. Best of all, you can start working before you even graduate with an internship or on in a Field School.

Internships

The Four Corners area is rich in archaeological resources and cultural heritage preservation efforts, with cultural resource management firms, museums, government agencies and tribes regularly seeking students for internships. Nonprofit organizations also provide internship opportunities. Examples of internship sites include Aztec Ruins National Monument, the Powerhouse Science Center, the La Plata County Coroner’s Office, the local humane society, as well as at FLC’s Center of Southwest Studies.

Talk with faculty about options

Archaeological Field School

Learn professional field methods while working on archaeological sites during this 6-week summer course. Join Archaeology faculty on digs around the Southwest. Archaeological work often takes place in remote areas, where you'll work outside during the day, and sleep under the stars at night. You'll develop a sense of place that stretches back as far as the imagination.

Archaeological Field School

Ethnographic Field School

Our world continues to change rapidly, becoming increasingly global every year. Today, exposure and exchange between cultures occurs daily and continuously. As one culture incorporates ideas from another it raises questions of lifestyle, public health, religion, technology, and social organization, to name a few. See this process firsthand while working directly with a community as they face these changes.

Ethnographic Field School