About the Program
Students completing Associate Degrees for Transfer are guaranteed admission to the CSU system. Please see the beginning of the “Academic Programs” section for details.
Anthropology is the study of humans worldwide, both in the past and present. The program is designed to introduce students to culture as the core concept for understanding human behavior. The four subfields of anthropology (physical, archaeological, linguistics and cultural) are used as a foundation to examine varied perspectives about the world. Anthropology students graduate with an awareness of cultural and biological diversity and the complexity of past and contemporary societies. The degree offers courses required in the CSU, Chico major core program, in addition to courses approved for CSU General Education.
The program in anthropology is designed to prepare students for a variety of exciting careers, which may include education, research, medicine, business, non-profit and public service fields. As an example, anthropologists may be employed on international research teams, such as with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists working to control Ebola outbreaks in West Africa. Anthropologists may also be employed as resident scientists at the Intel Corporation or as curation specialists in the US Army Corps of Engineers. Numerous anthropological skills, such as the ability to think critically and creatively about the world and the ability to apply research methods to solve problems, translate to various employment sectors. For more information on possible careers, please visit the American Anthropology Association's Careers in Anthropology webpage, http://www.americananthro.org/AdvanceYourCareer/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=1783
Program Requirements
For current program requirements -> 2024-2025
Program Goal: Transfer
GE Pattern(s): CSU, IGETC
Program Code: 31964.01AA-T
Program Learning Outcome(s):
Upon successful completion of this program, the student will be able to:
Identify and discuss major topics relevant to Physical Anthropology, including human and primate evolution and variation among hominids.
Define culture and apply the concept to a broad cross-cultural understanding of human behavior.
Examine past cultural systems through analysis of physical cultural remains.
Describe and analyze human linguistic systems and the influence of language on human perceptions of the world.
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course introduces the concepts, methods of inquiry, and scientific explanations for biological evolution and their application to the human species. Issues and topics will include, but are not limited to, genetics, evolutionary theory, human variation and biocultural adaptations, comparative primate anatomy and behavior, and the fossil evidence for human evolution. The scientific method serves as foundation of the course. (C-ID ANTH 110).
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course explores how anthropologists study and compare human culture. Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the broad arc of human experience focusing on a set of central issues: how people around the world make their living (subsistence patterns); how they organize themselves socially, politically and economically; how they communicate; how they relate to each other through family and kinship ties; what they believe about the world (belief systems); how they express themselves creatively (expressive culture); how they make distinctions among themselves such as through applying gender, racial and ethnic identity labels; how they have shaped and been shaped by social inequalities such as colonialism; and how they navigate culture change and processes of globalization that affect us all. Ethnographic case studies highlight these similarities and differences, and introduce students to how anthropologists do their work, employ professional anthropological research ethics and apply their perspectives and skills to understand humans around the globe. (C-ID ANTH 120).
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course is an introduction to the study of concepts, theories, data and models of anthropological archaeology that contribute to our knowledge of the human past. The course includes a discussion of the nature of scientific inquiry; the history and interdisciplinary nature of archaeological research; dating techniques; methods of survey, excavation, analysis, and interpretation; cultural resource management; professional ethics; and selected cultural sequences. (C-ID ANTH 150).
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course is a cross-cultural study of the forms and functions of supernatural beliefs and rituals in contemporary and historical societies. The course focuses on non-western societies and their religious systems. Descriptive anthropological methods (ethnography and ethnology) are discussed as important aspects of the study of belief systems cross-culturally. Moreover, various theoretical models are employed to inform the study of beliefs and practices associated with both nonwestern and western societies. An integrated view of religion is taken to demonstrate how belief in supernatural forces reflects other cultural patterns of behavior and thinking. For example, religion is integrated with such areas of basic human concern as subsistence practices, social organization, and culture changes that arise in contact situations.
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course is a survey of the foundations of linguistic anthropology. Basic concepts, methods, and forms of analysis associated with linguistic anthropology are covered. Emphases will be placed on such areas of inquiry as the origins of human language and communication, language acquisition, how linguists describe and compare different language systems, how historical relationships among the world's languages are determined, understanding the use of language across social and situational contexts (sociolinguistics), and cross-cultural communication.
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate Algebra or equivalent
Unit(s): 4.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
34.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 34.00
This course is a guided investigation of how to summarize and interpret data to facilitate decision making in a responsible and repeatable way. The use of symbolic manipulation of data, probability techniques, hypothesis testing, and predictive techniques to facilitate decision-making will be emphasized. Topics include data visualization; descriptive statistics; probability and sampling distributions; statistical inference; correlation and linear regression; analysis of variance, chi-square and t-tests; and application of technology for statistical analysis including the interpretation of the relevance of the statistical findings. Applications using data from a broad range of disciplines within the physical and social sciences. This course emphasizes in-class activities and applications. (C-ID MATH 110)
Prerequisite(s): Intermediate Algebra or equivalent
Unit(s): 4.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
68.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 68.00
The use of probability techniques, hypothesis testing, and predictive techniques to facilitate decision-making. Topics include descriptive statistics; probability and sampling distributions; statistical inference; correlation and linear regression; analysis of variance, chi-square and t-tests; and application of technology for statistical analysis including the interpretation of the relevance of the statistical findings. Applications using data from disciplines including business, social sciences, psychology, life science, health science, and education. (C-ID MATH 110).
Unit(s): 4.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
/ 51.00 hours Lab
Total Course Hours: 102.00
Structural organization of the human body: gross and microscopic structure of the integumentary, skeletal, muscular, nervous, sensory, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, excretory, and reproductive systems, from cellular to organ system levels of organization. This course is primarily intended for nursing, allied health, kinesiology, and other health related majors. (C-ID BIOL 110B).
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU
Contact Hours:
34.00 hours Lecture
/ 51.00 hours Lab
Total Course Hours: 85.00
Study of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) science and its applications to spatial data management. Identification and acquisition of GIS data. Assessment of vector and raster systems, scale, resolution, map projection, coordinate systems, georeferencing and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Spatial analysis and modeling with GIS. Explores how GIS solves spatial problems, such as those in natural resources, earth and life sciences, environmental planning, local government, business, transportation and other fields. (C-ID GEOG 155).
Unit(s): 4.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
/ 51.00 hours Lab
Total Course Hours: 102.00
This course introduces students to the internal and external processes that are at work changing the earth today. Within the context of modern plate tectonics theory, students will explore the origins of rocks and minerals and dynamic earth processes such as volcanism, seismicity and mountain building that are driven by the release of Earth's internal heat. It also examines how wind, running water, and glaciers move in response to gravity and energy from the sun and the sculpting of Earth's surface by erosion. These concepts as well as the interpretation of topographic and geologic maps will be reinforced with an integrated laboratory program. (C-ID GEOL 101).
Prerequisite(s): PSY 1, MATH 18
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course surveys various research methods with an emphasis on research design, experimental procedures, instrumentation, and the collection, analysis, interpretation, and reporting of research data. Research design and methodology will be illustrated through a selected review of research in neurophysiology, sensation, perception, learning and/or memory. (C-ID PSY 200).
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course is a survey of the world's culture areas as described and conceptualized by cultural anthropologists. While the course has a significant geographical component, emphasis is placed on an anthropological perspective on cultural dynamics in terms of general subsistence patterns, sociopolitical organization, and the increased globalization over time of the world's cultural systems. Societal types such as hunter gatherers, horticulturalists, pastoralists, intensive agriculturalists, and industrialists are described and compared from an anthropological perspective. Culture contact and change models are also included as a substantive part of the course content.
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course is designed to provide students with a detailed knowledge of prehistoric and early historic cultures of the Native Americans of North America. This will include the study of their origins, language families, traditional and transitional cultural patterns, the impact of Euroamerican populations, and a survey of the various natural and cultural regions of North America.
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course is a comparative survey of the precontact cultural traditions of Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica includes all of the central, southern Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, the northern regions of Central America. Emphasis is placed on cultural evolution as exemplified through the cultural development and subsequent decline of such traditions as the Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, and Aztec (among others). Comparisons to precontact South American traditions are included.
Unit(s): 3.00
Transfer Status: CSU/UC
Contact Hours:
51.00 hours Lecture
Total Course Hours: 51.00
This course is a survey of contemporary issues associated with Native American culture process. The course will focus on economic, political, health, and identify issues as these reflect changes in sociocultural dynamics for Native American populations, from roughly the 1890s through to the present. In addition, the course will focus on legal strategies and actual responses taken by various activist Native American groups as a function of cultural adaptation to Euroamerican westward expansion and subsequent domination of North America.
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Contacts
Cynthia Bynoe, Chair
(530) 879-4136
Department Office: LRC 304
(530) 895-2471
Counseling and Advising:
(530) 895-2378
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