Cultural Anthropology is the study of human beings.  Of course, lots of disciplines in the university study human beings—Sociology, Psychology Political Science, to name a few.  But Anthropology is unique in that it is based on the idea of culture.  That is, we Anthropologists assume that the different peoples of the world--Americans, Irish, the Nuer people of Africa, the Japanese, Native American groups etc.--all have distinct ways of life, shaped by their histories, environments, and customs.  We call these ways of life cultures.  Cultural Anthropology is the study, in the first place, of the different cultures of the world’s peoples.  In the second place, most Cultural Anthropologists believe that these distinct ways of life, or cultures, are not just random assortments of traditions but rather that they can be studied--in at least a loose sense of the word--scientifically.  In other words, we believe that it is possible not only to learn about different ways of life, but that by studying different ways of life we might be able to make some generalizations about human beings and the social groups in which they live.                                                             top

            No Anthropologist, of course, can claim to be an expert on all the world’s cultures or on all of the domains of activity that culture represents.  Therefore Anthropologists usually specialize both in areas of the world and in certain kinds of human activity.  At the University of Tulsa, the faculty have special expertise in Native American cultures, the cultures of Melanesia, Europe, and North America.  We conduct research and teach courses in the areas of social and political organization, languages, religion, psychology, symbolism and media, and health and medicine.  All of our faculty in Cultural Anthropology have published books with prestigious presses and articles in the world’s best Anthropology journals. 

            Many of our students get involved in faculty research and go on to pursue the interests they develop in careers or graduate school  For example, recently our students have participated in paid internships or research positions on topics such as the understanding of sexually transmitted diseases among Oklahoma’s low income groups, attitudes about tobacco use in minority populations,  why young people start smoking cigarettes, and keeping the mentally ill out of jail. For more on these sorts of opportunities, see (link to section on jobs and grad school).  
 
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Lithic Technology
A Journal of archaeological stone tool analysis





Department of Anthropology
Harwell Hall, 2nd Floor  [campus map]
(918) 631-2348
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Mailing Address:
800 Tucker Drive, Tulsa, OK 74104