Jordan Jepperson Anthropology 1020 11-21-13 What it takes to become an Anthropologist.

I have often wondered while sitting in class if anthropology was the subject for me, and if so, what would be required of me to obtain a career in this area. For this reason it has interested me to study into the career choice of an anthropologist and see what interests, schooling and other steps it might take to become an anthropologist. I have studied up on the subject and now have a better knowledge of which direction I should take. In the world of anthropology there are many different jobs to choose from. Anthropology is actually quite a diverse field; nearly all anthropologists will focus their career on one of the four fields of anthropology. These include cultural anthropology, archeology, linguistic anthropology, and biological anthropology. (becomopedia) I will break down each of these to see what special training each area requires. Archaeology is a science that deals with past human life and activities as shown by objects. (Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Basic English) The simple definition of Archaeology is: finding out about past human behavior by studying the material evidence left behind. (White) Archaeology is very distinctive among the social sciences because of the unique method that it takes. It does not study people by talking to them or watching them, just by their material things that are still around. It is kind of like detective work. The goal behind this type of

studying is to understand people. Whether it be one person or a group/ race. From the things that archaeologists may find we can do the following. Reconstruct past human behavior and living ways, understand past cultural systems (social, political, religious etc.) and help conserve the fragile material record of past peoples and interpret it all for people today. Archaeology is a field where you need a college degree. It is best if the degree was in anthropology or something close to that such as history, or geography. In this field of work you can find a job with only your bachelors degree. But, the real fun starts when you have a masters degree. With a masters degree you can get into leading your own crews on an excavation site, and you can conduct your own research. While you are going to school to earn a degree it is expected that you attend field school as well. This field school is about a 4 to 6 week course that has you in the work site learning how to dig and use the tools properly. This is all of the education requirements, but there are working conditions that you should be informed of. An archaeologist is outside a lot! If you dont like the outdoors this job is not for you. It requires walking for miles at a time to do field surveys; you have to be digging for hours in dirt getting filthy every day. Just a warning. Cultural anthropology is the next one I studied up on, this is the study of human culture referring specifically to social structure, language, law, politics, religion, magic, art, and technology. I was surprised to learn that this means all human culture, even up to the present time. Becoming a cultural anthropologist takes somewhat the same schooling. But depending on the degree you are working on and the university you may be required to do an extensive study on a selected culture to qualify for the degree. While going to school, it is helpful to know what type of job you may want to go into as a cultural anthropologist with this knowledge you

can select a minor that will help with your job search. Being in the business industry, you would want to do a business minor. Being in a business setting didnt seem like a job I would have expected for this field of study. But, I found out that jobs for a cultural anthropologist include research for public and private firms, museum-based jobs, or teaching positions. A little less hands on than an archaeologist I think. Linguistic anthropology is more based on the study of language and how language is used so we are more able to understand culture. They focus studies on several different areas of language that I have never even thought of. These different areas include contemporary and historical relationships, how many languages there are, how those languages are distributed across the world. They go into the language variations as well, asking questions like, why variations exist or how they are used. They also look into the context of a word being used and little things like that. I cant imagine studying things like this. There are so many languages in this world and so many different variations, accents etc. A bachelor of arts in liberal arts is needed to become this specified type of anthropologist. I imagine the more languages you are able to speak, the better as well. Biological anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that examines biological aspects of the human species from comparative, ecological, and evolutionary perspectives. (University of Oregon: Department of Anthropology) Along with the normal requirements needed to become an anthropologist there are some other special classes that can be taken for this type of anthropology these include primate behavior, human biological variation, evolutionary theory, and human osteology. Biological anthropology is kind of what our class has been

focusing on this semester. It is more focused on studying the physical development of the human species through looking at the remains of past humans and primates. It also plays an important role in paleoanthropology (the study of human origins), bio archaeology (the study of past populations), and in forensic anthropology (the analysis and identification of human remains for legal purposes). (University of Oregon: Department of Anthropology) I think I would be more interested in the forensic part of this type of study. These four main subfields cover anthropology pretty well. Of course there are so many more fields of study to go into while staying within the boundaries of anthropology. Each of the subfields I listed above have so many different ways you can take your degree and studies. As I mentioned earlier I was just interested in seeing what type of degree and schooling was needed to become an anthropologist. This paper has given me the opportunity to learn a little about the main requirements to do so. After putting some study into these different subfields of anthropology, I really have narrowed it down to two that I am really interested in, archaeology, and forensic anthropology. I am one who loves mysteries and detective work and both of these have an element of that in them. I also enjoy the idea of digging a little deeper to learn more and possibly find something new that has never been discovered before. I have come out of this research with more knowledge of what field of study concerning anthropology I would be interested in, and what education is required.

Works Cited
Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Basic English. Springfield, 2009. 33. becomopedia. n.d. 27 November 2013 <http://www.becomeopedia.com/how-to/become-ananthropologist.php>. University of Oregon: Department of Anthropology. n.d. 27 November 2013 <http://pages.uoregon.edu/anthro/academics/subdisciplines/biological-anthropology/>. White, Nancy Marie. Archaeology For Dummies. Hoboken: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2008. 9-10. ePortfolio: http://jeppmatteportfolio.weebly.com/