I want to be an Anthropologist, can anyone help me?

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Hello everyone.
I am seventeen years old, and have been home-schooled for the last five years.
I would love to go to University and study Cultural Anthropology, so I need to know,
which subjects should I focus on? I am home schooled as I said, so I can focus on whatever subjects I please.
Thank you everyone in advance

Here are some informative links. BTW, different schools have different prerequisites. It's best to check with their admissions counselor to see what is required.

http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/aa/catal ... th_ld.html

http://culturalanthropology.duke.edu/un ... ajor-minor

https://www.cod.edu/catalog/detail.asp?url=ANTHROPOLOGY

http://anthro.rutgers.edu/courses/272-0 ... thropology

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/anthropology/index.htm

http://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/courses/

http://www.arcadia.edu/academic/cultura ... y-courses/

http://www.straighterline.com/online-co ... hropology/

http://www2.webster.edu/ugcatalog/major ... logy.shtml

Just a word of warning, but if you go into that field you're essentially going to be required to get a Ph.D. and become a teacher, because there aren't very many jobs out there that actually use an anthropology education.

Hi, I graduated with a BA in general anthro, but I took plenty of cultural classes. Here's my advice:

If you don't already speak another language other than English, you should learn one, because if you plan on continuing into graduate school, you will need to do field work somewhere.

Critical thinking, reading, and writing. The exams you take in your lower division classes, e.g. intro to cultural anthro, which you will probably have to buy only one book for, will probably be a mix of multiple choice, short answer, and definitions. However, when you get to your upper division cultural classes, you are going to be buying about five books per class, and on top of those, the instructor will assign a number of other readings per week, usually academic articles, some of which verge on book length. Most of my cultural classes consisted of a research paper -- anywhere from 10-20 pages in length, a midterm, and a final exam. The midterm and the final will be long essays that you (usually) won't be able to BS your way through. And then in some courses there is the dreaded comprehensive final that determines your entire grade in the course (other than the research paper, if there is one), and is usually a three to four hour essay marathon. I still have nightmares about those, sorry.

If you ask me, the best way to develop the thinking, reading, and writing skills you will need is to study philosophy. This is also important because there is a lot of philosophy lurking in cultural anthro. Poststructuralism and postmodernism are terms that are going to come up over and over again in the articles you read. These are not terms that you can fully grasp by reading their definitions; it will take a lot of studying to comprehend them.

One last thing. Despite the definition that you will learn in your intro class, no one knows what "culture" is, exactly. I hope that doesn't discourage you; maybe you will be the one to crack it.

Good luck.

My bachelor's was in anthropology, and it's a very intellectually satisfying field of study. That said, to BE an anthropologist means you will have to disrupt your routines with travel, talk to strangers (in foreign languages!), negotiate your way through academic departmental politics, and stand up in front of people and do public speaking in the form of teaching. Those are some things that can be pretty difficult for people on the spectrum.

Since you're home schooled, why not buy an "Intro to Anthro" type textbook and read all about your special interest? You don't have to wait til college to start...

I got my Anthro BA last month with focus on archaeology. Trying to find employment at the moment but it is quite difficult. If any of the above posters have tips for that I'd appreciate them.

If you're interested in cultural anthro I would suggest you take an intro to anthropology course in your local college. If you are in the US it will count towards your general education credits too.

I would strongly suggest you:

1- Develop a working knowledge of statistics. You will be using this a lot if you do research. I can't describe how many anthro students suffered in the 4th year doing research papers because they never took any math beyond algebra.

2- Learn a foreign language of the region of the world that holds your interest. You do not know where you may end up working but chances are if you speak their language you'll be working there.

3- Develop your people skills. To put it bluntly, you need to be able to go to a random person, strike up a conversation and get them to tell you their family history (or stories).

4- Do a dual major. Anthro is great but its a dead-end degree if you don't take it higher. If you can dual major in something that synergizes with anthro you'd be set. Criminal justice, civics (urban planning), marketing, etc. There are many things that are boosted by anthro but few that boost anthro itself (cultural at least) when it comes to landing a job.

5- Learn Excel. It may be the most annoying software in the planet to use but you will be using it a lot.

Dantac: Good advice on the dual major.

Did you go to school in the US? If you did, did you attend the summer field school for archaeology? I work for the government, though not as an anthropologist, but I've seen archaeology jobs with the National Park Service on www.usajobs.gov The only thing is that they want you to have done the summer field school, which I never got around to, being of a general anthro focus.

No, I did not, although it sounds like at the moment it would have been convenient if I had.

I think that was meant for me. However it is not a problem for you since if you have your high school education completed and recognized in your country then you can enter US universities (student visa required, etc etc you know the drill).

Since you are 17 you have a year or two to find a good school to attend. If you're planning on coming to the USA to study it is important you find the university that works in your area of interest.

For example, my area of interest is asia/pacific. Sadly, my local university (only one I could afford) focuses on Maya archaeology so I was not able to take classes related to my region of interest. For cultural anthro you could look into which university does ethnographic studies or has exchange programs with universities in your region of interest...that opens the possibility of an exchange program being available to you.



Thank you I will check there. Most arch. jobs I've found (even with gov.) require a year experience in the field and i've not the cash to pay for 2 more field schools (that'd be a year's worth at least). I did my field school with the univ. of North Carolina...they had a great dig in the south pacific and I had the rare privilege of excavating 4000 year old human remains for a whole month. That and carrying too many buckets of dirt!