Anthropology is a holistic discipline, centered on the study of human cultures. Using methods from both the sciences and the humanities, anthropology helps us to understand the world around us. Anthropologists work in a wide variety of settings around the globe, including rain forests, high-altitude environments, rural villages, and large cities. Vanderbilt’s department is broadly focused on Latin America, and faculty members maintain ongoing research projects in Mexico, Guatemala , El Salvador, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and Chile.

Cultural and Social Anthropology is the study of living societies and their life-ways.  It is usually based on long-term field research and intimate knowledge of communities and individuals.  The major result of this work is a vastly expanded knowledge of the human condition that goes well beyond the boundaries of Western society.  Cultural anthropologists at Vanderbilt, including Professors Beth Conklin, Edward Fischer, Thomas Gregor, and Norbert Ross, are actively engaged in research in Brazil, Central America, and Mexico.  Their specializations include native languages; studies of conflict; war and peace; marriage and family; gender and sexuality; community and household organization; medical anthropology; ethnic nationalism and identity politics; economic development and rainforest ecology; psychological and cognitive approaches to culture and religion; and peasant economy and exchange systems.  Classes at Vanderbilt introduce students to the cultures of North, Central, and South America and to a broad variety of theoretical topics, including medical anthropology, ethnomusicology, the anthropology of religion and shamanism, economic anthropology, gender, and psychological anthropology.

As the anthropological study of humanity through material remains, archaeology is uniquely equipped not only to illuminate the spectacular achievements of past societies, but also the more everyday—but just as fascinating—aspects of the human experience that would otherwise go unnoticed. As a subdiscipline of anthropology, archaeology is both a set of investigative methods and an ever-changing body of knowledge and theory about human socio-cultural diversity and change. Archaeologists document not only the global diversity of human cultures, but also the full scale of human history, from the emergence of homo sapiens to the present. In this sense, archaeology is matchless in its geographical breadth and chronological reach in the quest for understanding human diversity in all its expressions. Vanderbilt's renowned program in archaeology is distinctive for the number of faculty specializing in the Americas, including Professors Arthur Demarest, Tom Dillehay, Francisco Estrada-Belli, William Fowler, John Janusek, and Steve Wernke. Faculty expertise spans the New World, with research interests that include the initial peopling of the Americas, the great civilizations of Mesoamerica and the Andes, and the colonial and republican-era encounters between indigenous societies and Europeans. Classes at Vanderbilt introduce students to cultures of the Old and the New World and to a wide range of topics including Geographical Information Systems (GIS), community archaeology, ancient cities, and the collapse of civilizations. Vanderbilt also offers various archaeological field and lab work opportunities in Latin America for undergraduate and graduate students.

Biological anthropology is the study of human behavior from a bio-cultural perspective, and includes the subdisciplines of paleoanthropology (study of hominid evolution), primatology, analyses of modern human health and disease, forensic anthropology, molecular anthropology (genetics), and bioarchaeology. Our focus at Vanderbilt is in bioarchaeology: the study of archaeological human skeletons and mummies to address anthropological questions about past societies.  As such, there are strong links between biological anthropology and archaeology in our program. Professor Tiffiny Tung is the anthropological bioarchaeologist in our department, and her research includes analysis of prehispanic Andean skeletons to investigate how archaic forms of imperialism affected and were affected by populations within an imperial domain. In particular, Dr. Tung examines ancient bodies to gain insights into community health and individual life histories, violence, dietary practices, rituals of the body, trophy taking, and human sacrifice. Dr. Tung also collaborates with the Center for Human Genetics Research and the Vanderbilt Medical Center to reconstruct migration patterns and evaluate the biological relationships between prehispanic and modern Andean communities. Osteological lab facilities include the Osteology Research Lab, which houses the Arnold and Garnier skeletal collections from Tennessee, and the Osteology Teaching Lab, which houses medical human skeletons, monkey and ape skeletons, and other animal skeletons. Classes at Vanderbilt include introduction to biological anthropology; human osteology; ancient health and disease; human evolution; human variation; violence past and present; and life, death, and the human body.

Linguistics is the study of human languages, their synchronic structure, and their diachronic evolution, and linguists dedicate themselves to the description and documentation of live and extinct languages. Linguistic Anthropology is the study of the interrelation of language, culture, and human cognition. In Vanderbilt’s Anthropology program, Professor Pierre Colas studies the language and hieroglyphic inscriptions of Classic Maya culture well as the sociolinguistics of modern Yucatec-speaking communities in Belize, while Professor Sergio Romero focuses on modern Mayan languages, modern Nahuatl, and on language variation and change. Vanderbilt offers courses in linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, language change, writing systems, Maya epigraphy, Mayan languages and literatures, and Nahuatl language and culture.

As a holistic field, Anthropology is uniquely suited for interdisciplinary work, and at Vanderbilt many anthropologists are also very active in other departments. For example, Professor Gregory Barz is an ethnomusicologist who studies the interrelations between music and culture. Professor Annabeth Headrick combines archaeology and art history with her work at Teotihuacan. Professor Volney Gay, a psychiatrist and anthropologist, is interested in the psychodynamic study of culture and the psychology of religion, and Professor William Partridge is an applied anthropologist with an interest in the Anthropology of Development. Patricia Foxen and Patricia Netherly are Research Associates, and adjunct professors include Carlos Jauregui, Frederick Lange, and Lucia Tanassi.  In addition to these and other anthropologists who are hired through different departments, Vanderbilt Anthropology also benefits from its association with interdisciplinary centers including the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, the Center for the Americas, the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture, the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, and the Learning Sciences Institute.