Anthropology Program

Anthropology opens students to the many ways in which people in different places and different times have gone about the task of being human. Anthropologists explore human nature and human society through the comparative study of such things as family, marriage, religious and spiritual practices, livelihoods, creativity, settlement of legal disputes, human-environment interactions, social power and inequality both locally and globally, and much more. Anthropology at Laurier is a unique program in Canada. It specializes in researching and teaching the ethnography of the contemporary world. Our mission is to equip students with the tools for understanding and intervening in an increasingly global and interconnected world. More than the comparative study of specific cultures, contemporary anthropology deals with the study of the global flows of goods, persons, and ideas. Our research and teaching emphasize how, through the techniques of ethnographic fieldwork, we can connect the complexity of everyday life to large-scale patterns and processes. Anthropology links theoretical analysis and forms of representation through the hands-on practical experience of participant observation, emphasizing how the unique phenomenon of ethnographic fieldwork can encompass qualitative and quantitative methods of research and analysis. 

Combined Honours BA and Minor: