Social Change and Development/Anthropology

Combining Anthropology with a major in Social Change and Development

IF YOU HAVE SOME FAMILIARITY with Social Change and Development you will note that it has some shared goals with anthropology. Social Change and Development, as developed here at UWGB, also aims to be HOLISTIC, particularly given its emphasis upon historical understanding. It is also CRITICAL in the sense that our faculty are concerned with the issues experienced by ordinary people in society. Some key individuals involved in developing the Social Change and Development curriculum over the years have been anthropologists. Social Change and Development and Anthropology enhance each other, and sometimes you may have trouble seeing where one begins and the other leaves off. A major in the former and a minor in the latter will give you a particularly strong liberal arts undergraduate program that would be good preparation for graduate school in anthropology, or for further study in other areas such as social work at the masters degree level, and area or international studies.

This rapidly changing world frequently brings populations that were formerly totally unfamiliar with one another into close contact. Consider the experience of human service providers with the growing Hmong and Lao refugee populations in Northeastern Wisconsin. Social workers and teachers in Green Bay and other local cities who never dreamed of working with people who spoke languages other than English, have had to develop understandings about such things as family and kinship systems that they could only have gained during their college careers in anthropology courses. Those with no exposure to anthropology often cannot understand how different most of the world’s cultures are from that of Northeastern Wisconsin. They can stumble in their efforts to provide services to our Southeast Asian populations.

ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE SOCIAL CHANGE & DEVELOPMENT EMPHASES

Any profession that calls for dealing with people across cultural boundaries benefits from a dose of anthropological understanding. Often professions face that challenge as the world changes and as populations come together. The emphases within Social Change and Development point in various directions. Many students emphasize LAW, for instance. Few Social Change and Development majors are interested in corporate law. Most are interested in practicing some form of people-oriented law. While it is more traditional to do political science as a prelude to law school, law schools do not care very much what their students have majored and minored in as undergraduates, as long as they have received broad liberal educations. The combination of Social Change and Development with a law emphasis, and Anthropology provides a people-oriented undergraduate background for those who want to practice a people-oriented style of law, especially as it might involve cross-cultural communication. Also, did you know that there is a subfield of anthropology that features the study of law in other cultures?

Another popular Social Change and Development interest (although not presently an emphasis) is CRIMINAL JUSTICE. Here combination with the sociology minor is common, but anthropology also has something to say about what is accepted and what is deviant behavior in the world’s societies. Did you know, for instance, that some key studies of mafia, both in Sicily and in the United States, have been done by anthropologists? There have also been anthropological studies of prison populations. Anthropological methods, participant observation and extended interviewing, are very useful in criminological study.

The connection between anthropology and the GLOBAL STUDIES emphasis within Social Change and Development should be obvious by now. Work in anthropology will give you a broad sense of the variety of human society, and work in international studies courses (in Social Change and Development, history, and political science, principally) will provide time depth and an understanding of geopolitical factors. Such a combination would be great for any profession that took you abroad such as international business, journalism, work with international development organizations, or the foreign service.

Social Change and Development also numbers WOMEN’S STUDIES among its emphases. Anthropologists have long been interested in questions of gender and gender roles and contribute to our fundamental ideas about gender and human nature. The anthropology of women is a strong and dynamic area within the field and one of our faculty members specializes in it.

ANTHROPOLOGISTS ON THE SOCIAL CHANGE & DEVELOPMENT FACULTY

The department faculty boasts two cultural anthropologists, both of whom are active scholars and dedicated teachers. Either would be happy to talk to you about a minor in the field. They are:

KAREN DALKE, LECTURER (465-2486)

Geographical areas: Western US and France. Interests in globalization and its impact on culture, human-animal interactions cross-culturally, and sub-cultures.

LYNN WALTER, BEN J. AND JOYCE ROSENBERG PROFESSOR (465-2474)

Geographical areas: Denmark, Latin America. Interests in women’s studies, women’s movements, family and kinship, social welfare issues, and alternative agrifood systems.

Click here to go to the Social Change and Development Home Page for further program information. Use your "back" command to return here.