Menu Anthropology is study of the human beings across time and space – from our ape-like ancestors to modern humans, from our earliest home in Africa to our villages and cities everywhere on the planet. Explore humanity’s physical evolution and the complexities and the wonder of our cultural development. Language, religion, technology, gender, sexuality, hierarchies and power, resistance and rebellion, are all a part of what makes all human and in anthropology we study it all.
Madison College faculty member George Christiansen overseeing an archaeological excavation at the Maple Ridge site in Sauk County.
Featured Anthropology Courses
No matter your level of interest or academic goals, students can check out these featured anthropology courses.
General Anthropology
Anthropology as the study of humanity through time and across the world. Nothing that is human is alien to anthropology. This course will take through all of human history, from before our ape ancestors stood up and began walking on two feet up to the present day. Along the way, you'll learn a little bit about the 4 sub-fields of anthropology: Biological Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistics, and Cultural Anthropology.
Archaeology and the Prehistoric World
This is a course designed for students who are interested in the human past, the period of prehistory for which there are few written records and most of our knowledge comes to us via archaeological investigations. The course is organized both in a historical and a topical fashion. We will trace the evolution of human culture through time, focusing on the best-known archaeological sites in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and Mesoamerica.
Cultural Anthropology and Human Diversity
This is a course designed to introduce you to the ways that cultural anthropologists understand the many ways that humans have come to know their worlds and to use the concepts, skills and theories emerging from cultural anthropology to explore the many ways that members of our one species have learned to make sense of this complex world that we all share.
The Anthropology of Myth, Magic, and Religion
This is a course designed to explore religion, myth, and rituals as social and cultural phenomena. We will apply the insights of archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, as well as scholars in other fields like philosophy and sociology, to understand the place of religion in the ways that various groups of people have made sense of a complex world.
Anthropology Faculty
Luke Matthews | Department Chair
Full-time Anthropology Faculty
Office: D2602 | Truax
608.258.2438
jmatthews@madisoncollege.edu
George W Christiansen III | Part-time Anthropology Faculty
gchristiansenII@madisoncollege.edu
Karen Kettner | Part-time Anthropology Faculty
kkettner2@madisoncollege.edu
