Anthropology is the study of the biology, prehistory and culture of human society in a worldwide setting. Anthropologists study people from all times and all places. Anthropology focuses on human and non-human primate evolution by studying the behavior of living and extinct human and primate groups (physical anthropology). It looks at cultural history and past lifeways and studies how human societies have changed from ancient to modern times (archaeology). It also examines the behavior of living societies in order to understand differences in contemporary cultures (cultural anthropology and linguistic anthropology). This includes the study of topics such as language, kinship, religion, ecology, urbanism, and culture and personality.

One of two anthropology major programs offered by the college, the anthropology major leads to a Bachelor of Arts degree and is designed to broadly prepare students in each of the three major anthropological subfields.