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Re: Does a BA "Make" an Anthropologist?
Douglas B Hanson (dhanson@WORLD.STD.COM)
Tue, 28 Feb 1995 07:21:47 -0500
> It would be very interesting to know how many BA-level anthro
> program actually require fieldwork. Has AAA does any survey research
> on this topic?
As an undergraduate in the early '70s at Prescott College, a small, private
liberal arts college in central Arizona, I can honestly say that I came out
of the program with more fieldwork experience than most 3rd and 4th year
graduate students in anthropology. The anthropology and earth sciences
curriculum was built around real fieldwork whether it was studying
vulcanism in northern Arizona, the Yaquis in northern Mexico, or the
prehistoric road system in Chaco Canyon. These were not fieldtrips but
actual, one to three month courses involving fieldwork training. We were
actually involved in the ongoing research of the teaching staff. In each
case we devoted our efforts to a particular research topic of interest and
were shown how to collect the appropriate data, analyze it, and present it
for publication. The focus at Prescott was on experential education and in
the case of anthropology it worked quite well. Many of us who went through
the program at that time went on to get our Ph.D.s in anthropology.
Granted, we did not have our own directed research program, but once we
finished our B.A. in anthropology, all of us felt more than qualified to
handle our own research program. Quite frankly my undergraduate years were
far more enrichening than my subsequent years in graduate school. This was
due largely to the fact that the teaching staff in graduate school were far
more concerned about "publish or perish" than graduate teaching. I suspect
that this is even more so today.
-- Doug Hanson
Douglas B. Hanson, Ph.D.
Bioengineering Department
Forsyth Dental Center
140 Fenway
Boston, MA 02115
dhanson@world.std.com
Douglas B. Hanson, Ph.D.
Bioengineering Department
Forsyth Dental Center
140 Fenway
Boston, MA 02115
dhanson@world.std.com
Douglas B. Hanson, Ph.D.
Bioengineering Department
Forsyth Dental Center
140 Fenway
Boston, MA 02115
dhanson@world.std.com
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