PROGRAM
RESOURCES
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The
anthropology program of the Department of Sociology
and Anthropology recognizes the need for undergraduate
students to receive first-hand experience in the
conduct of research in order to be prepared for
graduate work and job opportunities. To that end,
the department has the following resources and research
opportunities available to students.
RESEARCH
FACILTIES:
The
Cobb Laboratory
A laboratory facility for biological anthropology
was built between 1985 and 1993 in order to accommodate
the Cobb Collection and other projects, including
the New York African Burial Ground Project. Today
the W. Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology laboratory
emerges as a state-of-the-art research facility, which
students use to gain hands-on experience with skeletal
collections.
The
Cobb Laboratory is situated on the second floor (Rooms
230-237) of Douglass Memorial Hall, a Georgian-style
brick building in the heart of the University’s
main campus. The building was renovated and restored
in 1994, when the laboratory wing was redesigned,
combining the functional requirements of a research
and teaching facility with architectural aesthetics.
There
are 2,829 square feet of research and storage space
in addition to its office and computer work space.
Laboratory research space is arranged as three rooms:
a large teaching laboratory, and a large and small
research laboratory.
The
Statistical Laboratory
The Department of Sociology and Anthropology has a
functioning Social Science Statistical Laboratory
where students have access to advanced statistical
software with faculty supervision. The lab supports
statistical computing on both the University’s
mainframe and on microcomputers.
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RESEARCH
AND EVALUATION OPPORTUNITIES
With
a growing percentage of graduates employed in non-academic
settings, the need to provide some kind of experiential
learning is critical. The idea of internship or practicum
for students majoring in anthropology is a natural
outgrowth of the traditional fieldwork experience
for students. When possible, students participate
in the evaluation of local community and government
programs in connection with a course in Applied Anthropology
and contract evaluation projects.
The
wealth of universities and other institutions in
the Washington, D.C., area additionally ensures
a regular supply of internships and other possibilities.
Most recently students have had the opportunity
to work in biological anthropology in laboratories
at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum
of Health and Medicine, and, through the Human Origins
Project, at George Washington University. In archaeology,
students have interned at the Society for American
Archaeology, one of the main professional organizations
for U.S. archaeologists.
For
class research students may take advantage of the
resources at the Smithsonian Institution, the Library
of Congress, the National Archives, the Moorland-Spingarn
Research Center at Howard University and other research
facilities in the area.
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Cultural
and Linguistic Research Opportunities
Ongoing research in the areas of Medical Anthropology
and Linguistics provides students with opportunities
to participate in field work in local urban areas
as well as foreign countries, such as Belize, Jamaica,
Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana among others.
The
focus of the medical anthropology research ranges
from the study of ethnomedicine to practitioner-patient
communication and determining barriers that result
from misunderstanding of underlying concepts and
models of different medical systems.
The
ROOT: National Communities in Action Program provides
students the opportunity to participate in fieldwork
that directly addresses the national epidemic of
violence in our country. Students conduct asset
mapping of communities as well as interviews and
street intercepts with community residents and youth.
They participate in Congressional hearings, the
drafting of legislation for Congress and the planning
of town hall meetings. Internships are available
through local organizations.
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Biological
Research Opportunities
The Cobb Collection
The W. Montague Cobb Human Skeletal Collection constitutes
one of the world’s largest systematic collections
of documented human skeletons, consisting of approximately
700 skeletons. This collection contributes to the
available means by which human biology is to be
better understood. The Cobb Collection is suitable
for studies of the skeletal effects of human growth,
development, aging, variation, and pathology. It
serves as a reference collection for the development
of standard methods for age, sex, and population
determinations. As an archive of biological and
health characteristics of the poor during the historical
period extending from the mid-19th Century until
1969, these records and skeletons are amenable to
research concerning the physical quality of life
that resulted from social and economic inequality
in the eastern United States.
The
New York African Burial Ground
Enslaved and free Africans used New York’s
African Burial Ground during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The African Burial Ground is the largest and earliest
African cemetery in North America available for
anthropological study. Biological, archaeological,
and historic data on the Burial Ground are a permanent
component of the Cobb Laboratory’s Human Archives,
although the 400 skeletal remains from the cemetery
were returned to New York for reburial in 2003.
Walter
C. Pierce Park Archaeological Survey
In Fall 2006 Howard University students began a
pedestrian survey of Water C. Pierce Community Park
in Adams Morgan in Washington D.C. This space was
once used as Washington’s largest African
American cemetery following the Civil War. The Colored
Union Benevolent Association Cemetery, which was
in use from 1870 to 1890, contained more than 7,000
men, women and children. Although the pedestrian
survey is being completed, additional research opportunities
focusing on the history, demographics, religious
connections and current cultural relevance of the
site are available to interested students.
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Archaeological Research
Opportunities
Fieldwork is currently possible on three archaeological
projects. Two of these focus on the historical archaeology
of African Americans. The third one focuses on the
ancient Maya of Mexico and Central America.
The
Mescalero-Buffalo Soldiers Project
The Mescalero-Buffalo Soldier Project (BSP) saw
its first field season in the summer of 2004 in
the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas. Participating
undergraduates and Apache high school students from
the Mescalero Indian Reservation had the opportunity
to excavate a base camp used alternately by the
Apache and by troopers from the 9th and 10th Cavalry
Regiments during the Apache Wars. Fieldwork at Pine
Springs camp ended in 2006 but plans call for further
exploration of Buffalo Soldier forts, camps, and
battle sites in conjunction with the Mescalero Apache
and with archaeologists from the National Park Service
and the Bureau of Land Management. Beginning in
summer 2008, we will be surveying and mapping Buffalo
Soldier and Apache sites in New Mexico and Texas.
The
Nicodemus Archaeological Project
The Nicodemus Archaeological Project explores the
history of a post-Civil War African American community
in the heart of the Kansas prairie, and the struggles,
successes, and contributions of these settlers to
the making of early America. Founded during the
1870s, Nicodemus grew into a thriving town with
over 700 residents before declining in size when
the railroad bypassed the town. The summer field
school project is sponsored by Howard University
in partnership with the Kansas State Historical
Society, Kansas Anthropological Society, Nicodemus
National Historic Site, Midwest Archaeological Center,
Nicodemus Historical Society, and Washburn University.
The program provides students with hands-on experience
in the collection, analysis, and application of
archaeological and historical data from Nicodemus,
and the opportunity to meet descendants of the Nicodemus
residents and learn about their family histories.
Artifacts excavated during the 2007 season are currently
housed at Howard University and will be a resource
for archaeological courses during the academic year.
Maax
Na Archaeological Project
The Maax Na Archaeological Project (MNAP) focuses
on the Maya in northwestern Belize. The large site
of Maax Na (sounds like maush-na), or “Monkey
House,” was just discovered in 1995 within
a rainforest preserve of some 250,000 acres owned
and managed by the Program for Belize (PfB), a local
conservancy group. Since 1996, the MNAP has been
conducting research during the summer both at this
site and at smaller sites nearby. An important part
of the program has been a field school that teaches
the basics of archaeology to participating undergraduates.
The practical, hands-on curriculum is supplemented
by lectures on Maya archaeology and by field trips
to other sites and points of cultural interest within
Belize. The MNAP shares a spacious base camp with
other archaeological projects from various institutions
in the U.S. and Canada. Students therefore have
an opportunity to share experiences with peers from
other areas and to interact and work with a number
of specialists in forensics, faunal analysis, ceramics,
lithics, and so forth. The location of the camp
within the PfB rainforest preserve also affords
them the opportunity of learning about this tropical
ecosystem first-hand. Spider monkeys, toucans, and
parrots are regularly sighted and even occasionally
the more elusive jaguar.
Program Handbook and 4-YEAR PLAN
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