Department of Anthropology

 

Who Owns Our Species? Past, Present, Future 2008 Lecture Series

Humans are prodigious collectors of materials and ideas related to their own existence. From fossils, artifacts, and DNA samples to information on languages and belief systems, we hoard and manipulate objects and phenomena related to ourselves. Who has the rights to discover and use these things? Who owns the rights to the knowledge gained from study of these things? This series explores ethical issues surrounding these and other potent questions. Major topic areas to be addressed by speakers include race, group identity, genetic determinism, ownership of the archaeological record, and the future of human communication. For more information on this series and all of the speakers see Rock Ethics Institute.

 

 

The Department of Anthropology has a new faculty member, David Puts. Dr. Puts conducts research on the evolutionary and hormonal bases of behavior and is especially interested in sex differences, mate choice and competition for mates. You can read more about his research at (Dr. Puts's Research).

 

Students:

The Department of Anthropology maintains up-to-date and well-equipped facilities for research in the Carpenter Building.  It maintains its own Geographic Information System (GIS) facility for conducting spatial analyses of past and present cultural and ecological data.  Specialized laboratory facilities for genetic, genomic, morphometric, osteological, demographic, paleobotanical, ceramic, and lithic research are also housed within the department.  In addition, graduate students and faculty working in the department have access to state-of-the-art molecular and imaging facilities on the Penn State campus.  Field work is also a part of the normal activities for many graduate students and faculty.

The New York Times: Always Revealing, Human Skin Is an Anthropologist’s Map

The Pennsylvania State University Ranks # 1 in The Chronicle of Higher Education for Top Research Universities