Research

Dartmouth's Anthropology faculty ask wide-ranging questions about the origins, trajectories, and current dynamics of human societies. These and other interests frame our faculty's scholarship and the opportunities we offer to students, through both collaborative and independent yet mentored student research.

Some Questions We Ask

  • How do empires rise and fall?
  • What can we learn from ancient cities about patterns of resource use, labor, and political organization not only in the past but also as enduring features of the present?
  • What does it mean to practice "traditional" medicine in the 21st century or to (re)invent tradition as a means of cultural survival, claims to sovereignty, or recognition of indigenous rights?
  • How might we understand the meanings people ascribe to suffering and affliction and at the same time consider political-economic conditions that make some people more vulnerable, sick, or marginalized than others?
  • How can the principles of comparative and integrative biology, human behavioral ecology, and an anthropological appreciation for the complexities of behavior tell us more about ourselves, our human ancestors, and primates – our kindred species?