Aha…Anthropology
Discipline finally becomes major
By Anna Barron Billingsley
an-thro-pol-ogy n
The study of humankind in all its aspects, especially human culture or human development.
Professor Margaret Huber knows a thing or two about anthropology. During her three decades at Mary Washington, she has had to learn the meaning of something else.
pa-tience n
The ability to endure waiting or delay without becoming annoyed or upset.
In May, when seven students graduate from University of Mary Washington with majors in anthropology, Huber may very well toss her mortar board into the air and let out a cheer. She has waited 32 years for this to happen. “When I was hired in 1974,” said the distinguished professor of anthropology, “I was asked to start an anthropology program and to offer anthropology as a major.”
She did the first, but several factors intervened to hinder her second mission, Huber said, including a downturn in the economy and changes in administration. Though disheartened, Huber never was deterred.
Throughout the years, students have pursued anthropology and have come as close as possible at Mary Washington to majoring in the discipline – a sociology major with a concentration in anthropology.
“That has worked,” Huber said, “but we really are two separate disciplines.”
As one student put it: “I think making anthro students officially major in sociology for all those years was a little like telling biology students that they have to major in chemistry because ‘chemistry and biology are so closely related.’ ”
“Anthropology students just had to spend a lot of time with me,” said Huber, who initially was the only one teaching the subject. Gradually, the discipline has grown; several adjuncts were added in the 1980s and now, in addition to Huber, there are two full-time anthropology faculty members.
As the department grew and student interest in anthropology accelerated, the case for making it a major became stronger.
In a self-study conducted prior to Mary Washington’s official designation as a university in 2004, adding an anthropology major topped the list of proposed new initiatives. The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia approved the addition in January of last year, paving the way for course requirements to be listed in the most recent catalog and for the first majors to be awarded this May. Anthropology is UMW’s first new major since 1980.
Applause is coming not only from current students, but also from alumni sociology majors who concentrated in anthropology.
“It feels good to know that the University recognizes our discipline’s intellectual contributions to the world,” said Bryce Davenport ’06, one of the institution’s first anthropology majors.
“Go Mary Washington Anthro Department!” exclaimed Catherine Littlehale Oki ’00 in an e-mail responding to news of the new major. “Now anthropology students can actually have a diploma that truly represents their academic choice.”
That choice came unexpectedly for Oki in a freshman anthropology class where she learned a new definition of culture: a set of unwritten but deeply understood rules that govern behavior.
“It was an aha moment,” wrote Oki, who lives in Japan and runs an English school for children. “I felt that in one 45-minute class a lot of questions I had always asked about humans had just been answered. I knew immediately that I wanted to major in anthropology.”
The decision wasn’t as deep for Davenport. “How can you resist a course called ‘The Anthropology of Star Trek?’ ” Seriously, he added, “I came into college wanting to be an archeologist and I saw anthropology as being the next best thing or a stepping stone.”
Mary Washington offers cultural and social anthropology, Huber said, not physical, or archeological, anthropology. Even so, a number of graduates have pursued archeology. Others have earned advanced degrees in anthropology, and many have lived with and worked among people of other cultures.
Despite the fact that no major has been offered, alumni praised the department and especially Margaret Huber, who is described as passionate and persistent. A number of students credited Mary Washington anthropology faculty with opening not only their minds, but also doors.
Anne Coyner Schatz ’97, who recently earned a master’s degree in linguistic anthropology, worked as a student intern in the Navajo nation at Chinle, Ariz. “The experience was invaluable and has colored my views of everything since. I am certain I would not have been able to have this experience had I attended another college or university.”
After graduating in 2000, John Osterman headed for the Peace Corps. It wasn’t until he began a graduate program in anthropology at the University of Virginia that he fully appreciated his undergraduate training. “I’m realizing now that I am in graduate school just how well the anthropology department at Mary Washington prepared me for more advanced studies.”
Andrew Craver ’02, a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan, said his anthro classes not only prepared him for a variety of careers, but they were enjoyable and enlightening. “Where else can you learn about Bolivian mine gods, ritual homosexuality in New Guinea, and the Easter bunny as an inversion of Santa?”
For Jaclyn Nelson ’06, studying anthropology has broadened her horizons. “Anthropology magnifies exactly how much a product of your society and time you really are.
“I see anthropology as a reality check – a reminder that where I am and who I am is a very small cog in a far larger machine.”
Or, as classmate Heather McKenzie ’06 put it: “Learning about other cultures allows you to appreciate your own in a new light.”