undergraduate bulletin - LaGrange College

INTRODUCTION
SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
The mission of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology is to equip students with an
entry-level knowledge of sociological concepts, theories, and research strategies.
DESCRIPTION OF MAJOR
Sociology is the study of human social relationships and institutions. Sociology's subject matter
is diverse, ranging from crime to religion, from the family to the state, from the divisions of race
and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture, and from social stability to radical
change in whole societies. Unifying the study of these diverse subjects of study is sociology's
purpose of understanding how human action and consciousness both shape and are shaped by
surrounding cultural and social structures.
Anthropology is the holistic and comparative study of human practice and behavior.
Anthropology, a sister discipline to sociology, has traditionally focused on the investigation and
analysis of human action through the lens of culture and by means of ethnographic fieldwork. Its
initial subject matter was the study of small-scale, non-industrial groups primarily outside the
developed world. Through a four-field (cultural/social anthropology, physical anthropology,
linguistics and archeology) approach, anthropologists strove to make relevant generalizations
about human behavior and society. In the last forty years, the scope and focus of anthropology
has broadened, and now anthropologists investigate all aspects of life in the industrialized world
as well. Anthropology provides a global perspective on life, and today, with its global focus,
anthropology offers preparation for effective living in a rapidly changing world that is
complementary to the sociological perspective.
The department offers a major in Sociology.
The department requires a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.25 to declare a major in Sociology.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students majoring in Sociology will acquire a basic knowledge of the following areas:
the ―sociological imagination,‖ or ability to link individual biography with history and
culture;
the difference between micro- and macro-level groups and processes, and the
interconnections among them;
the importance and necessity of theory in the process of learning;
the strengths and weaknesses of various research methods, and the appropriateness of each
for various research questions;
the social bases and biases of what constitutes knowledge or conventional wisdom;
the opportunities as well as constraints that are imposed on us by social structure.
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