Duke University. Dept. of Cultural Anthropology.

The Duke University Dept. of Anthropology was formed in the 1972/1973 academic year, after the joint Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, which had existed from 1941 to 1972, split into two separate departments. In July 1988, the disciplines in the Dept. of Anthropology divided into the Dept. of Cultural Anthropology and the Dept. of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy. The Dept. of Cultural Anthropology focuses on the study of cultures around the world.

From the description of Dept. of Cultural Anthropology records, 1973-1992. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 60035167

The Duke University Department of Anthropology was formed in the 1972/1973 academic year, after the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, which had existed from 1941 to 1972, split into two separate departments. In July 1988, the disciplines in the Department of Anthropology divided into the Department of Cultural Anthropology and the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy.

The Duke Department of Cultural Anthropology offered this description of its undergraduate course of study in 2005: "Cultural anthropology focuses on the study of cultures around the world. Understanding and living with diversity is one of today's urgent challenges. Our planet has grown much more interconnected... Cultural anthropology is the discipline that studies how people create and define... distinct ways of living... The discipline no longer limits itself only to "primitive" lifeways, having expanded to encompass the study of both non-Western and Western societies. Topics of study now range from ethnic and race relations to gender, sexuality, nationalism, law, medicine, and popular culture. New methods and theories have arisen to understand these complex phenomena, influenced by such currents of thought as feminism, postmodernism, political economy, cognitive science, and psychoanalysis. Among the broad concerns of cultural anthropology today are: Under what conditions is culture invented? Under what conditions do cultural understandings gain force, persist, and spread? How does culture intersect with history, economics, and politics?" [http://culturalanthropology.duke.edu/ugrad/]

From the guide to the Dept. of Cultural Anthropology Records, ., 1973 - 1992, (University Archives, Duke University)