Introduction

The goal of this department is to help students understand Korean and global cultures from prehistoric to modern times and to provide them with the knowledge that they need to practice in society.

The Department of Cultural Anthropology includes academic studies of archeology, folklore and social anthropology, and it makes on-site investigations and deepens the methodological perspective that becomes a critical guideline for identifying the meaning of the diversity that exists throughout the lifestyles of mankind and the world in life in general.

First, in archeology, students learn to investigate, excavate and restore different types of artifacts and also study analyzing methods for excavated artifacts in order to possess the ability to conduct research by interconnecting the history and culture of people in the past. In Folklore, students learn to recognize the features of Korean cultures by studying how Korean cultural traditions are formed and created through daily habits and seasonal habits, folk religion, material culture and technologies, cultural sceneries of village societies, as well as through passing down of traditions.
In social anthropology, comparative research is made on societies around the world for deeper understanding of social organizations such as families and relatives, as well as for European and Asian cultures and society, cities and economy, and culture and human nature, so that students can identify the common traits and differences of cultures.
These three academic fields aim at comprehensiveness relationships among different academic fields, which are not in any other one subject of study.

In response to the recent dynamic multi-cultural era, the many different social fields are showing great interest in cultural anthropology. Above all else, in the case of Korea, there has been a rapidly increasing need to foster experts and human resources with capabilities and knowledge on the culture of different nations and cultural properties due to the trends of time in which the economy is developing, companies entering overseas markets, decentralization, enhanced quality of life through culture and multi-national races living together. Furthermore, there has been an explosive increase in investigations of prehistoric and historic remains due to national development, and there is a growing social demand for archaeologists.

In response to this, this Department is greatly increasing opportunities for graduates to find employment in museums, overseas companies, universities, public and private institutions related to cultural properties and in the press. Therefore, future prospects for this field are quite high as well.