Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humankind, past and present, from both cultural and biological perspectives. Sub-fields include ethnology (living cultures), archaeology (extinct cultures), physical anthropology (human evolution and biology), and linguistics.
The Anthropology Department in the Museum holds roughly 120,000 artifacts, representing many world cultural areas of the Americas, Africa and Oceania. Ethnographic collections are strongest for North American Indian groups with lesser representations for Central and South American societies, certain cultures of East and West Africa, and selected materials from many areas of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.
Archaeological collections include strong Wisconsin materials and scattered areas of North America, representative materials from Mesoamerica and the Andean region, and a small selection of European Paleolithic material.
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