Expert: Ralph Salier - 10/13/2008

Question
Hello
I am currently a sophomore in college. At the moment i am finishing up my core requirements for such as English/math. My major is pre-med but i have recently been having doubts. I have always been interested in the discovery of new artifacts/ancient civilizations and European/Latin countries. I live in the United States but i want to pursue a degree that will give me work outside of the United States. Would archeology/anthropology be the right move for me or is there another degree somewhat similar but has a few different aspects to it?

Answer
Hi Dominic,

How about a combination of the two? Genetic Anthropology.

This looks at the migratory patterns of human populations and examines how, when, and where we went over time and then how these populations became isolated such as the Polynesians, Aboriginies etc... Also looks at how various disease vectors impacted the human genome and how we adapted to these.  

Several universities are researching this including Wayne State University, Stanford, Columbia and others.  It is an exciting field that shows a lot of promise to helping us understand the who and what we are!