There are many different facets of Applied Anthropology, far more than we could hope to adequately address in our small program.  In fact, every graduate program in Applied Anthropology specializes.  The focus of the Masters program at Missouri State University is Cultural Heritage.  We build on the joint foundation of a successful undergraduate major in four-field anthropology and the proven record of the Center for Archaeological Research.  The University also has a long-standing tradition in Ozarks Studies and fledgling programs in African American and Native American Studies.

Cultural Heritage refers to the cultural legacy inherited from previous generations, a legacy which we often want to identify and preserve because it reinforces our cultural identity or sense of who we are as a people.  Cultural Heritage is typically associated with a particular people or group.  It includes, for example, the French, German, Scotch-Irish, Amish-Mennonite, African American, Hispanic, and Native American heritages of Missouri. 

Cultural heritage may be tangible and include archaeological sites, artifacts, buildings, historic sites, monuments, graves, and culturally significant landscapes such as sacred places.  It may also be intangible, as in language, oral histories, beliefs, practices, rituals, ceremonies, customs, traditions, music, dance, crafts, and other arts.

Communities and nations are interested in celebrating and preserving their heritage, and governments have enacted laws to protect “cultural resources.”  Heritage professionals are engaged in the identification, study, assessment, preservation, interpretation, management, and promotion of historic and cultural resources.  They help communities preserve their heritage and comply with laws and regulations to protect and preserve cultural resources. 

Heritage professionals come from several fields of study, including history, anthropology and archaeology, folklore, architectural history, art history, and museum studies.  In the U.S., this interdisciplinary profession is often referred to as Cultural Resource Management or CRM.

Cultural Resource Management refers to the discovery, identification, documentation, analysis, preservation, and interpretation of cultural resources, including archaeological sites, historic structures, artifacts, human remains, languages, traditional cultural properties, culturally valued landscapes, and culturally valued ways of life.

The Masters program at Missouri State University emphasizes the application of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology to issues of Cultural Heritage and the profession of Cultural Resource Management.  We seek to prepare students for employment in cultural heritage professions.  Linguistic and Biological Anthropology are important components of our department, but they are not fundamental to the Masters program.

The impetus for Cultural Resource Management was federal legislation passed mainly in the late 1960s and early 1970s requiring the protection, preservation, and study of historic and prehistoric sites and artifacts.  This legislation created an immediate need for many archaeologists in particular.  Today, thousands of archeologists in the U.S. are employed in CRM.   In recent years, due in part to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990, the purview of CRM has expanded to include human remains, public archaeology, historic preservation, cultural and linguistic preservation, and heritage tourism.  This has created a greater need for training and expertise in cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology as well as archaeology.

Opportunities for graduates of this program include employment with university research centers (such as the Center for Archaeological Research at Missouri State University), private archaeology and CRM firms, engineering companies, state governments (in Missouri, e.g., the Department of Transportation, Historic Preservation Office, Parks and Historic Sites), the federal government (e.g., the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management), and increasingly with Native American nations and heritage tourism associations and enterprises (such as Williamsburg and the Hermitage). 

A career in Applied Anthropology generally requires a Masters degree and certain skills and experiences. We have collected several hundred job announcements and have used them to identify the most sought after requirements.  The Masters is designed to be a “completion program.” Assuming a strong undergraduate education in the concepts and theories of anthropology, it focuses on the cultivation of skills and experience to make the student well-qualified for professional employment.  This includes more generic skills such as quantitative analysis, computer applications, proposal preparation, and professional writing as well as more specific expertise such as knowledge of CRM laws and regulations and skill in archaeological survey and excavation and ethnographic research methods.

 

Careers in Archaeology
http://www.saa.org/Careers/index.html

Frequently Asked Questions About a Career in Archaeology
http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/anthro/dlcfaq.html

Cultural Resources Management
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_resources_management

Defining Cultural Resource Management
http://archaeology.about.com/od/culturalresource/qt/crm_definition.htm

American Cultural Resources Association
http://www.acra-crm.org/

Cultural Resource Management on the Web
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2006/julyaugust06/crmweb.cfm

Cultural Resource Management Laws and Regulations
http://www.afcee.brooks.af.mil/PRO-ACT/fact/crm.asp

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Cultural Resource Management
http://www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=471

CRM Cultural Resource Management
http://www.nps.gov/history/crm/

Cultural Resource Network
http://www.eculturalresources.com/

Careers in Cultural Resource Management
http://www.fiu.edu/~wiedmand/appliedanthronet.crm.htm

Cultural and Heritage Management Firms
http://www.archaeologyfieldwork.com/CRMfirms.htm

Cultural Resource Management Firms
www.acra-crm.org/ACRAMembership.html

American Cultural Resource Firms
http://archaeology.about.com/od/crmfirms/a/crm_firms.htm

Firms that work in Missouri
http://www.umsl.edu/~antbaum/contractors.html

ArchNet links
http://archnet.asu.edu/Topical/CRM/crm.html

Cultural Resource Jobs
http://www.eculturalresources.com/jobs.php

Archaeology Fieldwork Opportunities
http://www.archaeologyfieldwork.com

Archaeological Fieldwork Positions
(http://www.shovelbums.org/)

Earthworks job board (U.S. and U.K.)
http://www.earthworks-jobs.com/archaeology.html

Indigenous Archaeology
http://archaeology.about.com/od/interviews/a/stapp.htm

National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers
http://nathpo.org

Defining Cultural Heritage
http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=2185&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

World Heritage Sites
http://whc.unesco.org/

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
http://www.folklife.si.edu/index.html

Cultural Heritage Tourism
http://www.culturalheritagetourism.org/

Travel Itineraries, National Register of Historic Places
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/index.htm