THE VISION

The Museum of Anthropology is a research and collection unit within LSA focused on the study of humanity's past. The Museum's curators and affiliated researchers and doctoral students conduct archaeological and biological anthropological research across the globe, exploring critical questions on our species' biological and cultural evolution, from the emergence of human culture in the Paleolithic to the rise and expansion of states and empires in both the New and Old World. The Museum is closely affiliated with the University's nationally recognized Department of Anthropology, where all of the curators hold teaching appointments. While educators and researchers, we also have unique responsibilities to care for and document the rich and irreplaceable archaeological and ethnographic collections derived from more than a century of research conducted across the globe, which are housed in our 12 research divisions (Asian Archaeology, European Archaeology, Great Lakes Archaeology, Latin American Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, North American Archaeology, African Archaeology, and Ethnology Divisions, and our Ethnobotany, Zooarchaeology, Human Osteology, and Analytical Laboratories). The more than three million objects in the Museum's collections constitute an invaluable resource for scholarship dedicated to refining and transforming understandings of human diversity and culture change. The Museum is dedicated to caring for this irreplaceable resource through leading-edge research and our commitment to maintaining the highest curatorial standards; we also seek to preserve and enhance Michigan's stature as the nation's finest institution in graduate and undergraduate education in anthropological archaeology.

THE VALUE

The Museum of Anthropology embraces research and education on all aspects of humanity's past, and exploring biological and cultural evolution through both universal and particularistic lenses. Thus, our researchers explore such large questions as when and why did culture emerge, why do agricultural societies emerge, and why and how do state societies develop, and so on, at both general theoretical levels and in specific historical contexts throughout both the New and Old Worlds. Through undergraduate and graduate field-training, laboratory research opportunities with museum collections, and course work in our associated unit, the Department of Anthropology, we strive to provide undergraduate and graduate students with critical skills and experiences in the methods and practice of archaeology and with the theoretical tools to ask the big questions about what it means to be human. 

SUPPORT THE MUSEUM

The links below take you to two documents that are dedicated to making our vision a reality. The first, labeled "The Difference," summarizes areas our curators have prioritized in our long-term development goals. Our priorities here include support for graduate and undergraduate students, post-doctoral fellows, collections care, our publications program, distinguished speakers, and archaeological research around the globe. The second document, "Gift and Endowment Funds," summarizes existing funds that help us meet many of these important priorities. If you are interested in giving to one of these funds, please send tax deductible contributions to the Museum of Anthropology by using the Pledge Form (pdf). If you have any questions or are interested in establishing a new endowment to assist us in meeting other Museum priorities, please contact Carla Sinopoli (sinopoli@umich.edu). 

We thank you for your support of the Museum of Anthropology.