Anthropologists and Archeologists
SOC Code: 19-3091.00
Life, Physical & Social ScienceAnthropologists and archeologists study human cultures, societies, languages, and physical remains to understand how people have lived across time and geography. Anthropologists examine contemporary and historical cultures, social structures, and human behavior, while archeologists excavate and analyze material evidence of past civilizations. With a median salary around $63,800, these scholars work at universities, museums, government agencies, and consulting firms, piecing together the story of human experience from ancient pottery shards to the social media habits of modern subcultures.
Salary Overview
Median
$64,910
25th Percentile
$51,240
75th Percentile
$83,080
90th Percentile
$104,510
Salary Distribution
Job Outlook (2024–2034)
Growth Rate
+3.7%
New Openings
800
Outlook
As fast as average
Key Skills
Knowledge Areas
What They Do
- Collect information and make judgments through observation, interviews, and review of documents.
- Teach or mentor undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology or archeology.
- Write about and present research findings for a variety of specialized and general audiences.
- Plan and direct research to characterize and compare the economic, demographic, health care, social, political, linguistic, and religious institutions of distinct cultural groups, communities, and organizations.
- Create data records for use in describing and analyzing social patterns and processes, using photography, videography, and audio recordings.
- Train others in the application of ethnographic research methods to solve problems in organizational effectiveness, communications, technology development, policy making, and program planning.
- Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials.
- Apply traditional ecological knowledge and assessments of culturally distinctive land and resource management institutions to assist in the resolution of conflicts over habitat protection and resource enhancement.
Tools & Technology
★ = Hot Technology (in-demand)
Education Requirements
Typical entry-level education: Related Work Experience
Related Careers
Top Career Pivot Targets
View all 23 →Careers with the highest skill compatibility from Anthropologists and Archeologists.
A Day in the Life
An archeologist in the field might begin at dawn, troweling through a pre-contact Native American site marked by artifact scatter. Each find — a flint scraper, a charred seed, a shell bead — is mapped with GPS coordinates, photographed, bagged, and catalogued. Soil samples are collected for flotation analysis. By afternoon, the team screens excavated soil through mesh, and the field director records stratigraphic profiles showing the layers of occupation. A cultural anthropologist's day looks entirely different — conducting participant observation in a refugee community, recording oral histories, coding interview transcripts, and drafting an ethnographic analysis of how displacement shapes identity and social networks. A forensic anthropologist at a medical examiner's office examines skeletal remains to determine age, sex, ancestry, stature, and trauma patterns to assist in crime investigation. An applied anthropologist at a tech company might analyze user behavior data to improve product design for cross-cultural markets.
Work Environment
Work environments span field sites, laboratories, classrooms, museums, and offices. Archeological fieldwork involves outdoor excavation in conditions from desert heat to tropical rain — physically demanding work requiring bending, kneeling, lifting, and using hand tools for extended periods. Field seasons may last weeks or months, often in remote locations with camping-style living arrangements. Laboratory work involves artifact analysis, database management, and report writing in controlled settings. Cultural anthropologists conduct fieldwork in diverse settings — urban neighborhoods, rural villages, hospitals, corporate offices, or online communities. Academic positions balance teaching, research, advising, and service responsibilities. CRM archaeology involves significant travel to project sites, sometimes for extended periods. Working conditions vary dramatically — from comfortable university offices to challenging field environments.
Career Path & Advancement
A bachelor's degree in anthropology provides broad disciplinary foundations, but career positions in research and academia require graduate degrees. Master's programs (2-3 years) qualify graduates for CRM (cultural resource management) archaeology positions, museum work, and applied anthropology roles. PhD programs (5-8 years) are required for university faculty positions and lead research roles. CRM archaeology — the largest employer of archeologists — involves survey and excavation required by federal historic preservation laws before construction projects. Academic careers involve the tenure-track path: assistant professor through associate to full professor. Museum careers progress from collections assistant through curator to director. Applied anthropologists work in international development, public health, user experience research, and corporate consulting.
Specializations
Cultural/social anthropologists study living cultures, social organization, kinship, religion, economics, and political systems through ethnographic fieldwork. Archeologists study past cultures through material remains — excavating sites, analyzing artifacts, dating deposits, and interpreting cultural change. Biological/physical anthropologists study human evolution, skeletal biology, primatology, and forensic identification. Linguistic anthropologists study language structure, usage, and its relationship to culture and cognition. Applied anthropologists use anthropological methods to solve practical problems in business, healthcare, education, and policy. Forensic anthropologists assist law enforcement with human remains identification. Medical anthropologists study health, illness, and healing across cultures. CRM archaeologists conduct compliance-driven surveys and excavations for construction projects.
Pros & Cons
Advantages
- ✓Intellectually fascinating work studying the full range of human experience
- ✓Fieldwork combines physical activity with intellectual discovery in varied locations
- ✓Cross-cultural exposure and understanding that enriches personal worldview
- ✓Contribution to preserving cultural heritage and historical knowledge
- ✓Growing applied career options in UX research, business, and technology
- ✓Academic positions offer intellectual freedom and sabbatical opportunities
- ✓Archeological discoveries can be truly thrilling — unearthing the past literally
Challenges
- ✗Below-average salary for the education required (PhD often necessary)
- ✗Extremely competitive academic job market with many more PhDs than positions
- ✗Physical demands of fieldwork — outdoor conditions, travel, and physical labor
- ✗CRM archaeology can involve monotonous survey and excavation work
- ✗Grant funding is uncertain and highly competitive
- ✗Geographic flexibility required — positions and field sites may be anywhere
- ✗Long training pathway (5-8 years for PhD) with uncertain career payoff
Industry Insight
CRM archaeology remains the largest employment sector, driven by the National Historic Preservation Act requiring environmental review before federally funded or permitted construction. Infrastructure investment legislation has increased CRM project volume. Digital humanities and computational archaeology are transforming the field — LiDAR remote sensing discovers sites beneath forest canopy, 3D scanning preserves artifacts digitally, and machine learning assists in artifact classification. NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) compliance continues to shape the relationship between archaeologists and Indigenous communities, with growing emphasis on collaborative and community-based archaeology. Applied and business anthropology are growing fields as companies recognize the value of ethnographic insight for product design, market research, and organizational culture assessment. Academic positions remain extremely competitive, with many PhD graduates entering non-academic careers.
How to Break Into This Career
An archaeological field school (typically a summer excavation course during undergraduate or graduate training) is virtually required for archaeology careers. Graduate school admission is competitive and benefits from field experience, strong writing, research interests aligned with faculty expertise, and undergraduate research or thesis work. For CRM positions, a master's degree and field school participation qualify candidates for most excavation and survey jobs. Networking through the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), American Anthropological Association (AAA), and state archaeological societies creates connections and job awareness. Digital skills including GIS, database management, statistical software (R, SPSS), and photogrammetry are increasingly expected. For academic careers, publishing, conference presentations, and securing competitive grants during graduate school are essential first steps.
Career Pivot Tips
Anthropologists and archeologists develop research methodology, analytical thinking, cross-cultural competence, writing, and qualitative analysis skills that transfer to user experience research, market research, policy analysis, international development, museum management, and cultural consulting. UX research — applying ethnographic methods to understand technology users — is a rapidly growing career path for cultural anthropologists. Data analysis and GIS skills transfer to environmental consulting, urban planning, and government positions. Academic writing skills apply to grant writing, technical communication, and science journalism. Those entering from other social sciences should build methodological expertise in ethnography, qualitative research, or archaeological field methods. The ability to make unfamiliar cultural contexts comprehensible is a distinctive skill valued in business, diplomacy, healthcare, and education.
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