What would be a good culture to study to do an Anthropolgy Masters/PhD thesis on?

Question

i am thinking about going back to school for cultural anthropology master or Phd program, what would be some good cultures to study and what is interesting to study about them?? i got my BA from TTU, it was a decent program...

Thanks!!

Answer 1

You might want to find a culture which is going through tremendous change, as that will make for a more interesting topic on which to develop a thesis. I would think Amazonian tribes would count, or even First Nation tribes in Canada where oil is being found and they are now richer (how their culture is affected). The isolation of native Alaskans would also be a good topic (closer to home). What I think is interesting is that the native Americans who have built the lookout at the Grand Canyon are fighting the environmentalists who say it destroys the area--which you think would be the NA view, except that they are trying to broaden their economy.

Answer 2

In my Anthropology class, we studied Papua, New Guinea and the people who live in the wilderness--tribes--it's amazing: some of these people lived in such isolation that they literally thought they were the only people alive in the world.