Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A non-technical survey of the primate background of humans, fossil primates, and fossil humans, and the associated evidence of cultural development. An introduction to physical anthropology. Breadth-Social Sci/Science.

COURSE DETAILS:

We modern humans are the only surviving species in a very old evolutionary tree: one we share with the living apes and monkeys, but also with many extinct species. We can trace our ancestry, and the things that make us humans unique, millions of years into the past. Over this long period we evolved from small, furry apes living in the forests of Africa to large, hairless, big-brained, socially-complex humans that spread across the whole globe. Human Origins is designed to be an introduction to this human story. It includes 6 major sections:     
1) an introduction to the history of the science of human origins   
2) a review of the fundamentals of natural selection and evolution;   
3) an introduction to our primate cousins: their characteristics and adaptations;   
4) an examination of the fossil record: from earliest primates to the emergence of modern-looking humans (along with a look at the earliest technologies);   
5) a closer look at when, where, and how we fully modern humans appeared   
6) and, a look at the variability among living humans and the concept of ‘race’

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: