ANTH 1000
Week 1
1.Explain what anthropology is.
2.Discuss what makes anthropology unique as a discipline.
3. State why the four field approach in anthropology is necessary and important.
4.Understand that boundaries between anthropological subfields are often porous and/or blurred.
5.Provide an example of how applied anthropology is integrated into each of the four subfields.
6.Identify the areas of research that are important to physical anthropologists.
7.Explain why the understandings of historic and prehistoric cultures and human populations are important in archaeology.
8.Explain how archaeology is not only contained to the human past, particularly through the use of ethnoarchaeology.
9.Discuss what makes up the subfield of linguistic anthropology.
10.Describe the subfield of cultural anthropology and some of the key ways these anthropologists collect data.
11.List the differences between ethnography and ethnology.
12.Understand how anthropology is both a humanistic and scientific discipline.
13.Identify common ethical dilemmas that anthropologists confront in their research.
14.Explain some of the key ways that globalization has affected how anthropologists conduct their research, who anthropologists study and learn from, and why anthropology is relevant in the contemporary world.
1. Describe Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection.
2. List and discuss the four main evolutionary forces that are responsible for the vast biological variation present in human and non-human populations.
3. Explain the differences between Creation stories and evolution.
4. Trace the history of species classification, from the Great Chain of Being to the modern taxonomic system.
5. Compare the similarities and differences between Linnaeus’ classification system and contemporary taxonomic systems.
6. Differentiate analogies and homologies.
7. Explain how European exploration and Europe’s industrial revolution were key factors in the emergence of evolutionary theory.
8. Trace out the history of Charles Darwin and how he formulated his Theory of Natural Selection.
9. Understand the importance behind Gregor Mendel’s experiments with pea plants.
10. List and discuss the main processes and components that explain heredity:
a. Genes
b. Law of Segregation
c. Independent Assortment
d. Chromosomes
e. DNA
f. Alleles
g. Mitosis
h. Meiosis
i. Homozygous and Heterozygous
j. Dominant and Recessive
k. Genotypes and Phenotypes
11. Explain how population genetics work and their role in evolution.
a. Mutation
b. Genetic Drift
c. Founder’s Effect
d. Gene Flow
e. Natural Selection
f. Adaptation
12. Describe the importance of sickle-cell anemia in understanding how evolution works and how traits are context dependent.
13. Describe the role of clines in understanding how and why traits are spread across geographic space.
Week 2
1. Understand how humans are part of the primate order.
2. Understand how the differences exhibited in humans and non-human primates are differences of “degree” and not of “kind.”
3. Describe the common physical characteristics of primate species, such as:
a. Sensory organs and the importance of vision
b. Brain size and the cerebral hemisphere
c. Dentition pattern
d. Reproduction
e. Skeletal structure
4. Describe how and why living primates are divided into the five natural groups of:
a. Lemurs and Lorises
b. Tarsiers
c. New World monkeys
d. Old World monkeys
e. Small and Great Apes
5. List the most common characteristics to each of the five primate groups.
6. Discuss how and where primatologists conduct their research.
7. Discuss the ethical considerations that primatologists have to consider when conducting their research.
8. Understand the vast array of behavior and cultural patterns that primates exhibit, such as:
a. Social organization and community behavior
b. Learned behavior
c. Dominance hierarchies
d. Grooming
e. Hunting techniques
f. Sexual practices
g. Raising and protecting the young
h. Various forms of communication
i. Tool use and creation
9. Discuss why numerous primate species are in danger of extinction and why their extinction is important to key anthropological questions about our human heritage.
1. Define archaeology and paleoanthropology.
2. Explain how artifacts and fossils are located and investigated, as well as being able to distinguish what constitutes an artifact as opposed to a fossil.
3. List the reasons that archaeologists must be meticulous when excavating an archaeological site.
4. Explain how archaeological sites are located.
5. Discuss why context and artifact/fossil placement in the soil is vital to understanding the past.
6. Discuss why socioeconomic class in past societies and civilizations might influence what types of artifacts are found in the archaeological record.
7. Discuss how archaeological investigations of prehistoric and historic sites lend to understanding contemporary human populations.
8. Explain why human physical and cultural remains are not always found together.
9. Describe how artifacts and physical remains of plants and animals are preserved in the archaeological record, as well as being able to identify what types of environmental conditions facilitate the preservation of such remains.
10. Describe the types of absolute dating in archaeological research and discuss some of the strengths and weaknesses of each.
11. Explain why archaeology and paleoanthropology are frequently related together.
12. Discuss the importance of bioarchaeology.
13. Discuss how archaeology has changed over time and how the discipline has accounted for indigenous populations’ concerns over their cultural heritage.
Week 3
Understand the importance of studying early primates.
Understand the basics of macroevolution and speciation.
Recognize the role of the environment in early primate evolution.
Know who the earliest hominins were and their position in human evolution.
Understand the differences between humans and our closest relatives.
Understand theories on how the change from thick forests to open savannahs affected Australopithecus (or not).
Recognize the main characteristics and implications of bipedal locomotion.
Week 4
Jul-01 to
Jul-06
. Hominins