Instructor: Dr. Amelie Bartolino
Office: Part Time Faculty office
Phone: 223-4863
Text: BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: A SYNTHETIC APPROACH TO HUMAN EVOLUTION by Noel Boaz and Alan Almquist
Course Objective: This course is offered to instruct the student in relevant and current aspects of physical anthropology from an evolutionary perspective. General topics include genetics, primatology, forensics, the fossil record, and human adaptation.
Grading Policy: Grades are composed from 3 objective, multiple choice exams (not comprehensive) covering the text and lecture materials. The average of these three tests equals 100% of the course grade.
Absentee Policy: Absence from lecture is at the discretion of the student. Bear in mind that the more one invests in the course, the more one reaps from the course.
Extra Credit: Consult me.
Topic 1
Scientific theory beginning with Aristotle, resumed by Linnaeus, Cuvier, Lyell, Malthus, Wallace, Darwin. Early guides to anthropological thought.
Topic 2
Genetics - molecular biology, forces of evolution
Topic 3
Inheritance - Mendel and his laws. Genes, chromosomes
Topic 4
Variation/Adaption - survival and reporduction
Topic 5
Evolution of Primates
Topic 6
Classification of Primates
Topic 7
Primate Species, social groups, locomotion
Topic 8
Primate Behavior
Topic 9
Review of Primates
TEST 1
Topic 10
Skeletal Form and Function
Topic 11
Early Hominids - gracile and robust forms
Topic 12
Adaptation of early hominids - functional morphology
Topic 13
Early genus Homo - H. habilis and H. erectus
Topic 14
Social organization, culture of early hominids
Topic 15
Site locations of early hominids. Dating methods
Topic 16
Archaics and Modern Homo sapien
Topic 17
Out of Africa Theories, mtDNA analyses
TEST 2
Topic 18
Archaeological Method - retrieval and interpretation of artifacts
Topic 19
Human Adaptation physiological and cultural
Topic 20
Human Variation - sex differences, regional differences, the question of race
Topic 21
Biomes - ecological niches
Topic 22
Forensics
Topic 23
Population Studies - carrying capacity, exploitation of resources
Topic 24
Conservation - loss and replacement of life, the future of the human species
TEST 3