Spring 2006

ANT 301 • Physical Anthropology

Course Description

This course introduces through scientific study the varied and substantive topics within physical anthropology. The fundamental goal of the course is to provide students an understanding of the place of humans in the context of the natural world. In order to achieve that goal, the course applies comparative study of living primate diversity, functional anatomy, behavior and ecology, evolution and phylogeny, and reconstruction of the fossil record as it relates to humans and other primates. We'll explore the meaning of evolution to our lives and gain broader understanding of the nature of our species. From a biological anthropology perspective we will ask, what does it mean to be human? In what ways are we and other primates similar, how do we differ, and importantly, why? Because students begin this course with their own sets of personal and shared human experiences, the material covered will empirically address many of the innate questions characteristic of a thinking life.

back