ANTHROPOLOGY A105 / A303 Human Origins / Evolution & Prehistory

        an IUN Arts & Sciences Group IIIA natural science credit SPRING 2008 Dr Bob Mucci, Instructor

Office: Lindenwood 231. Office Tel 219-980-6607 (voice mail also).

Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays from about 1:30 pm to 2 pm and from about 4 pm til 5 pm; other times and days by appointment. You can also talk to me after class. You are welcome to stop by my office at any time, I am here most days from morning until late, and I can usually give you at least a few minutes for a quick question or visit. I encourage you to contact me by E-mail with any questions: RMUCCI@IUN.EDU To leave a message or a paper at any time, go to the Sociology & Anthropology Main Office: Lindenwood 214 (tel 219-980-6789); my mailbox is there (but it closes at 5 pm). Also go there if you can't find me during office hours, or otherwise need to see me; Kristie, the secretary there, can tell you if, say, I've gone over to the Anthropology Lab and Resource Center in Marram 341. You may call me at home if needed: 773-929-0456; cell is 312-806-8722. This syllabus, along with the zoo report instructions and other course handouts, is also available on Oncourse and also directly on the Internet – along with sample quizzes – (then you do not have to type in all the links): http://www.iun.edu/~anthronw/quizzes.htm

The IUN Anthro home page is at http://www.iun.edu/~anthronw/

Required Books (only one is a textbook, the others are brief readings):
Kenneth Feder & Michael Park, Human Antiquity, 5th edition (our “textbook”)
Bernard Stonehouse, Monkeys and Apes (It's an Animal Watch children's book)
Elvio Angeloni, ed., Annual Editions: Physical Anthropology 2008/2009 ("08/09")

Bernard Wood, Human Evolution: A very Short Introduction (“Wood”)
ALSO: I will provide a Xerox copy of short article: "Evolution" by Ernst Mayr

Optional book for A303 Students only: Strunk, White, & Angell The Elements of Style (any ed) or any similar writing book – you may have one from your W131 Composition course.

Optional Web sites: The site for our textbook, with the Study Guide, is at: http://www.mayfieldpub.com/antiquity (Unfortunately it has not been updated for five years)
Tutorials for the entire course can be found at:

http://anthro.palomar.edu/tutorials/biological.htm

Useful material for the whole course is at http://www.wwnorton.com/college/anthro/bioanth/
There are other useful web sites listed in the 08/09 book on pages xiv-xv, on the 07/08 website: http://www.mhcls.com/online/get-isbn.mhtml?isbn=0073397261 and on the new 08/09 website still under development. Some of those also have good links for general and specific topics. Other sites for specific topics are suggested in the syllabus for certain Weeks; you can also find lots more to help you learn by searching for each topic at http://www.google.com or at the Wikipedia encyclopedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Other Requirements: visit the zoo and write a report of your observations of primates. Detailed instructions will be handed out in class. You have only six weeks from today to learn about primates, visit the zoo, and hand in your written report.

Course Objectives: to provide a basic introduction to paleoanthropology, the scientific study of human biological and early cultural evolution.

Shadow Section: I am teaching two sections of this course this semester, one at 11:30 TR and one at 5:30 TR, both in room MH123; since I will give the same lecture twice a day, you can attend either section on any given day (it’s not necessary to notify me, just show up). The quizzes and exams given at the two times will be slightly different, however. Both sections use this same syllabus, zoo report instructions, and A303 Intensive Writing Instructions.

Study Requirements: I expect that you will attend all of the lectures, read and otherwise study the assigned readings, and relate the two via your class notes. The average student should spend six hours per week just studying for this course — not including time spent on the zoo report. (I highly recommend Getting Straight A's by Gordon Green as a general study aid for all your college courses; it's available in the IUN Bookstore, at the web book sites, and at mall bookstores; but there are in fact many good “how to be a successful college student” type books available.) Because of the great wealth of material that we will cover, and the necessity of understanding each topic before proceeding to the next, there will be a QUIZ every Tuesday; it will take up the first fifteen minutes of class. Quizzes will emphasize the readings and lectures since the last quiz or exam. (E.g., the FIFTH week's quiz will cover the FOURTH week's readings and lectures. (I suggest you read ahead as well as review for the quizzes.) Some quizzes may be take-home. There will be twelve or thirteen quizzes, I'll drop the lowest ones and count each student's ten best. There are NO make-up quizzes; if you miss one, then that is one that I drop. (If you come to class late and miss a quiz for a valid reason, I may let you take the quiz after class.) Note that the quizzes are 25% of your grade. If you want to see the format of the quizzes, and for practice, the recent years are available on my website at: http://www.iun.edu/~anthronw/quizzes.htm The IUN Library reserve desk has some older quizzes too, under MUCCI A105, as well as some on line. The quizzes and the midterm and final exams will include a variety of types of questions (multiple choice, short answers, essays, etc.) and will cover a wide range of material, some difficult. In general, we mention nearly every topic and controversy of interest to paleoanthropologists; in an introductory course we cannot cover it all in depth, so be sure to get an overview of different kinds of primates, of time and place in human evolution, of major trends, of the physical and cultural characteristics of each evolutionary stage, of who discovered what major fossil when and where, and a solid understanding of basic concepts such as natural selection.

A zoo project is required to receive credit for this course. The 'standard' project is for you to go to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago (independently, not as a field trip) with an instruction sheet (it will be passed out soon), make observations on the primates there, and write up your observations in the form of a report. Any alternative project must be approved by me before you begin. Your zoo report counts 20% of your grade, so do a nice, thoughtful job (ie, study the material BEFORE you go.)

Attendance: Since participation in the lectures, discussions, and audio/visual events is a part of what you are being given credit for, multiple unexcused absences will result in a lower score and hence a lower grade (miss a Tuesday and you will be getting a zero on that quiz, miss a Thursday and you will bomb the following quiz; the real effect, however, is that you will do much worse on future quizzes and exams). College classes are tough! Students who fall behind tend to do poorly. I take attendance by noting who takes each quiz and who picks up the graded ones the next Thursday; if you come in late and miss the quiz or don't get to pick up your old quiz, be sure to check in with me after class to be sure that I don't mark you absent. In these small classes I will notice if you cut out early – that's an absence even if you took the quiz. Tell me if you are ill; call or email me if you must miss a class so that I can excuse you. Students who come to class regularly and take good notes tend to do well in this course. But you have to make use of your notes – not only study them, also annotate them: look at your notes after class, and add ideas you remember but did not have time to write down; and as you read the books, add material from the readings to the lecture notes. NOTE: if you have a life crisis during the semester, call me right away so we can work together on getting you thru the course.

There are both A105 and A303 students in this classroom; you can register for either, but you can never get credit for both. If you already have credit for an IU Anthropology course numbered A103, A105, or A303, you will lose that credit now. There is no prerequisite for A105, but I expect that you have had high school biology. Besides the willingness to do the extra work, the prerequisites for A303 are English W131 and one of these: any one course in anthropology, Junior standing, honors standing, or consent of instructor. A303 students get both upper level credit for this course and also Arts & Sciences Intensive Writing credit; they must read four additional articles in the 08/09 book and submit a total of four written reports on them. The portfolio of those four reports counts as one fourth of their A303 grade. Ask me for the A303 report instructions if you are interested in that option; A303 students should also buy an elements of style book or any basic writing book, you may already have one from your W131 course. If you want to change your registration from A303 to A105 or vice versa, you should do so before the end of the refund period; in any case you cannot change after the end of the automatic ‘W' period (see the IUN timetable schedule of classes for that date). It should cost only about $20 to change; see me if they try to charge more by mistake.

Grade Breakdown: Zoo Report 20%, Midterm Exam 25%, Best Ten Quizzes 25%, Final Exam 30%. The total scores are averaged by percentage and not by letter grades; the grades will be quite fair, but ultimately your grade is determined by how much you learn this semester, and the harder you work, the more you will learn. In general the break between A's and B's is at about 88%, the break between B's and C's at about 74%; you must get a 50% average on the combined quiz, midterm, and final to pass. A303 Students are graded on the same scale, but their portfolio counts one fourth of their course grade.

There will be group study sessions this semester: They are led by a “Supplemental Instructor” who is an advanced anthropology student; the SI will come to class and give more information and arrange scheduling of these sessions. These sessions are intended for, and will benefit, students of all abilities; the benefits to struggling students are obvious, but even “A” students benefit not only because they can ask advanced and off-the-track questions, but also because they can learn the material better by sharing their knowledge with others. Students who participate in the study groups tend to get a full letter grade higher by doing so. (Most students find the material in this course unusually difficult because it was never covered, maybe never even mentioned, in high school. And remember we will have weekly quizzes.) These sessions are most beneficial if you start attending them early on in the semester. In fact if not enough students attend them early on, they will cancel the discussion sections and then there will be no sessions for people to attend to review for the midterm and final; this has happened a couple of times in the past few years, so if you want reviews for the exams, sign up for and attend the discussions.

MAPS: I expect that you own a globe or a world wall map; I use a map in class quite a bit. There are lots of maps in the chapters in the textbooks; be sure you can locate the places we talk about on a world map, such as: Darwin’s voyage, Madagascar, orang habitat, Olduvai Gorge, Java, Neandertal caves, etc. There may be maps on the exams and quizzes. Here is a map you can use for notes in class and while reading, don’t be afraid to mark it up.

A105/A303 READING AND LECTURE SCHEDULE

Week One: Tuesday/Thursday January 8 & 10

What is anthropology? Science? Evolution? Culture? The subfields of Anthropology. The real meaning of the terms myth and theory. Linnaeus & taxonomy. Humans among the animals. Primates

READ Human Antiquity pages xi & xii (“To the Reader”) and all of Chapter One (NOT, as one student once thought, all of Part One, which contains three chapters). Also read the middle part of page 24 about Linnaeus, and pages 104 -110 about Linnaean taxonomy and 113 - 117 about primates; and the bottom half of page 205 and 206 about Linnaeus and bears. ALSO LOOK AT The Glossary of terms (pages G-5 thru G-16 near the end of the book), a section that you will refer back to every week as you come across new terms. We will also use the terms in the Glossary of Human and Nonhuman Primates on pages G-1 to G-4 beginning next week, so make use of that glossary too in the future.

READ pages 8 & 9 in the Monkeys book, and browse thru all of it looking at the pictures.

READ in 08/09 BOOK: page 9 & 10 and most of 11 about Linnaeus, and then all of article # 14 “Are we in Anthropodenial?”.     READ in Wood book pages 13 & 14 about Linnaeus.

Week Two: Tuesday/Thursday January 15 & 17

QUIZ on Week One readings and Lectures. Lectures on Primates: Prosimians, New World Monkeys, and Old World Monkeys. Find some primate picture books (like Time-Life or Zoobooks) and look at photos; these books and a much more detailed one by Rowe are on library reserve under MUCCI. Study Primates Chart handout

READ pages 10-29 in the Monkeys & Apes book; begin studying the glossary on pages 44-45.

READ pages 117-122 in Human Antiquity.

READ in the 08/09 book: page 39, # 16 “What are Friends for?”, and # 9 “The Mind of the Chimpanzee” Many good articles in the 08/09 book go with the material for this week (and future weeks too), but unless they are listed in this syllabus, they are optional reading; read as many of them as you find interesting. Optional: You can learn a lot about primates on the web; a good place to start is at: http://anthro.palomar.edu/primate/ (Practice quizzes even!)

And these are all good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primates , http://www.primates.com/

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Primates.html

Or visit: http://elizabetholin.tripod.com/anintroductiontononhumanprimates1.html for a page written by a student in this class (but block the pop-ups). And this is a great site:

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~reffland/anthropology/anthro2003/origins/primates.html

Also look for shows about primates on TV channels like Animal Planet and Discovery.

Week Three: Tuesday/Thursday January 22 & 24

Lectures on Apes and on primate social behavior. Causes of sexual dimorphism. Do primates have "culture"? Humans: how are we similar to (yet different from) other primates. READ Human Antiquity 122 - 129 & mid 147 - 158

READ rest of the Monkeys & Apes book.

READ in 08/09 page 73, articles # 17 "What's Love got to do with it?", & # 10 “Got Culture?". Continue to browse the primates web sites. http://www.unep.org/grasp/

STUDY THE ZOO REPORT INSTRUCTIONS, THEN GO TO THE ZOO.

Week Four: Tuesday/Thursday January 29 & 31

Early Naturalists: Buffon & Lamarck, Hutton & Malthus, Cuvier; Boucher de Perthes and other early archaeologists.

READ Human Antiquity pages 16-mid 29; mid 32 - 41. Study the time chart on 40 - 41, and refer back to it in the next few weeks as needed. READ page 47 in the Xeroxed article "Evolution" by Mayr;

READ in 08/09: page 1, and all of article # 2 "Happy Birthday, Linnaeus”

READ in Wood: pages 1 thru mid 17, and study time chart pages 116-119 (use every week).

See: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/cuvier.html and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck

If you haven't yet done so, GO TO THE ZOO!

Week Five: Tuesday/Thursday February 5 & 7

Darwin & Wallace. Aftermath of Origin; Natural Selection; Mendel and Genetics. Study Genetics Handout.

READ rest of Xeroxed article "Evolution" by Ernst Mayr.

READ in 08/09 # 1 "The Facts of Evolution" & # 3 “Evolution in Action”

READ Human Antiquity pages mid 29 - 32 & from mid 84 to the figure on top of 87. READ pages 17 - 23 in Wood book.

See: http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/Default.htm

NOTE: all of Darwin’s Origin of Species is on line, so if you want to see a sample, go to:

http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-origin-of-species/

Week Six: Tuesday/Thursday February 12 & 14

Darwin Day speakers in LCC 105C noon to 2 on Wed Feb 13; if you come and take notes, you can get credit for a bonus quiz.

Mutations, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift. Scientific Creationism. The Trickster Hypothesis. We'll look at the VIDEO: God, Darwin, & the Dinosaurs. Much of this lecture is not in the readings, so take good notes and pay attention to the video.

READ Human Antiquity pages 42-47, 70-mid 82, & 87 - 103.

READ in 08/09: # 6 “Designer Thinking” & # 4 “15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense” STUDY creationism handout. Maybe visit:

 http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-creationists.html

http://www.skepticreport.com/creationism/thingscreationistshate.htm

Finish your zoo report, it is due next Tuesday (no quiz that week)

Week Seven: Tuesday/Thursday February 19 & 21

Zoo report due Tuesday (Remember to hand in your notes/tapes etc.) NO QUIZ THIS WEEK

Population genetics; the Synthetic Theory.

READ in Wood: all of Chapter 4.

READ in 08/09: # 20 “The Salamander’s Tale”

READ everything that was assigned last week that you did not get to read yet.

IN Human Antiquity : review earlier material on evolution, including Weeks 4, 5, & 6.

REVIEW: Xerox article by Mayr; REVIEW # 1 in 08/09.

 Visit: http://anthro.palomar.edu/synthetic/default.htm

Week Eight: Tuesday/Thursday February 26 & 28

Two Quizzes on Tuesday: one on Week six and one on Week seven. The Timetable of evolution. Evolution of mammals and primates. Homologies & analogies. Cladistics: grades & Clades. CAUTION: some of the lecture material is NOT in the readings. The Ramapithecus boo-boo. Miocene apes. Midterm study guide.

READ Human Antiquity all of Chapter 3 & also pages 110-113; 129-141; & 142-mid 147. READ in 08/09: # 8 “The 2% Difference”

You must study http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sivapithecus

Maybe visit: http://teresi.us/html/writing/fish_evolution.html

and: http://anthro.palomar.edu/earlyprimates/first_primates.htm

and: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_03.html

The Mid Term exam is next Thursday

Week Nine: Tuesday March 4: quiz on Week 8 & review lecture

Thursday March 6: MIDTERM EXAM

SPRING BREAK March 10-14 One Dollar Used Book Sale is week of March 17-21

Week Ten: Tuesday/Thursday March 18 & 20

NO QUIZ THIS WEEK!

Tuesday: South African Australopithecines. The work of Dart and Broom. Neoteny. PILTDOWN MAN. Forensics & Bioarchaeology. Beginning this Week and for the rest of the semester, study the skulls, tools, and other info in the Anthro showcase in the lobby of the Library. Thursday: East African Australopithecines. The Leakey Family's & Don Johanson's finds. The Black Skull. Handouts on Phylogeny and evolution. Relative dating & stratigraphy. Absolute dating; K-Ar.

READ Human Antiquity pages 176-179 on dating, bottom 182-183 on K/Ar dating, 196 on Taphonomy, 203-213, and all of Chapter 8.

READ in 08/09: page 93 and article # 21 “African Trailblazers”

READ in Wood: Chapters 3 & 6

The book is skimpy here, so you can learn more about Dart and Broom at: http://anthro.palomar.edu/hominid/australo_1.htm

and you must learn about Neoteny at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny

This is difficult material, and many students tell me they found that looking at web sites with pictures helped them; try: http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/index.htm

and: http://www.leakeyfoundation.org/discoveries/d2_1.jsp

and: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/ and: http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vwsu/gened/learn-modules/top_longfor/timeline/timeline.html

There are neat videos on this stuff, including Lucy, at: http://www.teachersdomain.org/sci/life/evo/humanevo/index.html

Week Eleven: Tuesday/Thursday March 25 & 27

Review and more info on Australopithecines; Homo habilis. Protohominids. The origins of bipedalism. Handout.

READ Human Antiquity : Review all of Chapter 8; especially study pages 230- 246, including the charts on pages 230 & 252 in detail.

READ Human Antiquity pages 258-264 on Homo habilis, 158-162 on ethnographic analogy.

READ in 08/09 # 22 “ Hunting the First Hominid”, # 24 “Origin of Childhood”, & # 26 “Scavenger Hunt”

READ in Wood: Chapter 5; might be good idea to review Chapters 3 & 6, too.

Week Twelve: Tuesday/Thursday                               April 1 & 3

Homo erectus. Origins of language. Homo heidelbergensis (Archaic Homo sapiens).

READ Human Antiquity pages 164-176 & bottom 189-198 on archaeology, 264-mid 290 on Homo erectus, 290-296 on Homo heidelbergensis

REREAD in 08/09 pages 111 & 112 only of # 21 “African Trailblazers. READ all of # 31 “The Gift of Gab”, # 15 “A Telling Difference” & # 28 “Man the Hunted”

READ in Wood: pages 84-mid 93.

http://www.geocities.com/palaeoanthropology/Herectus.html

Week Thirteen: Tuesday/Thursday                            April 8 & 10

Neandertals and Cro-Magnon (the Modern humans, Upper Paleolithic people of Europe); Radiocarbon C14 dating.

READ Human Antiquity pages 296-317 on Neandertals, 356-381 on Upper Paleolithic People, pages 180-182 on Carbon-14 dating.

READ in 08/09: page 129, then # 29 “Hard Times among the Neanderthals”, and # 19 “Mothers and Others”

READ in Wood: pages bottom 93-99.

http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_2.htm

Week Fourteen: Tuesday/Thursday        April 15 & 17

The First Americans. Theories about the Origins of Modern Humans. Hobbit people?

READ Human Antiquity pages 318-341 (pay attention to the Aurignacian & Chatelperronian cultures); 381-405; and 314- 315 on Hobbits.

READ in 08/09 # 32 “We are all Africans”,

# 42 “Dr Darwin”, & # 33 “The Littlest Human”

READ in Wood: Chapter 8

More on the Upper Paleolithic, spear throwers, and stone tools at: http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_5.htm

Nice review of hominids and stone tools at: http://www.handprint.com/LS/ANC/stones.html

For “Recent Out of Africa”, Multiregional, and Compromise “Mostly Out of Africa” models, see: http://www.geocities.com/palaeoanthropology/OutofAfrica.html

and: http://www.geocities.com/palaeoanthropology/Multiregional.html

 Week Fifteen: Tuesday/Thursday                             April 22 & 24

After the Ice Age: the Mesolithic, the Neolithic, Agriculture and Civilization. The myth of human biological races. Human biological variation: genetic and environmental. Plasticity.

Handouts: Race; Final exam study guide. I suggest you do this week’s reading between Tuesday and Thursday of this week so you can use the weekend to review for the final.

READ Human Antiquity pages 214-223, bottom 341-355, 406-417, 422- top of 428, 445-461, 464-475.

READ in 08/09 page 155, then # 34 “Skin Deep”, # 35 "Black, White, Other", # 36 “How Real is Race”, & # 38 “The Tall and the Short of It”

For more on RACE, See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race

For more on the transition to agriculture, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolithic

For more on “Human’s Greatest Mistake”, see: http://www.agron.iastate.edu/courses/agron342/diamondmistake.html

We're done with the textbook, but if you would like to know more about prehistoric human culture, the material in the rest of the text (and more) is the focus of the course ANTH P200/E400/S362 Prehistoric Archaeology (I am also teaching that course in Spring 2008); some is also covered in the course ANTH P260/P360/S362 Indians Before Columbus.

Final exam Tuesday April 29, 2008. Two hour exam, same time, same room.

http://www.iun.edu/~anthronw/A103syllabus.htm rev 1.0, January 2, 2008. Comments: Bob Mucci