Anthropology Event

Speakers are Mark Hoyert, Christine Malcom, Kris Huysken, and Kathy Forgey, discussing evolutionary topics relating to the fields of psychology, anthropology, geology, and bioarchaeology, genetics and forensics.

IUN Darwin Day features several excellent speakers on evolution and Darwin, cake and songs, and just plain fun.  The featured speakers will each talk for 20 to 30 minutes, with a few minutes for questions between talks.  So come whenever you can, and stay as long as you want.

Schedule:
1:00   "Galton, Darwin, Thought, Intelligence: Some Influences of Darwin on the Study of Cognition"
Mark Hoyert, Associate Professor and Chair, Psychology     
In this talk, Dr. Hoyert will consider some aspects of the immeasurable influence that Darwin and evolution have had on our efforts to understand human thought and intelligence.  Darwinian influences in psychology have mirrored those in other fields in general. Some of the influences have led to successful insights  while some have led to questionable applications.

1:30  "Death-Bed Confessions of a Flat Earther"
Christine Malcom, Adjunct Instructor in Anthropology
This talk is about the myths that have been constructed to fuel the feud between religion and science.
Christine Malcom is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago; her fieldwork in bioarchaeology focuses on population genetics and biocultural models of the pre-contact Chiribaya culture of southern Peru.

2:00  "Rifting and Drifting: Understanding Our Ever-Evolving Earth"
Kristin Huysken, Assistant Professor of Geosciences
The Earth has changed dramatically since its formation and continues to change through time.  So, too has our scientific understanding of the processes that cause these changes.  This talk will focus on how ideas about continental drift and plate tectonics evolved through the 20th Century with the discovery of new scientific evidence.
Kristin Huysken teaches introductory courses in Earth Science, geologic hazards, and geology of Indiana, and upper level courses in 'hard rock' geology.  She conducts research on volcanic rocks in Ontario, Canada, and southwestern Nevada, and on historical earthquakes in northwest Indiana and northeastern Illinois.
 

2:30  "Human Trophy Heads: Evidence of Warfare or Ancestor Veneration in pre-contact Peru"
Kathleen Forgey, Adjunct Instructor in Anthropology
The focus of her talk is to examine the role of prehistoric human trophy heads from the Nasca Valley, Peru, by exploring their origin: are they the ancestors of the people they are found with, or are they trophies drawn from a different population?  She has addressed this problem by comparing the trophy skulls to the indigenous people using two methodological perspectives:  examining the skeletal record of mummified burials, and extracting and analyzing ancient DNA.
Kathy Forgey is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago; this talk is about her dissertation research in bioarchaeology.

 
Oh, and we will be selling the Darwin fish emblems and Anthro Club and Darwin T-shirts.

Click here to hear the "Long Way from Amphioxus" song!
(This link plays the song as a Realplayer download stream from the San Diego Historical Society site.)

Learn more about Darwin Day, an international celebration, at: http://www.darwinday.org/

At right is Charles Darwin's tomb in Westminster Abbey

A wonderful site on Darwin's life can be found at:  http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban/Darwin/DarwinSem-S95.html
A site called "Things Creationists Hate":http://riceinfo.rice.edu/armadillo/Sciacademy/riggins/things.htm
A site that seems to cover both sides: http://www.linkline.com/personal/frice/FLIST017.HTM
And a decidedly anti-evolution site:  http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/20hist10.htm
 
 

 

For more events, visit the IUN Anthropology Home Page