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 A105 Human Origins and Prehistory
Assignments

Assignment 3b: A Day in the Life of a Hominid

     This assignment is a chance to get creative with the material we've been learning in class.  Although the description of your task is shorter than for the media representations assignment, you'll need to take extra care to make sure your paper fulfills the requirements.

     Your first option for Assignment 3 was to critique a media representation of a hominid ancestor; this second option involves creating a blueprint for such a representation by imagining a day in the life of a hominid.  First, you'll have to choose one of the many hominid species we've been talking about in class.  Make sure you choose one that has plenty of information available on it!  Then, you'll be describing a hypothetical day in the life of that hominid, incorporating all the different lines of evidence for their adaptation we've discussed in class and read about in the text.  You'll also need to consult at least one outside source in order to get more detailed information about your chosen hominid.

   You may accomplish this description in two ways: either as a fictionalized account or as a more scientifically-oriented essay.  If you choose to write a fictionalized account, take extra care to make sure I can tell which hominid you have chosen, such as through a physical description (though of course there are other ways), keeping in mind that your characters probably won't realize that they belong to a certain species (i.e., you shouldn't start out with, "My name is Charlie, and I'm a Homo erectus.").  You'll also need to be careful not to let the story get away from you, so to speak -- I'll want to see the full range of evidence treated in either format.

    Whichever option you choose, there are a number of things you'll need to make plain in your "Day in the Life" paper:

1.  The environment.  Some hominids lived only in Africa, and others lived all over the Old World.  You'll need to make the environmental/climatic setting clear, as this will determine what the hominids will have available to them.

2.  Hominid physical characteristics.  This can be accomplished through a simple description, but it's even more effective to describe how the hominid's physical features interact with the environment (such as A. afarensis being very stable standing in small trees due to its wide hips).

3.  Hominid culture.  Mainly hypothetical for australopithecines, but becoming much more complex after 2.6 million years ago.

4.  Hominid society/relationships.  We know this only through inference for the most part, but a brief mention is good.  This is probably the area you can get most creative.

Weaving all of the above together with a dash of imagination should make for a good account of a day in the life of a hominid.

     All papers should be typed, double spaced, in a 12-point font.  You should aim for three pages.  Be sure to provide a standard citation for your outside source(s).