Lecture MW 12:20-1:10pm
Discussion W 2:30-3:20pm

For how long have people been scrambling about on this planet? How
do we know anything about ancient humans or human ancestors? What is
evolution anyway and how does it work? Anthropology A105 answers
these and other pesky questions about the world and the history of
the human species. Anthropology is simply the study of people. This
course introduces two facets of anthropology: the study of human
origins and ancient cultures. We use the term paleoanthropology to
refer to this field. You will see how anthropologists look at human
evolution, how fossil hunters find evidence of it and how
archaeologists research ancient human societies. We’ll explore how
they interpret the remains of stuff, how they figure how old the
stuff is, and how they apply their interpretations to situations in
the modern world. This course will provide information about
fundamental methods and techniques used in biological anthropology
and archaeology.

Course format includes Illustrated lectures, discussions,
demonstrations, videos, and labs. Class consists of 2 lectures per
week, plus a lab/discussion section, devoted primarily to hands-on
exercises, during which you will get to handle casts of old
bones, look at stone tools, and explore some of the regions and
topics with which I and other faculty are most familiar, including
stone tool production and function, animals in the archaeological
record, genetic evidence for the peopling of the world, and other
stimulating topics. Course readings will be drawn from a textbook as
well as short supplementary readings that will be available for
download from Oncourse. There will be three exams (70% of course
grade), five short exercises (20% of course grade), and one student
project (10% of course grade).