The Origins of Modern Humanity. Modern humans differ not only from other animals but from their predecessors. We draw on genetics, fossils, and archaeology to outline and explain how these differences came about. Race and Human Evolution. This course studies the complex and reciprocal relationship between the race concept and human evolution from historical and biological perspectives.
Emphasis is placed on the relationship between science and sociopolitical policies.
The influence of the race concept on 19th and 20th century evolutionary ideas and the interpretation of fossil human discoveries is fully explored. Special focus is placed on Late Pleistocene human evolution because the Neandertal discoveries had a profound influence on western thought. Biology, Society, and Culture. An elementary study of the nature of man from the perspectives of the biological and behavioral sciences. Equal emphasis is put on the way biological factors influence behavior and the way behavioral factors influence human biology.