This course introduces the basic concepts of anthropology and assesses variations of human behavior among many cultures. Students discuss kinship and social organization, ritual and ideology, political organization and government, subsistence, and technology found in tribal and peasant societies. Cultural changes among these societies resulting from the expansion of the industrial world are also examined. Open to Lowers, Uppers, and Seniors. This introduction to physical anthropology surveys human origins and the evolutionary process by which humans became a distinct species.
Students examine the origins of culture and the interaction of biological and cultural evolution.
They then review the genetic basis for hominids and the findings of primate studies as these relate to the behavior of Homo sapiens today. Open to Lowers, Uppers, and Seniors.