Life Science: Human Origins

(4 Credits)

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of biological anthropology and explores the evolutionary history of our lineage. Topics include but are not limited to human and non-human primate genetics, behavior, osteology, paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, and forensics. Particular emphases are placed on modern human biological variation and the human fossil record. In doing so, we will reconstruct the behavior—locomotor, social, sexual, and cultural—of our ancestors and close relatives using modern analogs including modern humans, our closest living relatives the great apes, and other primates and non-primate animals. This course begins with a review of cellular and molecular biology and evolutionary theory in general, then establishes our place in nature and geological time, and ends with a detailed foray into modern human origins, including fossils, artifacts, and inferred cultural behaviors. Additionally, we will explore modern human variation, including discussions of topics such as race, genetics, and sexuality.