| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Introduction: The Search for Human Ancestors, Approaches to the Study of Human Evolution and an Introduction to Human Osteology | Campbell, et al. Chapters 1 and 3. |
| 3-4 | Evolutionary Processes and Time Scales | Campbell, et al. Chapters 2 and 5, pp. 132-37, appendix 2 |
| 5 | Modern Primates and Their Relevance to Understanding Human Origins | Campbell, et al. Chapter 4. Waal. 1995 Mitani et al. 2002. |
| 6 | Tertiary Higher Primates: Our Pre-Hominid Predecessors | Campbell, et al. Chapter 5. Begun. 2003. |
| 7-8 | Earliest Hominids: The Australopithecines and Affines | Campbell, et al. Chapters 6, 7, and 8. Aiello and Collard. 2001. |
| 9 | Early Hominids - Variations and Taxonomy - Presentations | |
| 10 | Hominid / Human Origins: Hypotheses and Speculation | Campbell, et al. Chapters 8 and 9. (esp. pp. 240-250.) Isaac. 1978. Lovejoy. 1993. Bingham. 2000. |
| 11 | Early Homo: How Should Homo Be Defined? | Campbell, et al. Chapter 8. Wood and Collard. 1999. |
| 12-13 | The Archaeology of the Early Hominids I: Olduvai Gorge and Koobi Fora | Campbell, et al. Chapter 9. Bunn, et al. 1980. |
| 14 | The Archaeology of the Early Hominids II: Interpreting Early Hominid Behavior and Current Research Directions | Campbell, et al. Chapter 9. |
| 15 | Midterm Exam | |
| 16 | Homo ergaster and erectus: Emerging Modern Morphology | Campbell, et al. Chapter 10. Gabunia, et al. 2001. |
| 17 | Slowly Emerging Modern Behaviors: Early Stone Age / Lower Palaeolithic Age | Campbell, et al. Chapters 11, 12, and 13. Ambrose. 2001. Shipman, et al. 1981. |
| 18 | Homo heidelbergensis and neanderthalensis or Early "Archaic" H. sapiens? | Campbell, et al. Chapters 12 and 13. Rightmire. 1998. |
| 19-20 | "Archaics": Not Quite Us Physically, Not Quite Us Mentally | Campbell, et al. Chapter 14. Fischman. 1992. Wong. 2000. |
| 21 | Origin of Modern Homo sapiens: Morphology and Genetic Evidence | Campbell, et al. Chapter 15. White, et al. 2003. Lahr and Foley. 2004. |
| 22-23 | Modern Homo sapiens I: Cultural Diversity Becomes the Norm | Campbell, et al. Chapter 16. |
| 24 | Modern Homo sapiens II: To the Threshold of Civilization | Campbell, et al. Chapter 17. Diamond. 1987. Molleson. 1994. |
| 25-26 | Modern Human Diversity: Distribution, Morphological Variation and "Races" | Campbell, et al. Chapter 17. Molnar. Chapter 6. Jablonski and Chaplin. 2002. |
Table of Contents
Study Materials
Readings
 Help support MIT OpenCourseWare by shopping at Amazon.com! MIT OpenCourseWare offers direct links to Amazon.com to purchase the books cited in this course. Click on the Amazon logo to the left of any citation and purchase the book from Amazon.com, and MIT OpenCourseWare will receive up to 10% of all purchases you make. Your support will enable MIT to continue offering open access to MIT courses. |
Campbell, B. G., J. D. Loy, and K. Cruz-Uribe. Humankind Emerging. 9th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2005. ISBN: 9780205423804.
Aiello, L. C., and M. Collard. "Our newest oldest ancestor?" Nature 410 (2001): 526-27.
Ambrose, S. H. "Paleolithic technology and human evolution." Science 291 (2001): 1748-53.
Bingham, P. M. "Human evolution and human history: a complete theory." Evolutionary Anthropology 9, no. 6 (2000): 248-257.
Begun, D. R. "Planet of the Apes." Scientific American 289, no. 2 (August 2003): 74-83.
Bunn, H., J. W. K. Harris, G. Isaac, Z. Kaufulu, E. Kroll, K. Shick, N. Toth, and A. K. Behrensmeyer. "FxJj 50: an Early Pleistocene site in northern Kenya." World Archaeology 12, no. 2 (1980): 109-36.
Diamond, J. "The worst mistake in the history of the human race." Discover 8, no. 5 (May 1987): 64-66.
Fischman, J. "Hard evidence." Discover 13, no. 2 (February 1992): 44-51.
Gabunia, L., S. C. Antón, D. Lordkipanidze, A. Vekua, A. Justus, and C. C. Swisher III. "Dmanisi and Dispersal." Evolutionary Anthropology 10, no. 5 (2001): 158-170.
Isaac, G. L. "The food-sharing behavior of protohuman hominids." Scientific American 238, no. 4 (April 1978): 90-109.
Jablonski, N. G., and G. Chaplin. "Skin Deep." Scientific American 287, no. 4 (October 2002): 74-81.
Lahr, M. M., and R. Foley. "Human evolution writ small." Nature 431 (2004): 1043-44.
Lovejoy, O. "Modeling human origins: are we sexy because we're smart, or smart because we're sexy?" In The Origin and Evolution of Humans and Humanness. Edited by D. T. Rasmussen. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 1993, pp. 1-28. ISBN: 9780867208573.
Mitani, J. C., D. P. Watts, and M. N. Muller. "Recent Developments in the Study of Wild Chimpanzee Behavior." Evolutionary Anthropology 11, no. 1 (2002): 9-25.
Molleson, T. "The eloquent bones of Abu Hureyra." Scientific American 271, no. 2 (1994): 70-75.
Molnar, S. Human Variation. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991, pp. 212-256, chapter 6. ISBN: 9780134461625.
Rightmire, G. P. "Human evolution in the Middle Pleistocene: the role of Homo heidelbergensis." Evolutionary Anthropology 6, no. 6 (1998): 218-227.
Shipman, P., W. Bosler, and K. L. Davis. "Butchering of giant geladas at an Acheulian site." Current Anthropology 22 (1981): 257-68.
Waal, F. de. "Bonobo sex and society." Scientific American 272, no. 3 (March 1995): 82-88.
White, T. D., B. Asfaw, D. DeGusta, H. Gilbert, G. D. Richards, G. Suwa, and F. C. Howell. "Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia." Nature 423 (2003): 742-747.
Wong, K. "Who were the Neandertals?" Scientific American 282, no. 4 (April 2000): 98-107.
Wood, B., and M. Collard. "The changing face of genus Homo." Evolutionary Anthropology 8, no. 6 (1999): 195-207.