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ANTH 336: The Story of Us: The Evolution of Human Behaviour (Rev. 2 & 3) Report a Broken Link

ANTH 336 is designed to engage students with a selection of subjects and themes within the field of evolutionary anthropology. This subfield is concerned primarily with the biological origins of particular aspects of human behaviour and evolution. In this course, students will gain an appreciation of how evolution has shaped who we are and how some aspects of our behaviour may be adaptations to the social and ecological environments in which our ancestors lived. This course requires students to read and critically analyze both empirical papers and review articles that test hypotheses and summarize findings that form the theoretical basis of evolutionary anthropology. The reading material and required assignments in this course are intended to engage students in the story of humanity, and the hope is that you will be inspired to further explore these and other topics in your exploration of evolutionary (and, more broadly, biological) anthropology.

Unit 1: Understanding Human Behavioural Adaptations

Fuentes, Agustin. “Chapter 1: The Relevance of Understanding Human Behavioral Evolution.” In Evolution of Human Behavior, 3–15. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Fuentes, Agustin. “Chapter 2: Why We Behave Like Humans: Historical Perspectives and Basal Assumptions.” In Evolution of Human Behavior, 16–36. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Unit 2: Basic Bones and Stones: A Review of the Human Fossil Record

Fuentes, Agustin. “Chapter 4: Basic Bones and Stones: What Do We Know about the Record of Human Evolution (as of 2008)?” In Evolution of Human Behavior, 64–94. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Unit 3: The Value of a Cross-Species Perspective in Understanding Human Adaptations

Pavelka, Mary M. “Resistance to the Cross-Species Perspective in Anthropology.” In Primates Face to Face, edited by Agustín Fuentes and Linda D. Wolfe, 25–40. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Unit 4: Evolutionary Psychology

Buss, David M. “Evolutionary Psychology: A New Paradigm for Psychological Science.” Psychological Inquiry 6, no. 1 (1995): 1–30.

Read only pp. 1–16 (up to “Implications for the Key Branches of Psychology”)
Buller, David J. “Four Fallacies of Pop Evolutionary Psychology.” In “The Evolution of Evolution,” special issue, Scientific American 300, no. 1 (2009): 74–81.

Unit 5: Human Mate Preference and Pair Bonding: Proximate and Functional Mechanisms

Quinlan, Robert J. “Human Pair-Bonds: Evolutionary Functions, Ecological Variation and Adaptive Development.” Evolutionary Anthropology 17, no. 5 (2008): 227–238.
Feinberg, David R. “Are Human Faces and Voices Ornaments Signaling Common Underlying Cues to Mate Value?” Evolutionary Anthropology 17, no. 2 (2008): 112–118.

Unit 6: Human Menopause

Fedigan, Linda Marie, and Mary S. M. Pavelka. “Reproductive Cessation in Female Primates: Comparisons of Japanese Macaques and Humans.” In Primates in Perspective, edited by C. Campbell, A. Fuentes, K. C. Mackinnon, M. Panger, and S. Bearder, 437–447. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Unit 7: The Evolutionary Origins of Human Language, Part I: What Is It and Who Has It?

Seyfarth, Robert M., Dorothy L. Cheney, and Peter Marler. “Monkey Responses to Three Different Alarm Calls: Evidence of Predator Classification and Semantic Communication.” Science 210, no. 4471 (1980): 801–803.
Fromkin, V., N. Rodman, N. Hyams, and K. Rummel. “Chapter 15: Animal Communication.” In An Introduction to Language, 4th edition, 631–642. Nelson Education, 2010.

Unit 8: The Evolutionary Origins of Human Language, Part II: Where Did It Come From?

Corballis, Michael C. “The Gestural Origins of Human Language.” American Scientist 87, no 2 (1999): 138–145.
Tattersall, Ian. “How We Came to Be.” Scientific American 285, no. 6 (2001): 56–63.

Unit 9: Gene-Culture Evolution and Human Diets

Burini, Roberto Carlos, and William R. Leonard. “The Evolutionary Roles of Nutrition Selection and Dietary Quality in the Human Brain Size and Encephalization.” Nutrire 43, no. 19 (2018).
Arjamaa, Olli, and Timo Vuorisalo. “Gene-Culture Coevolution and Human Diet.” American Scientist 98, no. 2 (2010): 140–147.

Unit 10: The Adaptive Value of Religion

Sosis, Richard, and Candace Alcorta. “Signaling, Solidarity and the Sacred: The Evolution of Religious Behaviour.” Evolutionary Anthropology 12, no. 6 (2003): 264–274.

Unit 11: The Future of Homo sapiens: Are We Still Evolving?

Pritchard, Jonathan K. “How We Are Evolving.” Scientific American 303, no. 4 (2010): 40–47.
Ward, Peter. “What Will Become of Homo sapiens?” In “The Evolution of Evolution,” special issue, Scientific American 300, no. 1 (2009): 68–73.

Essay Assignment

Topic 1
Smuts, Barbara. “Male Aggression Against Women: An Evolutionary Perspective.” Human Nature 3, no. 1 (1992): 1–44.
Smuts, Barbara, and Robert W. Smuts. "Male Aggression and Sexual Coercion of Females in Nonhuman Primates and Other Mammals: Evidence and Theoretical Implications." Advances in the Study of Behavior 22 (1993): 1–63.
Topic 2
Corbey, Raymond, Adam Jagich, Krist Vaesen, and Mark Collard. “The Acheulean Handaxe: More Like a Bird’s Song Than a Beatles’ Tune?" Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 25, no. 1 (2016): 6–19.
Hosfield, Robert, James Cole, and John McNabb. “Less of a Bird’s Song Than a Hard Rock Ensemble.” Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 27, no. 1 (2018): 9–20.
Wynn, Thomas, and John Gowlett. “The Handaxe Reconsidered.” Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 27, no. 1 (2018): 21–29.
Topic 3
Peccei, Jocelyn Scott. “Menopause: Adaptation or Epiphenomenon?” Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 10, no. 2 (2001): 43–57.
Kirchengast, Sylvia. “Menopause Female Reproductive Senescence from the Viewpoint of Evolutionary Anthropology.” In A Multidisciplinary Look at Menopause, edited by Juan Francisco Rodriguez-Landa and Jonathan Cueto-Escobedo. London: InTech, 2017.
Takahashi, Mike, Rama S. Singh, and John Stone. “A Theory for the Origin of Human Menopause.” Frontiers in Genetics 7, no. 222 (2017).