Becoming Human

Human evolutionary studies is a composite product of the fieldwork of both Paleolithic archaeology and human paleontology (or what we refer to as "stones and bones"). This marriage of two subdisciplines of anthropology produces a unique set of data that is intellectually managed and driven by theories within anthropology as a whole and even beyond--to fields such as biology, psychology, and primate ethology--as we try to understand the origins of language, culture, and our unique physical characteristics. In this course, two archaeologists and one physical anthropologist will jointly discuss and debate the actual evidence of human evolution, describing what the actual evidence is and exploring how far can we take these interpretations.