Anthropology 348 Primate Socioecology Fall 2007

(© Ryne A. Palombit) "He who understands [the] baboon, would do more toward metaphysics than Locke." --Charles Darwin

001 Biological Sciences Bldg (Douglass Campus)
Phone: (732) 932-5214
Email: palombit@rci.rutgers.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday, 5:15-6:15pm & Thursday, 2-3pm

Textbooks:

Strier, K.B.. 2007. Primate Behavioral Ecology, 3rd ed.  Allyn & Bacon, Boston.

Meeting Time & Place:         Mon/Wed 3:55-5:15 pm in BioSci 205

Requirements:
1.  Midterm (25%)
2.  Final Exam (30%)
3.  Term Paper (35%)
4.  Class Discussions (5%) & Term Paper Topic Assignment (5%)

Classroom etiquette
While students are in class, they are expected to give their full attention to the lecture.  Reading, talking, eating, text-messaging on cell phone, leaving or packing up to leave before the professor has dismissed the class are inappropriate classroom behaviors and disruptive to other students.  If for some reason you know that you will need to leave lecture early, let me know before class begins, sit near a door, and leave quietly and unobtrusively.  If you come to class late, be sure to enter quietly and take care not to disturb the class in progress.  Also, please make sure that your watch alarms, pagers, and cell phones do not go off during class..

The Term Paper:
This paper will be on a subject of your choice, but must have both a topical and an organismal focus (e.g., “Why are marmosets polyandrous?”).  The paper should employ evolutionary theory that you learn from the lectures and reading to interpret some social or ecological phenomenon (e.g., sexual dimorphism, polyandry, monogamy, folivory, polyspecific associations, etc.), and it must thoroughly cover the literature on some taxonomic subset of primates (a species [e.g., Pongo pygmaeus], or genus [e.g., Cercocebus], or subfamily [e.g., Atelinae], etc.).  You are expected to use the library’s reference tools to ensure use of the recent literature & also to learn to do scholarly work.  A handout dealing with the term paper will be distributed. The paper should be about 10 pages, double-spaced.  Email a “why” question about a specific phenomenon in a particular taxon to me on or before October 10 (5% of your course grade depends upon this) & I will provide feedback.  Some topics (e.g.,  locomotion, cognition) don’t work well.  Students cannot duplicate topics & taxa: topics are allocated on “first come, first serve” basis (so email as soon as you have your topic, but be prepared to switch if someone else is already doing it).  The paper is due Dec 3.

Schedule of Meetings & Readings