Graduate Courses in Evolutionary Biology
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Faculty |
Full Graduate Curriculum |
Undergraduate
Courses |
Examination of problems in social structure and organization
with special reference to descent and alliance theory, kinship semantics
and formal analysis, and evolution of social systems.
16:070:508. Evolutionary Theory and Processes [3]
Natural selection, adaptation, evolutionary genetics, speciation, extinction, adaptive radiation, and macroevolution with special emphasis on human and non-human primate evolution.Examination of the anthropological orthodoxy that kinship systems are a property of culture and hence of human society; systematic examination of the role of kinship in the lives of other species, particularly the higher primates. The adaptational significance of human innovations.
Syllabus: Shapiro 2004
Effects of the industrial system on kinship behavior, socialization
of the young, the use of time, ethnicity and kinship interests, and "alienation."
Limited, focused research project by the student.
Religion in the known cultures of the world, with special
attention to ritual and myth. Detailed examination of particular ethnographic
sources. The link between religious universals and theories of human nature.
For graduate students wishing to pursue advanced work in
areas not provided for in formal courses. Conferences, reading, and empirical
work arranged in consultation with the professor in charge.
For graduate students wishing to pursue advanced work in
areas not provided for in formal courses. Conferences, reading, and
empirical work arranged in consultation with the professor in charge.
The fossil Old World higher primates; the Miocene fossil
apes; problems of when, where, and why hominids first appeared; the australopithecines
of Plio/Pleistocene Africa; early genus Homo; Homo erectus;
Neanderthals; the appearance of anatomically modern human; Paleolithic cultures.
Syllabus: Cachel 2004
Consideration of human and primate behavior from an evolutionary perspective. Topics include aggression, territorial behavior, sexuality and mating systems, socialization, and sex roles in primate society.
Recent papers on key topics in social evolution, such as
female choice, symmetry, parasites, virulence, kinship, homosexuality, reciprocal
altruism, and self-deception. Special emphasis on human data.
The dynamics of basic social bonds, such as the mother-child
bond, the mating bond, the bond between older and younger males, and the
sibling bond, analyzed in terms of their evolution and of their significance
for micro and macro social structures.
Syllabus: Palombit 2006
The place of biology in the social sciences, relevance
of the comparative sociology of animal societies; the phylogeny of behavior;
special problems of aggression, territory, sexual and parental relationships,
and language.
Syllabi: Rose 2004 (Neotropical
Primates); Cronk 2003 (Evolution
& Culture)
An examination of primate morphology with special emphasis
on the evolution of human morphological adaptations.
Variation in body size, shape. Structural morphology,
pigmentation, and biochemistry among living humans; climatic adaptation,
disease, and human evolution; population origins through migration or local
continuity through evolutionary time.
Syllabus: Cachel 2002
The behavior of the nonhuman primates, emphasizing the relationship between ecology and social organization; the structure of social groups; and the development of behavior.
Syllabus: Palombit 2005
Methods, findings, theoretical developments of sexual selection studies in primates. Evolution of sex differences in behavior, sexuality, and morphology. Focus on primates in the comparative framework of studies of other organisms.
Syllabus: Palombit 2003
Implications of the existence of sympatric species; limits
to similarity imposed by the coexistence of competing species; controversies
surrounding the establishment of taxa; phylogenetic reconstructions.
Exploration of primate history in terms of evolutionary
radiations. Emphasis on entrance to and radiation within new adaptive zones
and the change of these zones through time, using morphological and paleoecological
information.
Syllabus: Cachel 2004
Current uses and philosophical-historical bases of biological
explanations of human behavior in social sciences. Role of animal behavior,
cross-cultural, and genetic-neuro-hormonal data in the analysis of human
social behavior.
For graduate students wishing to pursue advanced work in
areas not provided for in formal courses. Conferences, reading, and laboratory
work arranged in consultation with the professor in charge.
Current techniques for quantifying and sampling behavior in the field. Specialized subjects include: habitat description, phenology, audio recording, experimental design (playbacks), capture/immobilization, hormonal and DNA sampling, GPS/GIS, equipment.
Syllabus: Palombit 2001
Key data and current interpretive models concerning the
archaeology of hominid adaptations from earliest times through the Neolithic
in the Old World.
Conceptual basis and assumptions used in the formulation
of research designs and the interpretation of research results; examination
of fieldwork problems and techniques, with emphasis on the problems of observation,
use of documentary sources, surveying and excavation, and use of quantitative
data.
Methods of environmental reconstruction. Emphasis on the
evolution of subsistence economies, with special attention to the origins
of animal and plant domestication.
For graduate students wishing to pursue advanced work in
areas not provided for in formal courses. Conferences, reading, and
laboratory work arranged in consultation with the professor in charge.
Syllabus: Schrire 2004
The intellectual history and philosophy of social science;
exploration of the origins of the social and behavioral sciences in the western
humanistic tradition.