Human Dispersal and Evolution

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the extent to which archaeological and ethnographic data on human dispersal can be combined to form interpretations built on evolutionary principles;
• at least one hominin ancestor in order to understand the impact of environment on their anatomy and behaviour;
• the contribution that the world-wide ethnography of hunters and gatherers can make to the interpretation of archaeological evidence.
• the effects of palaeoenvironmental conditions on hominin behavioural variability and change;
• general models from evolutionary ecology in relation to subsistence behaviour among hunter-gatherers and great apes;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• become familiar with new fields of knowledge, such as social cognition and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, and to see how these can be built into a geography and archaeology of dispersal and behavioural change.
• Acquire study skills using a range of archaeological, geographical and primatological/ethnographic sources

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• evaluate published arguments and present information and opinion concisely
• contribute towards team discussion and consensus
• develop within your peer group written and oral presentation skills

This module will examine the archaeological and skeletal evidence for early population dispersals, focussing on the early hominin migrations between 6 million and 10,000 years ago (but also comparing them to the later maritime dispersals, 5000-4000 years ago, that colonised the Pacific). Theoretical frameworks will be introduced at the start, followed by chronologically-organised coverage of the palaeoanthropological evidence. You will be encouraged to develop a detailed knowledge of at least one hominin species in its archaeological, ecological and environmental context.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• Lectures
• Classes/Seminars
• Group-based oral presentations

Learning activities include

• Lectures
• Classes/Seminars
• Group-based oral presentations
• Independent study

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Gamble, C., Gowlett, J. & R (2014). Thinking Big: How the evolution of social life shaped the human mind. London: Thames & Hudson.

Stringer, C. & P. Andrews (2005). The complete world of human evolution. London: Thames & Hudson.

Johanson, D. & B. Edgar (1996). From Lucy to language. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Gamble C.S. (2007). Origins and revolutions: human identity in earliest prehistory. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Lee, R.B. & R. Daly (eds.) (1999). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of hunters & gatherers. Cambridge: CUP.

Gamble, C. (2013). Settling the Earth: The Archaeology of deep human history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ingold, T. (2000). The perception of the environment: essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.

Klein, R.G. (2009). The human career: human biological and cultural origins. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kelly,R.L. (2013). The foraging spectrum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gamble, C.S. (1999). The Palaeolithic Societies of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shryock, A. & DD.L. Smail (et al.) (2011). Deep History: The architecture of past and present. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External