Ecology of human evolution: biological, social and cultural approaches to hominin adaptations.

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• acquire study skills using a range of archaeological, primatological/ethnographic, biological and palaeoenvironmental data;
• demonstrate a detailed knowledge of key themes in human ecology and evolution.
• become familiar with interdisciplinary fields of knowledge, and how to communicate these approaches to different audiences;

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• specific models from evolutionary ecology in relation to subsistence behaviour among hunter-gatherers and great apes;
• the different analytical scales needed to examine processes of change in hominin populations;
• the increasing extent to which stable isotopic and genetic data can be combined to inform palaeoanthropological interpretations of human evolution;
• the effects of palaeoenvironmental conditions on hominin behavioural and physiological variability and change (speciation and extinction);
• the role of social choice and epigenetics in hominin diversity.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• evaluate published arguments, and present information and opinion concisely to audiences of different abilities.

This module will combine approaches from human origins and biological anthropological research to evaluate how we can reconstruct the ecologies (in the broad sense) of hominins. We shall focus on hominin records between 6 million and 10,000 years ago. Multiple frameworks and lines of evidence will be evaluated, using a mix of lectures, seminars, group-based and individual research. You will have the opportunity to evaluate the latest techniques (many operating at the microscopic and molecular levels) that are helping to revolutionise palaeoanthropology. Each of the six frameworks/themes comprising the module will be spread over 2-4 double lecture slots, augmented by three seminars.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures
• Classes/Seminars
• Group-based outreach project

Learning activities include:

• Lectures
• Classes/Seminars
• Group-produced outreach materials
• Independent study

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Collection of fossil casts and Palaeolithic artefacts in the John Wymer Laboratory. 65a/1205

Textbooks

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

Dunbar, R. (2014). Human Evolution: A Pelican Introduction. London: Pelican/Penguin Books.

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

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

Allen, N.J., Callan, H., Dunbar, R. & W. James (eds.) (2011). Early Human Kinship: From sex to social reproduction. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell & Royal Anthropological Institute.

Strier, K.B. (2011). Primate Behavioral Ecology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

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

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

Whallon, R., Lovis, W.A. & R.K. Hitchcock (eds.) (2011). Information and its role in hunter-gatherer bands. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press (Ideas, Debates and Perspectives 5).

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

Kelly, R.L. (2013). The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The foraging spectrum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

de Beaune, S.A., Coolidge, F.L. & T. Wynn (eds.) (2009). Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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

Panter-Brick, C., Layton, R.H. & P. Rowley-Conwy (eds.) (2001). Hunter-Gatherers: An interdisciplinary perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dunbar, R.I.M., Gamble, C. & J.A.J. Gowlett (eds.) (2014). Lucy to Language: The benchmark papers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Assessment strategy

There are two assignments for this module: (1) a group-based public engagement project to convey complex ideas about human evolution to an interested lay audience, and (2) an essay exploring a key theme of human evolution and ecology in depth (independent research).

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

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External