ANTH 2061 - Anthropology of Human Nature

Credits: 3
Hours/Week: Lecture 3Lab None
Course Description: This class introduces the broad anthropological study of behavior from a Darwinian perspective. Students explore the evidence concerning the evolution of primate behavior and the past several million years of human evolution with a strong emphasis on the behavior of our ancestors. Initial topics include a detailed introduction to natural selection and a brief survey of human evolution. This is followed by readings and lectures on the evolution of primate and human tool use, diet, food-sharing, cooperation, mate selection, sex, child-rearing, and conflict. Finally, the course explores cross-cultural patterns in modern human behavior.
MnTC Goals
5 History/Social/Behavioral Science, 10 People/Environment

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1021 with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: ANTH 1021 or ANTH 1022 with a grade of C or higher.

Major Content

Introduction to Anthropology
Human evolution
Primate behavior
The evolution of human behavior
The evolution of human parenting
Human universals
Human evolutionary psychology
Human conflict
Social science writing instruction
The history of evolutionary thought

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course students will be able to:

analyze the basic principles of natural selection.
construct an argumentative paper built around an evolutionary thesis.
evaluate claims concerning the nature/nurture debate regarding human behavior.
analyze the data on universal patterns of modern human behavior.
explain the evolution of human behavior.

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ANTH 2061 - Anthropology of Human Nature