Anthropology 160:001 THE HUMAN LIFE COURSE

An introduction to Human Evolutionary Ecology in Anthropology

Fall 2003

Tu-Th 12:30 - 1:45

105 Hibben

Scroll down to find links to the lectures.

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Dr. Hillard Kaplan

Office: Bandelier West 205 Phone 277-1541

Office Hours: Tues, 2:00-3:30 and by appointment

E-mail: hkaplan@unm.edu

GA: Jon Stieglitz

Office: Bandelier West Basement

Office hours: Wed, 10-12 and by appt.

E-mail: j0nathan@unm.edu

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Low, Bobbi S. (2000) Why Sex Matters: A Darwinian Look at Human Behavior. Princeton, NJ: Princeton

Univ. Press

Coursepack including chapters from R. Trivers (1985) Social Evolution, available for purchase at

Express Copier Service, 2300 Central SE (265-1215) and on reserve at Centennial Library

Introduction:

This course is designed as an introduction to the ideas and issues within the burgeoning field of human evolutionary ecology (also called human sociobiology, biocultural anthropology, etc). The idea that our evolutionary post has shaped the way we make life choices in the contemporary world is one of the most important and exciting new developments in the social and natural sciences today. We will explore the evolution of the human life course, and examine contemporary and historical variation in individual and social behaviors associated with childhood, adolescence, adulthood and parenthood, and old age. Some questions we will explore include: Why do people have such big brains and why do they live so long? Is biology really destiny? How and why do men and women decide what their “ideal” mate should look and act like? What do men want? What do women want? Do men and women want the same things? Why has the age of first menstruation been dropping by 3-4 months per decade for the last 150 years? Are teenage mothers really forfeiting their futures? Could they know what they are doing? Why is there no country in the world or in history where the homicide rate is higher for women than for men? Why do poor people have so many kids? Why do rich people have so few? Why do people live so long compared to most other animals? Is this really a modern phenomenon? What does it mean to say that a medieval peasant had a life expectancy of 32 years?

Course Requirements:

There will be two midterm exams (each counts for 30% of your grade) and a final (40% of your grade). Exams will consist of multiple choice questions, short answers and essays. The exams each cover one third of the readings and lectures. They are not cumulative, but your understanding of the material should increase with each exam. Short answer questions will ask you to define and give the significance of a concept important in this class. Answers will be limited to two sentences. Essay questions will ask you to write a few paragraphs on particular theoretical concepts. You will be expected to both state the concepts clearly but also to relate them to empirical findings (data). The readings and lectures complement one another, but do not duplicate one another. You must attend the lectures to pass the class.

Week 1, Aug 26, 28

1. Introduction

2. Basic Principles of Natural Selection

Readings:

Trivers: Chapter 1, A Scientific Theory of Organic Creation, pp. 1-18. (Coursepak)

Trivers: Chapter 2, Natural Selection, pp. 19-41. (Coursepak)

Week 2, Sept 2, 4

3. Natural Selection, Behavior and Learning

4. Life history theory and the evolution of the human life course

Readings:

Trivers: Chapter 5, Genetics, Behavior and Learning, pp. 87-108. (Coursepak)

Low: Chapter 1, Introduction, pp. 3-18

Week 3, Sept 9, 11

5. The Evolution of the Human Life Course, Productivity and Consumption

6. Video: The Human Quest (50 minutes) with discussion

Readings:

Kaplan et al. (2000) The embodied capital theory of human evolution (Coursepak)

Week 4, Sept 16, 18

7. Video: The Human Quest II (50 minutes) with discussion

8. Group selection, kin selection and altruism

Readings:

Trivers: Chapter 3, Elementary Social Theory, pp. 41-66. (Coursepak)

Trivers: Chapter 4, The Group Selection Fallacy, pp. 67-86. (Coursepak)

Week 5, Sept. 23, 25

9. Reciprocal Altruism

10. Review

Readings:

Low, Chapter 2, Racing the Red Queen: Selfish genes and their strategies, pp. 19-34

Low, Chapter 9, Nice Guys Can Win—In social species, anyway, pp. 146-62

Week 6, Sept 30, Oct 2

11. Exam I

12. Video: N!ai The story of a !Kung Women

Week 7, Oct 7, 9

13. Return and discuss exam, discuss N!ai and population growth (#773 from MTS)

14. Parental Investment, sexual selection and resource competition

Readings:

Trivers: Chapter 9, Parental Investment and Sexual Selection, pp. 203-238.

Low, Chapter 3, The Ecology of Sex Differences, pp 35-56.

Week 8, Oct 14, 16 (Fall Break)

15. Life Histories, Rank and Reproductive Success among monkeys and apes, slides

16. Fall Break

Readings:

Low, Chapter 4, Sex, Status and Reproduction among the Apes, pp 57-76

Low, Chapter 5, Sex, Appearance and Mate Choice

Low, Chapter 6, Sex, Resources and Human Lifetimes

Week 9, Oct 21, 23

17. Female and Male Maturation, slides

18. Male-Male Competition and Mate Choice in Traditional Small Scale Societies, Videos: African male displays

Week 10, Oct 28, 30

19. Review

20. Exam II

Readings:

Low, Chapter 13, Sex, Resources and Early Warfare, pp. 213-229

Week 11, Nov 4, 6

21. Resource Competition, inheritance and sex differences in Traditional Stratified Social Systems

22. 21 Cont'd

Readings:

Boone (1986) Parental investment and elite family structure in preindustrial states: A case study of late medieval-early modern Portuguese genealogies (Coursepak)

Week 12, Nov 11, 13

23. Demographic Transition I

24. 23 Cont'd

Readings:

Low, Chapter 8, Sex, Resources and Fertility in Transition, pp. 127-145

Week 13, Nov 18, 20

25. 23 Cont'd

26. Demographic Transition II

Readings:

Kaplan et al (2000) An evolutionary approach to below replacement fertility (Coursepak)

Week 14, Nov 25, 27

27. 26 Cont'd