Aleš Hrdlička-----------------Earnest Hooton

This course aims to provide students with historical perspective on what we and our intellectual ancestors study in evolutionary anthropology and how we go about the work. One mark of good scholarship is knowing the historical roots of one's field. Among other things, such knowledge may help to avoid the embarrassment of submitting a great new piece of work for publication only to learn that the same work was accomplished by an intellectual ancestor 50 or more years ago. History shows us how our science has been used and abused in the past, which may help us to understand public views of the field. The history of physical anthropology is also a colorful one, with both dark and entertaining components. It is a pleasure to know if only so that good stories are remembered reasonably accurately. Although narrow specialization is essential to cutting edge methodology for the doctoral dissertation and for a generally successful research career, chances for research funding and employment are greatly expanded by being able to place a special research project in historical perspective. Finally, our lives as professional anthropologists are richer for sharing the culture of our sub discipline.

1. Primary discussant: Each of us is responsible for all reading and should actively participate in the discussion of every issue. In addition, each student will have primary or shared responsibility for one or more of the January 9 to February 27 meetings. This will involve choosing additional reading, making any handouts that are appropriate, compiling reading lists as appropriate, and preparing an introduction to the discussion based on the required reading and additional reading from the primary literature.

2. Oral presentation on March 5 & 12 of a highlight of your term paper. “Highlight” is important here, because the time for the final symposium is not adequate to allow a complete presentation of a term paper.

3. A term paper reviewing a theme or person significant in the history of biological anthropology. This should be approached with a light heart, but also with the intention of informing yourself and your peers on your subject. We hope the papers will serve as references for your fellow students in the future. The presentations and papers should pay close attention to the objective of this course, which is to place current themes of research in historical perspective.

4. An open mind and a light heart.

“I am very well aware that the old are prone to regard their early performances with much more interest than their contemporaries of a younger generation are likely to take in them….” T. H. Huxley, 1894.

January 16: Place in nature. Readings: Greene (1959); Huxley (1863); Straus (1949); Tuttle (1974); Tattersall (2000); Foley (2001).

January 23: Primate evolution. Readings: Fleagle (2000); Fleagle & Hartwig (1997); Cartmill (1982); (1992); Fleagle & Jungers (1982); Pilbeam (1978); & others to be announced.

January 30: Human evolution. Readings: Bowler (1997); Sigmon (1997); Dart (1925); Smith (1997); Smith (1997b); Stern (2000); & others to be announced.

February 6: Molecular anthropology. Readings: Goodman & Cronin (1982); Marks (1997); Cann et al. (1987); Hawks ( 2007).

February 13: Race. Readings: Brace (1982); Marks (1995); Boas (1899); Hooton (1926); (1936); Coon (1962); Dobzhansky (1963); Provine (1973); & others to be announced.

February 20: Anthropometry, growth, adaptation, skeletal biology, and forensics. Reading: Frisancho & Schechter (1997); Bogin & Kapell (1997); Spencer (1997); Larsen & Bridges (1997); Scott (1997); Ubelaker (1997); & others to be announced.

February 27: Primate field studies. Readings: Kelley & Sussman (2007); Sussman (1997); Conroy (1997); some harrowing chapters from Haraway + reviews of her book and other readings to be announced. Harraway (1989a); (1989b); (1989c); (1989d);

March 5 & 12: Student presentations on individuals (e.g. Hooton, Washburn, Keith, LeGros Clark, Carpenter etc.) drawn from reading the primary literature. The emphasis here is on reading the primary literature instead of relying on historians of our discipline like the authors of the various articles in Spencer.