UNIT 1. The Evolutionary Perspectives

1. The Growth of Evolutionary Science, Douglas J. Futuyma, Science on Trial, Pantheon Books, 1982

Before the rise of science, the causes of orderly events were sought in the divine purposes they were thought to have served. Today, patterns and designs are seen to be the result of natural selection.

2. Darwin’s Influence on Modern Thought, Ernst Mayr, Scientific American, July 2000

As Ernst Mayr points out, our conception of the world and our place in it is, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, drastically different from the Zeitgeist, or “spirit of the times,” at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The one person most responsible for this change is Charles Darwin.

3. 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense, John Rennie, Scientific American, July 2002

Opponents of evolution are trying to tear down real science by setting forth a series of specious arguments. In reality, they intend to use the intelligent-design theory as a “wedge” in order to reopen science classrooms to the discussion of God. This article consists of a series of rebuttals to some of the most common “scientific” arguments raised against the idea of evolution.

4. Profile of an Anthropologist: No Bone Unturned, Patrick Huyghe, Discover, December 1988

Patrick Huyghe reports that the skills displayed by physical anthropologists and archaeologists in the analysis of old bones have resulted in the development of a whole new field: forensic anthropology.

5. Go Ahead, Kiss Your Cousin, Richard Conniff, Discover, August 2003

Moderate inbreeding has always been the rule, not the exception, for humans. Despite the fact that close matings can unmask deleterious recessives, new research suggests that they may also confer evolutionary and social advantages. This is significant, especially when considering the social benefits.

6. Curse and Blessing of the Ghetto, Jared Diamond, Discover, March 1991

Tay-Sachs disease is a choosy killer, one that for centuries targeted Eastern European Jews above all others. Jared Diamond reports that, by decoding its lethal logic, we can learn a great deal about how genetic diseases evolve?and how they can be conquered.

7. The Saltshaker’s Curse, Jared Diamond, Natural History, October 1991

Physiological adaptations that at one time helped West Africans and their descendants cope with unusually high salt loss may now be predisposing African Americans to hypertension and a premature death.

8. Of Mice, Men and Genes, Robert M. Sapolsky, Natural History, May 2004

Two new studies having to do with the relationship between genes and environment shed new light on the nature-nurture debate. Although sometimes our genes seem to be about inevitability, more often they are about vulnerability and potentials.

9. What You Can Learn From Drunk Monkeys, Meredith F. Small, Discover, July 2002

A remarkable National Institutes of Health (NIH) study on alcoholism sheds insight regarding the relationship between heredity and environment. It turns out that an individual is just as likely to become an alcoholic from a bad childhood as from bad genes.

UNIT 2. Primates

10. What Are Friends For?, Barbara Smuts, Natural History, February 1987

Barbara Smuts reports that an understanding of friendship bonds among baboons is not only destroying our stereotypes about monkeys in the wild, but it is also calling into question traditional views concerning the relationships between the sexes in early hominid evolution.

11. Fossey in the Mist, Robert M. Sapolsky, Discover, February 2001

The memory of Dian Fossey will be forever filled with contradictions and controversy. She began as a scientist studying gorillas in the wild and quickly became a conservationist. Her methods, however, would ultimately lead to the murders of both the gorillas and herself.

12. The Mind of the Chimpanzee, Jane Goodall, from Through a Window, Houghton Mifflin, 1990

It has long been recognized that the differences in anatomy and physiology between apes and humans are a matter of degree. Because of the work of Jane Goodall, we have come to realize that there is continuity in mental and emotional development as well.

13. Got Culture?, Craig Stanford, from Significant Others, Basic Books, 2001

The rudimentary cultural abilities of the chimpanzee not only sharpen our understanding of our uniqueness as humans, but they also suggest an ancient ancestry for the mental abilities that we and the chimpanzees have in common.

14. Dim Forest, Bright Chimps, Christophe Boesch and Hedwige Boesch-Achermann, Natural History, September 1991

Contrary to expectations, forest-dwelling chimpanzees seem to be more committed to cooperative hunting and tool use than are savanna chimpanzees. Such findings may have implications for the course of human evolution.

15. Rethinking Primate Aggression, Richard Conniff, Smithsonian, August 2003

Having logged thousands of hours observing chimpanzees, Frans de Waal has found that peace may come to us more naturally than we imagine because of our long evolutionary history of reconciliation, cooperation, and morality.

16. Disturbing Behaviors of the Orangutan, Anne Nacey Maggioncalda and Robert M. Sapolsky, Scientific American, June 2002

Some adolescent male orangutans experience an arrested state of development in the presence of an adult male. Recent research indicates that, rather than being a stress-induced response (as was once thought), delayed maturation is acutally an alternative reproduction strategy.

17. Are We in Anthropodenial?, Frans de Waal, Discover, July 1997

To endow animals with human emotions and mental qualities has long been a scientific taboo, but the more we learn about them, especially our closer relatives, the more it seems that there really are similarities, as Frans de Waal’s research indicates.

UNIT 3. Sex and Society

18. Mothers and Others, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Natural History, May 2001

In many species, including our own, mothers are assisted by others in rearing their offspring. The more we adhere to this evolutionary heritage of “cooperative breeding,” the more likely we are to raise emotionally healthy children.

19. A Woman’s Curse?, Meredith F. Small, The Sciences, January/February 1999

Meredith Small reports on an anthropologist’s study of the ritual of seclusion surrounding women’s menstrual cycles, which has some rather profound implications regarding human evolution, certain cultural practices, and women’s health.

20. What’s Love Got to Do With It?, Meredith F. Small, Discover, June 1992

The bonobos’ use of sex to reduce tension and to form alliances is raising some interesting questions regarding human evolution. In Meredith Small’s review, this question is raised: Does this behavior help to explain the origins of our sexuality, or should we see it as just another primate aberration that occurred after humans and primates split from their common lineage?

21. Apes of Wrath, Barbara Smuts, Discover, August 1995

Whether or not males beat up females in a particular species seems to have a great deal to do with who is forming alliances with whom. Barbara Smuts indicates that this has powerful implications as to what can be done about sexual coercion in the human species.

UNIT 4. The Fossil Evidence

22. Hunting the First Hominid, Pat Shipman, American Scientist, January?February 2002

In searching for the first hominid to branch off from the apes, it helps to take note of the key features that distinguish apes from people. Such a list can be misleading, however, since not all of these features arose simultaneously and we do not even know which came first.

23. Food for Thought: Dietary Change Was a Driving Force in Human Evolution, William R. Leonard, Scientific American, December 2002

William Leonard asserts that dietary change was a driving force in human evolution. Studies of people of the past as well as traditional cultures of today show that humans evolved to be flexible eaters.

24. Scavenger Hunt, Pat Shipman, Natural History, April 1984

Microscopic analyses of tooth wear and cut marks on bone, combined with an increased understanding of the advantages of bipedalism, point in the direction of a “man the scavenger” model rather than “man the hunter,” Pat Shipman reports.

25. Chasing Dubois’s Ghost, Pat Shipman, American Scientist, November?December 1999

What kind of person would risk everything personally and professionally to find the missing link? In the case of Eugene Dubois, in pursuit of Pithecanthropus erectus, you will find a stubborn genius.

26. Erectus Rising, James Shreeve, Discover, September 1994

Most paleoanthropologists used to agree that Homo erectus was confined to Africa until one million years ago. James Shreeve notes that new finds and a new dating method are challenging that view.

27. The Scavenging of “Peking Man”, Noel T. Boaz and Russell L. Ciochon, Natural History, March 2001

Dragon Bone Hill in China is the site of the cave that yielded the first, and still largest, cache of fossils of Homo erectus penkinensis. In the process of applying new methods of analysis to the evidence, the authors try to determine whether these relatives of ours used fire, were cannibals, were hunters or were the hunted.

UNIT 5. Late Hominid Evolution

28. Hard Times Among the Neanderthals, Erik Trinkaus, Natural History, December 1978

In spite of the coarseness of their lifestyle and the apparent violence between individuals, Neanderthal skeletal remains reveal a prehistoric record of affection and respect, and they should be accorded the status of human beings.

29. Rethinking Neanderthals, Joe Alper, Smithsonian, June 2003

Contrary to the widely held view that Neanderthals were evolutionary failures, they persisted through some of the harshest climates imaginable. Over the past 200,000 years, they made some rather sophisticated tools and had a social life that involved taking care of the wounded and burying the dead.

30. The Gift of Gab, Matt Cartmill, Discover, November 1998

While the origin of human language is rooted in aspects of psychology and biology that we share with our close animal relatives, Matt Cartmill proposes that our kind of communication seems to be associated with making tools and throwing weapons.

31. We are All Africans, Pat Shipman, American Scientist, November?December 2003

For decades, paleoanthropologists have argued over two competing theories about the origin of our kind: the “Out of Africa hypothesis” and the “Multiregional hypothesis.” Now, three new lines of evidence have converged to offer convincing support for just one of them.

UNIT 6. Human Diversity

32. The Lost Man, Douglas Preston, The New Yorker, June 16, 1997

Recent findings indicate that the first Americans might not be who we think they were. Before the evidence could be adequately assessed, however, the U.S. government withheld it, Native Americans have been wanting to re-bury it, and archeologists have gone to court to retrieve it. In the process, issues of race and ethnicity have been brought to a steaming head.

33. Skin Deep, Nina G. Jablonski and George Chaplin, Scientific American, October 2002

Although recent migrations and cultural adaptation tend to complicate the picture, human skin color has evolved to be dark enough to prevent sunlight from destroying the nutrient folate, but light enough to foster the production of vitamin D.

34. Black, White, Other, Jonathan Marks, Natural History, December 1994

With regard to classifying human beings, Jonathan Marks notes that the central message of anthropology is, “You may group humans into a small number of races if you want to, but biological evidence does not support it.”

35. Does Race Exist? A Proponent’s Perspective, George W. Gill, Nova Online, October 12, 2000

Although the author understands why many physical anthropologists are able to ignore or deny the concept of race, George W. Gill claims that his experience in the area of forensic physical anthropology compels him to stand “clearly more on the side of the reality of race than on the ‘race denial’ side.”

36. Does Race Exist? An Antagonist’s Perspective, C. Loring Brace, Nova Online, October 12, 2000

In denying the existence of a biological entity that warrants the term “race,” C. Loring Brace claims that the concept is really the product of our politically and culturally fashioned perceptions.

37. The Bare Truth, The Economist, December 20, 2003

Evolutionary theories abound as to why humans have lost most of their body hair. Even more curious are the great lengths people will go to in order to accentuate what is left or eliminate it entirely.

38. The Tall and the Short of It, Barry Bogin, Discover, February 1998

Rather than being able to adapt to a single environment, we can?thanks to our genetically endowed plasticity?change our bodies to cope with a wide variety of environments. In this light, Barry Bogin reports on research that suggests that we can use the average height of any group of people as a barometer of the health of their society.

UNIT 7. Living With the Past

39. Great Apes as Food, Dale Peterson, Gastronomica, Spring 2003

The taste for bush meat is rooted in the cultural identity and village traditions of many Central Africans. If current levels of deforestation and commercial hunting continue, however, the eating of the great apes of Africa will very shortly lead to their extinction in the wild.

40. The Viral Superhighway, George J. Armelagos, The Sciences, January/February 1998

The modern world is becoming a viral superhighway. Environmental disruptions and international travel have brought on a new era in human illness, one marked by diabolical new diseases.

41. Dr. Darwin, Lori Oliwenstein, Discover, October 1995

The application of Darwin’s theory of evolution to the understanding of human diseases will not only help us better treat the symptoms of diseases, but also promises to help us understand how microbes and humans have evolved in relation to one another.