Towards Humanity: Physical Anthropology and Human Evolution

This core module provides students with a strong working knowledge of the major concepts in physical (or biological) anthropology, with a particular emphasis on paleoanthropology—the study of human evolution—and the origins of culture itself.

Students will trace human evolutionary development from our earliest hominin ancestors to anatomically-modern humans.  In an effort to better understand the biology and behavior of extinct hominin and hominid genera, genetic variation and primate studies will also be introduced. Importantly, this course treats biological/physical anthropology as one of the four integral subfields of anthropology.

Coordinator and lecturer: Sean P. A. Desjardins