ANT 101H5 Summer 2006

INTRODUCTION to BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY and ARCHAEOLOGY

 

Web Site with link to online version of this syllabus:  http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3hmlmil

Course CCNet page:  http://ccnet.utoronto.ca/20065/ant101h5s/

 

Lecture:  Tuesday & Thursday, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm, Room 205 North Building

Tutorials:  Thursday  1-3 or 3-5, Room 172 North Building

 

Instructor:  Dr. Heather M.-L. Miller

Anthropology, University of Toronto at Mississauga

Email:   hmiller "at" utm.utoronto.ca                Office:   Room 208 North Building Phone:  905-828-3741

Office Hours:   Tuesday & Thursday  2:30-3:30

 

Teaching Assistant:   Jeff Bursey

Email:  jbursey "at" utm.utoronto.ca                 Office:  Room 220 North Building

Office Hours:  by appointment

 

 

Course Description

Anthropology, the holistic study of human behaviour and biology, is composed of four sub-fields:  biological  or physical anthropology, archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.  ANT 101H, covering the first two sub-fields, provides an introductory overview of the study of human biology and the study of the human past.  We will examine the methods by which anthropologists study human biology and the past, and what anthropologists have learned using these methods.  The main topics are the processes by which the human species came to exist, the stages of human development, their current and past biological diversity, and the diversity of cultural systems developed by past societies.

 

As we will be covering an enormous amount of information, students must attend all lectures and tutorials, and complete all of the readings.  Lectures, tutorials, and readings will provide overlapping material, but students are responsible for all material covered in any one of these formats.  Tutorials will be used to introduce and complete labs, as well as to review and discuss lectures, readings, and exercises.

 

Required Course Materials  (Available at UTM Bookstore)

Feder, Kenneth L. and Michael A. Park.

2001.  Human Antiquity.  An Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archaeology.  Fourth Edition.  New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.   ISBN: 0-7674-1695-3, paperback.

 

Expectations, Policies, and Common Courtesy

Attendance: Students are expected to attend all classes, including lectures and tutorials.

Punctuality: You are expected to arrive and be settled in your seat by the beginning of class or tutorial and to remain until the end of class, or you will only receive partial credit for tutorial attendence.  Unless you become ill, do not begin packing up books or stand to leave before the end of class or tutorial, because this is distracting to all.  If you know you cannot stay for the entire period, please sit near the door and leave very quietly.

Courtesy in Class: Every student is expected to pay close attention in the lecture or film.  Refrain from talking during lectures and films, except to ask or respond to a question from the instructor.  Even quiet talking is distracting and disrespectful for your fellow students and your instructor. Turn off pagers and mobile phones.  In tutorials, your undivided attention and courtesy is also expected; however, this is your opportunity to discuss what you are learning in class with your TA and one another.  You are encouraged to thoughtfully ask and answer questions, but please, no confidential, whispered conversations.  Anything you say should be directed to the class as a whole.

Email Communication:  Emailing with your professor or TA is a form of professional communication.  Please write courteously and clearly; do not use text-messaging abbreviations or slang.  Please clearly indicate your questions or concerns.  Be sure to provide a summary of the email topic in the Subject line (do not just write ÒHiÓ or leave the Subject blank, or your email may be rejected as junk mail by the UTM server).  You should ALWAYS use your UTM email address if at all possible Ð the UTM server regularly rejects hotmail accounts as potential spam. 

 

Evaluation & Requirements

The marked work for this course will consist of a mid-term test (25% = 100 points), a final examination (35% = 140 points), two assigned exercises (12.5% each=50 points, for a total of 25% = 100 points), and tutorial participation which will be partially but not entirely based on labs in tutorial (15% = 60 points).  The total marked work will be worth 400 points, or 100%.

 

MID-TERM and FINAL EXAMINATIONS

Both the mid-term and final exams will consist of multiple choice and short answer questions on ALL materials presented in the class and discussed in tutorial (readings, lectures, AND films).

The mid-term will be worth 100 points or 25% and the final will be worth 140 points or 35%, for a total of 240 points or 60% of the course grade.  The final exam will be cumulative, although material presented after the mid-term will be more heavily covered.

 

***MISSED EXAMS***

Avoid missing an exam - the procedure for taking a make-up exam is strictly regulated by the university, and these policies will be followed in all cases.  Please notify the instructor by email or phone as soon as possible if you miss an exam.

     * For the Mid-term Exam, see Section 7.9 "Term Tests" in the UTM Calendar for 2005-2006.  A valid doctor's excuse or similar university-approved excuse will be required to take the make-up for the mid-term.  ONE makeup will be given for the mid-term, the week after the regular exam.   All makeup exams will be short answer format only, not multiple choice.

     * For the Final Exam, see Section 7.14 "Examinations" in the UTM Calendar for 2005-2006.  You will have to submit a petition to Registrarial Services, among other requirements, and re-take the exam during the Deferred Examinations Period (possibly Feb. 2007 during Reading Week, or as otherwise scheduled by the university).   All makeup exams will be short answer format only, not multiple choice.

 

EXERCISES

The two exercises will be due IN CLASS on the dates specified below, and will be worth 12.5% each, for a total of 25%.  You can use your own lecture and tutorial notes and the text for these exercises, but no help from other students.  You will not have all the relevant information needed to answer these exercises until shortly before they are due, so be sure to keep time free in the day or two before the exercises are due. When you hand in your exercises in class, you must sign the submission form; otherwise the exercise has not officially been submitted. All exercises must be submitted directly to the course instructor.

 

PLAGERISM on EXERCISES:  You may get lecture or tutorial notes from other students for days when your are absent, but the answers you submit must be your own independent work.  Exercises in which duplication is detected will be severely penalized.  For more details, see "Academic Honesty" and the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters in the UTM Calendar for 2005-2006 under "Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters".  It is your responsibility to be familiar with this code, and adhere to it.

 

****LATE EXERCISES: (1) Late exercises will lose 2% of the total mark for the class (8 points) per calendar day, including weekends.  1% (4 points) will be deducted for assignments turned in after the first hour of class on the date due, even if the assignment is turned in on the due date.  It is your responsibility to turn in late assignments to the instructor in her office, at her convenience.

DO NOT submit your assignment to the secretary nor to anyone else in the Department of Anthropology. DO NOT slide your assignment under the instructor's office door.  The assignment has not been officially submitted until you sign the submission form.  You are also advised to make a copy of your assignments before submitting them.

 

TUTORIAL PARTICIPATION

Participation is worth 60 points or 15% of the course grade.  These are points you have to EARN, not points you get automatically for showing up.  Tutorial participation will be based on a number of things:

 

 (1) Attendance & Questions on lecture and Reading:  To foster preparation for active discussion, your teaching assistant will expect you to bring two neatly handwritten questions or comments to each tutorial, one on the lecture and one on the readings.  Each student should write his/her own questions independently Ð copying each other constitutes the academic offense of unauthorized aid or plagiarism.  When studying your readings and your lecture notes, prepare questions about any items that seemed especially puzzling to you, and raise these questions in tutorial. Items can be anything: a statement, the location, a name, the situation, a conflict, an irony, etc. "How" or  "Why" questions are especially useful, because they encourage more thought and discussion. In tutorials, your task is not merely to ask questions of the teaching assistant, but also to respond to questions raised by others in a thoughtful way.

Your two questions will be handed in for attendance records.  The TA will not answer them in writing; to find the answer, you need to ask them in class.  If you attend all tutorials and turn in all questions, you will receive (at most) points equal to a C grade. 

 

 (2) Lab Summaries:  After each tutorial in which there is a lab, you will be required to write half a page (no more, single-spaced, 12 point font, 1 inch margins) on the lab experience, in which you indicate the main goal of the lab (What were you supposed to learn?) and what data was used to achieve this goal (What kind of objects? What kind of analysis?).  These lab summaries are due in tutorial the following week, together with your questions (put them on one piece of paper). You will NOT receive a letter or number grade on the lab summaries, you will only receive a notation of "poor", "OK", and "good".

 

 (3) Active Participation: To receive a high grade for participation in tutorials you must not only come to all classes and do a thorough job on all labs, but also regularly contribute to discussions by raising questions and comments orally and respond to points brought up by others in class. 

 

MISSED TUTORIALS:   If you miss a tutorial in which a lab is done, you will receive a 0 for that lab. If you supply a doctor's note or other appropriate material, you may make arrangements with your TA to make up that lab at your TAÕs convenience on the following week -- however, make-ups may not be possible for some labs.  You will be expected to turn in your make-up lab summary as soon as possible, but no later than one week after the make-up session.  Once lab summaries have been returned, no labs may be made up under ANY circumstances.


Class Schedule

Week

Date

Topic

Reading

1

T  July 4

Introduction to Course;  The Practice of Anthropology;

Scientific Method & Other Anthropological Approaches

 

 

Th  July 6

The History and Development of Evolutionary Theory

 

Ch.1: Frameworks; Ch. 2: History; Ch. 3: Overview of Evolution

 

Tutorial

Th  July 6

Introduction to Tutorials & Labs

Discussion/Questions about Lecture

Lab 1:  Evolutionary Relationships & Skeletal Anatomy

Handouts on CCNet

2

T  July 11

Modern Evolutionary Theory & Genetic Principles;

Living Primates

Ch. 4: Genetics; Ch. 5: Primates

 

Th  July 13

Evolutionary History of the Primates;

Primate Behavioural Models for Human Evolution;

Film: Life in the Trees (26 min); Life on Earth series,BBC

Ch. 5: Primates (cont.);  Ch. 6: Behavioral Models

 

Tutorial

Th  July 13

Lab 1 summary due

Discuss Lectures and Readings

Lab 2:  Primate/Hominoid Skeletal Anatomy

Handouts on CCNet

3

T  July 18

Exercise 1 due

Material Approaches to the Past;

Film: Those Who Came Before (60 min)

Ch. 7: The Material Record of the Past

 

Th  July 20

Bipedal Primates;

Hominid Origins;    Early Homo in Africa

Ch. 8: Emerging Human Lineage;

Ch 9: Established Human Lineage

 

Tutorial

Th  July 20

Lab 2 summary due

Discuss Lectures, Film, and Readings

Review for Midterm

Review for Midterm

4

T  July 25

Midterm Test

 

Review All Readings & Notes

 

Th  July 27

Homo erectus & Contemporaries: Africa & Beyond;

Archaic ("Premodern") Homo sapiens (including Neanderthals)

Ch. 10: Human Lineage Evolves;  Ch. 11: Origin of Our Species

 

Tutorial

Th  July 27

Lecture on Fieldwork

Discuss Lecture and Readings

Lab 3: Stone Tool Analysis

Any Handouts on CCNet

5

T  Aug 1

Neanderthal Culture

Homo sapiens sapiens

Ch. 11 (cont);  Ch 12: Evolution of Modern Humans

 

Th  Aug 3

Human Variation and the Question of Race;

Topics in Biological Anthropology: Nutrition & Medicine

Ch. 12: Biological Diversity (pp. 375-386); Readings on CCNet

 

Tutorial

Th  Aug 3

Lab 3 summary due

Discuss Lectures, Film, and Readings

Lab 4:  Pottery Analysis

Any Handouts on CCNet

6

T  Aug 8

Life in the Upper Palaeolithic;

Food Production

Ch. 13: Upper Palaeolithic;

Ch. 14: Origins of Agriculture

 

Th  Aug 10

Exercise 2 due

Defining Civilization; Explaining Civilization;

Early Civilizations

Ch. 15: Civilizations

 

Tuturial

Th  Aug 10

Lab 4 summary due

Discuss Lectures and Readings

Review for Final Exam

Review for Final

Exam

TBA  

FINAL EXAM   (week of August 14-18)

Review All Readings and Notes