ANTH 204 - Origins of Cultural Diversity

4 Credit(s)

This course introduces students to the study of human physical and biological diversity. It focuses on the ways culture and the environment have interacted to shape the evolution of ancient and modern humans. By examining the relationship between modern humans, non-human primates, and ancient hominid ancestors, students gain an understanding of how we developed the adaptations that define our species. This course also introduces students to the processes that have led to biological variation among different human populations, such as differences in skin color, body form, eye shape, hair form, growth patterns, and susceptibility to disease. A two-hour lab gives students hand-on experience with the tools and techniques anthropologists use to study fossil remains, primates, genes, and other physical specimens. This course meets the general education requirement for a science course with lab OR a social science elective. This course also fulfills the quantitative reasoning (QR) general education requirement.