Race, Sex and Evolution

Bibliographic Information

Course Title

Race, Sex and Evolution

Institution Where Taught

University of Denver

Year Course Taught

2019

Web Address (URL)

http://bulletin.du.edu/graduate/coursedescriptions/anth/

Additional Information

Course Number

ANTH 3001

Course Description

The course examines the paleoanthropology of race and sex. Our focus is on the nature and evolution of human racial differences, sexual anatomy, reproductive strategies, and gender roles. We will consider the history of thinking about race and sex in anthropology and related disciplines, and the uses to which particular conceptions have been put in our culture. We will discuss and evaluate alternative models for explaining the evolution of alleged biological and behavioral differences between racial groups and between men and women. Evaluation will proceed in light of evolutionary theory, comparative primate anatomy and behavior, the human fossil record, and general anthropological knowledge. Our aim is to examine myth and reality in popular and scientific understandings of these aspects of the human condition and, in the end, the social and political (i.e., policy) consequences of this knowledge.

Notes

Enforced Prerequisites and Restrictions: ANTH 2105.

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