Evolutionary Anthropology

Course manual 2025/2026

Course content

The question “what makes us human?” drives a wide variety of research projects in the field of Evolutionary Anthropology. To answer this question anthropologists make use of the phylogenetic comparative approach where they compare a variety of behaviours, ecology and physiological traits of humans with that of other closely related primate species. In addition, they compare the behavioural ecology of a variety of modern human societies that still exhibit similar hunting and gathering activities as those that lived before the Neolithic revolution to make an evolutionary reconstruction of human behaviour. Knowledge of the behaviour of humans in hunting and gathering societies is in addition used to better understand the extent of human cognition. The increasing number of studies that reveal that cognition and behaviour are influenced by experience during development, make us realize that studying the behaviours of WEIRD (Westernized Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic) people only is insufficient to reveal the extent, variety and diversity of human cognitive abilities. In this course you will therefore learn what is currently known about the cognitive skills and behaviours of a large variety of human hunter-gatherer populations and their relation to social and ecological conditions.

In the course we will, in addition, read and discuss the book “The world until yesterday” from popular science writer Jared Diamond. Each chapter will be discussed together with the results of the latest publications about topics such as food acquisition, diet, division of labour, social system, dispersal and social networks, cooperation, war, child care and teaching, care for elderly people, dealing with danger, religion and language. I will introduce you to hunter-gatherer generalities, such as egalitarianism, demand sharing, autonomy, female cohesion, sexual equality, hunting and gathering activities by use of video material and stories from my own fieldwork with the Mbendjele Yaka pygmees and that of colleagues who worked with other foraging societies.

The course will end with one week of practical work. The practicum provides the option to test a diversity of hypotheses related to food finding strategies, such as the hunter-gatherer hypothesis on sex differences in spatial orientation abilities as well as hypotheses on the value of information sharing and the evolution of language. For this, you will use existing video and GPS data from a spatial food finding experiment that I conducted with the Mbendjele forager children in the rainforest in Congo. From this data you will learn how to conduct an experiment with human participants, how to enter data efficiently in Excel, how to make plots and do basic statistical analyses in R, how to draw inferences from the results and how to present these results to a scientific audience.

Study materials

Literature

• The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum by Robert L. Kelly (2013), Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 9781107607613, ca. 40 euro
• The World until Yesterday: What can we learn from traditional societies? by Jared Diamond (2013). Paperback edition published by Penguin Books. ISBN: 9780143124405, ca. 15 euro

Other

• Additional articles and book chapters

Objectives

• explain the different methodological approaches to study the evolutionary function of human behaviour and cognition, such as the comparative phylogenetic approach and the use of game theory and optimality models.
• Describe different studies that used one of these approaches to gain insight in the evolution of human behaviour and cognition.
• Define the terms brain plasticity and imaging genomics and describe examples.
• Describe and recognize hunter-gatherer generalities, including terms as egalitarianism, demand sharing, autonomy, female cohesion and sexual equality and explain how they develop.
• recognize the differences and similarities in: food acquisition (e.g. division of labour), diet and subsistence, social system, dispersal and social networks, cooperation/helping behaviour/altruism/sacrifices, perception of space and time, use of imitation, type of communication and language use, prevalence of war and aggression, partner choice and sex differences, care for children (adoption, prosocial behaviour, cooperative breeding, active teaching), care for elderly people (loneliness, privacy), dealing with danger (loud calling/talking, paranoia, talking to animals), religion, intentionality, theory of mind, among human societies as well as between human and non-human primates and discuss how differences may have evolved.
• explain current theories on why the brains of modern humans are three times the size of that of our closest living relatives and the role of anthropological studies on hunter gatherer life styles in this debate (e.g. the cooperative breeding hypothesis).
• name the cons and pros of participant observation and systematic data collection.
• name the arguments of the hunter-gatherer theory of sex differences.
• explain the cons and pros of the comparative approach and optimality models.
• explain why studies on hunting and gathering societies provide a window into the past and help us to understand the evolution of human behaviour and our large brain.
• explain why some scientists think that the premise of classical cognitive science that the architecture of human cognition is uniform and universal across the species is biologically impossible and actively undermined by, for example imaging genomics.
• explain the arguments that exist between scholars that support theories on human brain evolution.
• explain the cons and pros of popular scientific literature and the validity of claims made in chapters from the popular book read in this course.
• generate a hypothesis on the cognitive abilities involved in food finding behaviour in human foragers.
• know how to design a protocol for extracting data from an existing data set within a large interdisciplinary collaborative team.
• explain what statistical approach to use and how to use them for different type of behavioural data sets.
• evaluate how to best collaborate with other scientists and how to acknowledge each other's efforts
• explain how to present your results in a symposium style poster presentation
• Learn how to design and execute a navigation experiment with humans
• Learn reading scientific literature - focused reading as well as reading to form your own opinion.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Presentation/symposium
• Self-study
• Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis
• Supervision/feedback meeting

Teaching methods

Several formats will be used during this course:

Lectures

The lectures form the theoretical backbone of the course. Here I will discuss the value of comparative studies on human behaviour for gaining insight in the evolution of human behaviour and cognition. I will among other topics, explain the value of studies on hunting and gathering populations and explain hunter gatherer generalities. I will combine theory with examples (incl. videos) from my own research and that of colleagues. The lectures include two guest lecture of researchers currently studying cognitive skills in a variety of human populations as well as archaeological methods to trace back our evolution. The theory presented in the lectures and additional literature will be graded in a digital mid-term exam with open questions.

Journal Clubs

To assess the cons and pros of popular science books we use the journal clubs to discuss claims made in the book “The world until yesterday” by reading and discussing scientific papers that address these claims. To give an example, I will select two claims, for which I will provide papers that support or reject these claims. For each of these papers each one of you is required to make a short summary using powerpoint and present this at the start of the meeting in order to start a discussion. I will lead the discussion to help you develop a critical way of thinking. For the last Journal Club you will be challenged to select a claim yourself and to search for scientific literature that either supports or rejects this claim together with two other students. Before the last journal club, you need to record and upload a joint presentation about the selected claim and the papers you have found that support or discard this claim. The presentation needs to trigger a discussion. Before the last Journal Club you will watch the presentations of your club members and are challenged to ask questions about their presentations to trigger a critical discussion on current topics in Evolutionary Anthropology and the role of popular science books.

Practicum

The practicum provides you with the option to test a diversity of hypotheses related to food finding strategies, such as the hunter-gatherer hypothesis on sex differences in spatial orientation abilities as well as hypotheses on the value of information sharing and the evolution of language. For this, you will use an existing dataset from a spatial food finding experiment that I conducted with the BaYaka Mbendjele forager children in the rainforest in Congo. During these analyses you will learn in depth about the game we provided to the BaYaka children, the ethical considerations and advantages of non-competitive games in multiple cultures. By this, you will learn how to design and execute such an experiment. After this you will choose and further develop a research question and develop ways to answer this question by use of a variety of data types (video, sound recordings and GPS data) in Excel and R, in large teams. The results of this work need to be presented at a conference-like poster session.

Learning activities

Attendance

Additional requirements for this course:

Attendance to all components of the course (apart from the lectures or when indicated as optional in datanose) are obligatory and absence for more then 2 obligatory components will cause exclusion from the course. Please indicate to the coordinator via Canvas email in advance if you cannot attend due to unforseen circumstances.

Fraud:

Due to privacy issues with regard to the videos of Mbendjele people presented during the lectures it is not allowed to download lectures from Canvas or the media site or to download them and post/share them with third parties including social media.

Assessment

Assesment

Item and Weight

Final grade:

-15% Journal Club presentation (grade should be more or equal to 5.5) (retake allowed)

-50% Written digital exam (grade should be more or equal to 5.5) (retake allowed)

-35% Poster presentation (grade should be more or equal to 5.5) (retake allowed)

The course is passed

- when is complied with the compulsory attendance in all parts of the course (it’s a full time course that cannot easily be combined with a job or other courses)

- with active participation throughout the course.

Inspection of assessed work

Contact the course coordinator to make an appointment for inspection.

Het inzage moment zal plaatsvinden tijdens een van de practicum dagen

Assignments

Journal club assignment (pass or no pass)

• prepare a summary of each paper in powerpoint and prepare a discussion. General feedback is provided in class

Journal club exam (graded)

• upload a recorded presentation, watch the presentations of clubmembers, and prepare questions.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Exit qualifications

Via de Zichtbare Leerlijnen Creator kun je zien aan welke eindtermen de leerdoelen van deze cursus bijdragen en hoe de  vakleerdoelen, leerlijndoelen en eindtermen van de opleiding aan elkaar gekoppeld zijn:

https://datanose.nl/#program[BSc%20PB]/outcomes 

https://datanose.nl/#program[BSc%20PB]/trajectories

Additional information

• This course will be taught in English.
• Max. 45 students
• This course is part of the minor/track Evolutionary Psychobiology. Students registered for this minor/track will be placed first.

Contact information

Coordinator

• prof. dr. Karline Janmaat