Evolutionary Anthropology

Owner	Bachelor Psychobiologie
Coordinator	dr. Karline Janmaat
Part of	Minor Evolutionary Psychobiology, year 1Bachelor Psychobiologie, year 3

Course manual 2017/2018

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. 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

Learning goals and exit qualifications

Knowledge:

At the end of the course student can:

• name 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.
• name different studies that used one of these approaches to gain insight in the evolution of human behaviour and cognition.
• understand the term brain plasticity and imaging genomics and name examples.
• name and recognize hunter-gatherer generalities, including terms as egalitarianism, demand sharing, autonomy, female cohesion and sexual equality.
• 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.

• name and 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.

Insight:

The student can:

• 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 the difference between the adaptive lag and the niche construction hypotheses.
• 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.
• test an hypothesis on the adaptiveness of food finding behaviour in human foragers by analysing data from a spatial orientation experiment, learning how to enter data efficiently and analysing the results using scripts in R.

 

 

Teaching methods

• Hoorcollege
• Werkcollege
• (Computer)practicum
• Presentatie/symposium
• Zelfstudie
• Zelfstandig werken aan bijv. project/scriptie
• Begeleiding/feedbackmoment
• 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.

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. I will select three claims, for which I will provide papers. For each of these papers each one of you is required to make a short summary using powerpoint and to prepare to give this summary at the start of the meeting under my supervision.Two of these journal clubs will be joined by two guest researchers that may have written the paper. The last claim can be chosen by yourself. In the last journal club, students will present and discuss the papers they have found that support or discard a claim made by Jared Diamond. Students will present a summary for each scientific paper and lead the discussion.

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 Yaka Mbendjele forager children in the rainforest in Congo. In this practicum you will choose and further develop a research question and develop ways to answer this question by use of a variety of data (video, sound recordings and GPS data) in Excel and R, in teams. The results of this work need to be presented at a conference-like poster session.

Learning activities

Academic skills

Application:

The student can

• find and evaluate scientific literature to verify claims in popular literature.
• present a summary and review of scientific papers to an audience and respond to critical questions.
• Analyse the results of an anthropological spatial food finding experiment and understand the logistics of such experiments.
• understand different types of data sets used to test behaviour and cognition in human foragers.
• design the appropriate scientific test to answer their research question and apply statistical analyses in R.
• draw inferences from statistical tests, and present results to a wide audience in the form of a scientific poster.
• work in a research team and knows how to best communicate with colleagues.

Analysis:

The student can

• translate video, sound or GPS data into data that can be analysed.
• argue the choice of analyses when conducting behavioural research on human foragers.
• test for statistical and biological significance by use of Excel, ArcGIS or R.

Evaluation:

The student can

• elaborate on his/her personal vision and stance regarding theories on human evolution, based on academic literature and place it in a worldly perspective
• orally express opinions, constructive critique on popular literature as well as scientific papers and do so in front of a critical audience

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Participation in all practical (computer) sessions, field work and seminars in the curriculum is obligatory and the student is obliged to prepare thoroughly for these meetings.
  

Additional requirements for this course:

Attendance to all components of the course (apart from the lectures) are obligatory and absence will cause exclusion from the course. The lectures include information that cannot easily be acquired by reading literature. Hence, I recommend to attend all components of the course.

Assessment

Item and weight	Details	Remarks
Final grade
50% Tentamen	Must be ≥ 5.5, Allows retake	The written exam exists of 10 open questions based on a selection of above mentioned study goals and takes place in the middle of the course.
30% Poster presentation	Must be ≥ 5.5	At the end of the practicum you will present your poster with the result of the study that you conducted together with your partner. During the final poster session (in the main hall) I will pass by your poster and you need to provide a summary of your results in a time period of 5 minutes. I will later take more time to judge the content and lay-out of your poster at home. An assesment form will be provided on blackboard
20% Journal Club exam	Must be ≥ 5.5	Find a paper that supports or rejects a claim made by Jared Diamond in his book and discuss this together with your partner in the journal club using a power point presentation. In order for everyone to get a fair grading you need to write down what you will say in the presentation in the notes section of powerpoint and send the powerpoint file before the start of the last journal club. An assessment form will be provided on blackboard

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

The date, time and location of the inspection moment are in the DataNose timetable.

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

Onderstaande opdrachten komen aan bod in deze cursus:

•    Naam opdracht 1 : beschrijving 2
•    Naam opdracht 2 : beschrijving 1
•    ....

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.uva.nl/plagiarism

Course structure

Timetable

Het rooster van dit vak is in te zien op DataNose.

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

• dr. Karline Janmaat